Green freshwater puffers

[gregg604]

Really like Green spotted freshwater puffers. For size and overall cuteness. Have read some conflicting info about them. Some books say they are good community fish while others say they are agressive. I have 4 parrot cichlids, some neon tetras, 2 silver dollar fish, catfish, cotton candy tetras, 6 clown loaches, dwarf frogs, some sharks, and a docile ghost knife in a 90 gallon tank. Anybody had experience with the puffers? Are they better solo, if agressive?

 

[William]

The only fresh water puffer is Dwarf Indian.

Green Spotteds are brackish IIRC.

 

[gregg604]

Thanks!

 

[TankGirl]

Yes, the green spotted are brackish, and are very aggressive. The FW dwarf Malabar puffers are adorable, very, very tiny and pretty aggressive. I keep mine with tiger barbs without any trouble at all.

 

[madasafish]

Green spotted are certainly brackish. However, William is wrong that the Malabar Puffers (Tetraodon travancorius) are the only FW species out there. There is another similar species of Dwarf puffer, Carinotetraodon travancorius, which has a yellower body and smaller spots. Also, the Mbu Puffer (Tetraodon mbu), Bronze Puffer (Xenopterus naritus), Amazon Puffer (Colomesus asellus) and several other species, are completely FW. There are a lot of brackish species, however.

 

[William]

Really? I was under the impression that the only FW puffer was the Dwarf Indian.

Oh well, atleast I was right on the important part

 

[puffergirl]

Also look at the Brazillian freshwater puffer or SA puffer. I have one in my 30gal community tank and he is as happy as pie, eats like a little piggy though. They are really pretty, look like little waterlogged bumblebees and have the most amusing personality.

 

[Madame_X]

Puffergirl, out of curiosity, what other fish do you have in your community tank?

We just purchased a South American Puffer on Sunday. I was nervous about it but the LFS said they were not that aggressive and would do fine in a community tank (strike 1!). When I asked how big they would get, the girl said about 3 inches (strike 2!). My husband really wanted a puffer so I thought we'd give it a shot. I can already tell it isn't going to work out. He is a stinker! 8O He has shredded my black platies fins already (in 24 hours). I have also since read that they get up to 5 inches long so he will quickly outgrow our tank.

The deal was that if it didn't work out, hubby had to buy another tank to put him in. The question I'm wondering is are there any other fish that would work out with him. Hubby really likes tiger barbs and I've read that they do okay with the SA puffers.

On a good note, he eats well and showed no anxiety about his new home so I'm hoping he'll take a second move (to a bigger tank) as well as the first one.

 

[cdawson]

Puffers vary between individuals, I've got a perfectly docile SA puffer in my planted community 50g. The majority with the SA puffer is that it's a community fish, I've got mine temp. housed with a betta (YES! A BETTA). They've been together for awhile, about 2 weeks (due to an unfourtunate accident with my g/f's betta bowl). Thankfully the planted tank was right there and I just dumped him in. I think he's just glad to be alive, he hasn't even looked funny at anything in the tank. However, with any puffer you are taking a chance at aggression as most are nippy in general. Tiger barbs and an SA puffer would probably be bad as tiger barbs are almost alot worse than puffers when it comes to nipping. If you had a 20g and had live plants, some more SA puffers (max 3). You'd have a very nice tank going. Don't worry there'd be plenty of character in the tank

 

[TankGirl]

I have dwarf Malabar puffers in with tiger barbs, no problems at all.

 

[gregg604]

who would have thought that something so small would be such a menace!

 

[Madame_X]

who would have thought that something so small would be such a menace!

Not to mention something so cute!

I knew we weren't fortunate enough to get a "passive" one when we put him in the tank and within 5 minutes, he was charging and fiercely biting the fake driftwood in the tank. 8O He attacks food with equal vigor.

I just hope one of my platies doesn't become food before we can get a new tank situated...

 

[William]

I love puffers.

Their so kyoot.

I want to get a big 300+gal tank just so I can set up saltwater and get a porcupine puffer, their so adorable when they grow up ^^;

 

[puffergirl]

Well to answer you question Madam X. I have my puffer in with angels, gourami, black skirt tetras, red tailed black shark, plec, corys, neons, and badis badis.

The SA freshwater puffer will not get much larger than 2-3inch in size mine is at max size now. As for the fin nipping.......every fish has their own personality, generaly they are the least aggressive of the species. I have noticed that he has picked one corner of the tank and made it HIS!!! He is always in that one corner except at dinner time when her swims around trying to find anything to pig out on.
When I first got him I put him in my tiger barb tank, whoa bad idea!! He was scared to death of them. Barbs are so active and such curious fish that they where the ones picking on him. Also don't forget that puffers can't swim very fast or all that well, part of what makes them soooo cute to watch.

 

[puffergirl]

Also the SA puffers are known to have a cronic overgrown beak problem. Their beaks tend to grow faster than they can keep it worn down. You will end up having trim his beak for him. I'll take a look for an article that was given to me about this, it really helped me for when I did it.

What I did was take two small containers of tank water and put one drop of pure clove oil in one and fresh tank water in the other. Gently catched my puff and placed him in the water with clove oil ( this put the little guy to sleep) after he is knocked out I trimmed his beak with baby nail clippers then placed him in the fresh tank water with a little stress coat. After about 2 minutes he was awake and swimming around. Once he got back in the tank it took him a few minutes to get his bearing and he was back to his old self, pigging out.

 

[Madame_X]

Trim his beak? 8O

I knew that this could happen if he didn't have enough of the right kind of food to grind it down (snails, krill, etc.) but you're saying its inevitable, huh? Yikes... kinda scary!

You're a lot braver than I am. The thought of anesthesizing (sp?) him and trying to trim his beak without harming him is a bit frightening. I'd feel terrible if I did something wrong. But I guess if you do nothing, the poor guy would starve to death so I'd better get used to the possibility.

Is it really obvious when its overgrown? Right now he's eating great so I know he's fine. We can't find any snails small enough for him to really eat right now (we put a couple in and he attacked them but gave up as they seemed too big to get in his mouth) so we're feeding him small pieces of freeze-dried krill and bloodworms. Its really funny to watch him eat the krill. He grabs it and shakes it (grrr!) until he can get pieces off.

I know its kinda sick but I guess I can see why people find predators so interesting. Only part of the amusement for me is to see such a tiny little fish who thinks he's tough!

For the record, too. There have been no further incidents with the platy. Her fins seem to be starting to repair themselves and we haven't seen any further aggression towards the other fish. We bought a 29 gallon tank and hope to have it up and running with some Bio-Spira and a few fish by this weekend. I think he'll be okay in a community tank as long as its large enough for the other fish to stay out of his way.

And if not, he'll have a 29 gallon tank all to himself! 8)

 

[Guest]

I just got 2 fw puffers last weekend. Extremely cute little buggers.

However, I can't seem to get them to eat any prepared foods. All they will eat, as far as I can tell, is snails. As I have 5 planted tanks, this is really not a big problem, but it would be easier if i could get them to eat regular stuff. Any ideas?

Also, I swear the species was written on the tank at the store, but I forgot to write it down. I called the next day, and the person that answered the phone siad they were just fw puffers. I think she was too lazy to check it out for me.

 

[TankGirl]

CC, they are probably Malabar puffers (Tetraodon travancorius) and it is apparently very common for them not to eat when you first get them, as I learned after many a nail-biting hour on a puffer forum. I tried everything I could think of, and the only thing that worked was live adult brine shrimp. I hatched BB and they did not even notice them, they are so tiny. After the shrimp they started eating other things I gave them, primarily bloodworms. Now they eat baby snails too. Mine reside with tiger barbs, which are almost too fast and furious for the puffers, which are slow on the draw when it comes to snagging food. They are the most interesting fish I have ever kept, though!

 

[Madame_X]

I can't seem to get them to eat any prepared foods. All they will eat, as far as I can tell, is snails. As I have 5 planted tanks, this is really not a big problem, but it would be easier if i could get them to eat regular stuff. Any ideas?

I'm not sure what kinds of food you've tried, but I tried a few different foods before I found what our little South American Puffer (colomesus asellus) liked. He had no interest in frozen daphnia or freeze dried plankton. He watched the other fish eat flake and tried a bit for himself but spit it out. He didn't like it at all.

He LOVES freeze dried bloodworms and small pieces of krill. He eats these vigorously! He tries to eat snails but I'm having a hard time finding snails small enough for him. He just attacks the larger ones until he cracks their shell and then he kind of loses interest. I hope that the krill is hard enough to keep his teeth worn down until I can get a regular number of snails in his diet.

 

[Guest]

Well, I'm not worried, they are eating, it goes like this: I crush a couple small snails against the glass, they come homing in on the meat in 1-3 minutes, and eat rather at their own pace. Bellies look nice and full, behaviour seems fine. Tried some freeze-dried tubifex last night, one of them ate a little, but not very enthusiastically. frzdried bloodworms have been rejected so far. I have some frzdried krill, will try that too.

Mine are also hunting snails, pretty interesting. They will sneak up on a snail that is moving, so his foot is partly exposed out of the shell. The puffer will then sneak in, and bite the foot, taking a chunk out (I think). The snails surely react, pulling back into shell and hiding exposed parts. Very interesting!