South American Puffer

[Gankutsuou]

I know they like snails, bloodworm, and brine

4 inches average and school in 3's

anything else to know?

 

[fry_lover]

I know they like snails, bloodworm, and brine

4 inches average and school in 3's

anything else to know?

I was very close to getting one recently, after lots of reading and questions on here, i decided against it.

Fastest growing "beak" of all the Puffers apparently and most people with experience will tell you no matter how you feed the SAP, it will needs it beak trimming by you. This put me off.

And my LFS when i saw the SAP's they had.... well this is true, its a big and well known LFS and i asked who was on duty that knew the most about SAP's. The guy said "i do", i asked him about the beak/teeth issue and having to perform dentistry on the fish, he said "well i never heard of that", he looked at me like i was some kind of raving lunatic for mentioning that the South American Puffer (SAP) may need its teeth/beak trimming, so either he's a complete to$$er or the people on this forum who advised me dont know what they talking about, and i certainly have more faith in this forum than any LFS. So i know who my money's on!!!!

Well its not fair to call him a to$$er, but as he would be taking my money, i would be taking home a fish with special needs that he knew f*** all about, and he's the "expert" Puffer man of the LFS apparently

I think there were a couple of peeps out there who said that not all SAP's need their teeth/beak doing, but most peeps said they WILL, usually at 6-month intervals EVEN if you give them a really good diet that helps control the Beak.

I must say, after reading, the procedure didnt seem as drastic or dangerous as i thought, but still, i just wasnt really wanting to take that on, maybe one day, but not yet

 

[Gankutsuou]

from what I hear you put them to sleep with clove and use something like a nail clipper?

 

[Fella]

I know they like snails, bloodworm, and brine

4 inches average and school in 3's

anything else to know?

They need snails more than like them. Keeping their beak trimmed is essential.

As for schooling in 3's I imagine it's groups much larger than that, but you're looking at a decent sized tank for anything bigger.

Other things you should know is that the often do, but sometimes don't, play well with other fish. They're sensitive to copper medications, contract whitespot very easily, are very active, need frozen food, need a minimum tank size of at least 20g for 1, and they need an "interactive" tank. That's to say, things that they can explore. An empty tank would have it just pacing up and down constantly.

 

[Gankutsuou]

I know they like snails, bloodworm, and brine

4 inches average and school in 3's

anything else to know?

They need snails more than like them. Keeping their beak trimmed is essential.

As for schooling in 3's I imagine it's groups much larger than that, but you're looking at a decent sized tank for anything bigger.

Other things you should know is that the often do, but sometimes don't, play well with other fish. They're sensitive to copper medications, contract whitespot very easily, are very active, need frozen food, need a minimum tank size of at least 20g for 1, and they need an "interactive" tank. That's to say, things that they can explore. An empty tank would have it just pacing up and down constantly.

I read this last night, and I have one very fiant sword that takes up the basically the whole tank. This sword is also a great breeding ground for ramshorns, which I have a large infection of in both ranks. I also have baby tears and brazillian penny wort that they like to attack. I have seen no problems with them and the ram. They seem to keep inside and up around the sword, and the ram stays under.

and of course, my smallest non betta tank is 25 G's, so they *should* be fine as I have 2 HOB filters both ment for bigger tanks than the 30.
thanks though Fella!

 

[Gankutsuou]

Anything else?

 

[pica_nuttalli]

4" is a bit of a stretch; they're very slow growers. mine grew maybe an inch and a half in over two year's time; he was probably only about 2" long when he died.

 

[pandacichlid]

I myself have two SAP's and have had them for several months now. I do plan on doing dentistry on my SAP's but have never performed this procedure, however it is essential to their survival to do so.

The thing I wanted to mention is that, the diet my south american puffers are on is: bloodworm, Krill, small snails and other frozen and live foods. Right this is what I wanted to say, one of my two puffers has much smaller teeth/beak than the other, how I don't know, but the one with the smaller beak eats algae wafers and also eats more than the other puffer. I also have small shells in my tank and rocks so this could mean they are biting at them
you can't see it's teeth at all, but the other you can hmmmm? Haha

I think they're amazing fish and would certainly recommend them to any fish keeper, but like the other people have told me in the past and the people that have posted to this topic, they do require the right amount of care for their survival
I'd agree with the sensitivity too, cus my lfs had a few problems with them like contracting whitespot like if they're harrassed they'll most probably contract whitespot.
Plenty of activities in the tank too, like create a jungle for them, they love it.

Sorry to ramble!
thanks