Animal Stories - People Talking About Puffer Fish



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Latest Animal Stories on Puffer Fish (264)

Anonymous - 2013-04-24
What do brackish and hardness mean ?

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Anonymous - 2013-04-24
Also can they make it in a group of 2
Jeremy Roche - 2013-04-24
Brackish means their is salt added, just need to know what salinity they are use too. Hardiness is is how easily these fish are to care for and their ability to live a long life in captivity.
Clarice Brough - 2013-04-24
Water that is brackish has some salt, but not as much as you would find in the ocean (that would be saltwater). It is measured by the 'specifig gravity' (SG) of the water, and can be measured with a hydrometer. There are some wonderful hydrometers available at pet stores that are easy to use. As you can see in the Aquarium Set-up section above, this fish the Amazon Puffer, needs a specific gravity (SG) of 1.005.

Water hardness is basically a measurement of the mineral content in the water, primarily the amount of calcium or magnesium salts. Hard water has more than soft water. Again, as you can see in the Aquarium Set-up section above, these fish have a very broad range from 5 - 25 degrees of general hardness (dGH). A medium range is about 8-12 dGH.

Regarding the keeping more than one... in the 'Social Behaviors' section above, you can see that it is suggested to keep at least 3 of them, though more would work as well.

kye turnbull - 2013-04-08
how do you take care of a smooth puffer, my friend gave me one and i need to feed it, yabbies? meal worms? shrimp? it is about 7 - 12 centimeters and seems to just swim trying to escape! probably he caught it in the wiled

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Jeremy Roche - 2013-04-09
read through the information written on the fish on this site. Some great information. These fish are not the easiest to care for, so do a lot of research! Good luck
kye turnbull - 2013-04-11
i looked on the internet, found out what to feed it, went to feed it, and found it dead

Daisy - 2013-03-19
Hello. I have a green spotted puffer fish. I have had him for a year now and he seems to be doing fine! He gets along with my other fish (1 molly and 2 Bumble bee gobies) Could I add another fish? Such as another Goby?

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Jeremy Roche - 2013-03-19
Really depends on the attitude of the puffer.
Quinlynn - 2013-04-04
Yeah but I heard that you could put stuff in the water or on the fish to help them heal along with their fins.
Quinlynn - 2013-04-04
Yeah but I heard that you could put stuff in the water or on the fish to help them heal along with their fins.

Quinlynn - 2013-04-04
Hi my name is Quinlynn. I have a large fifty gallon tank with my Indian puffer and my two spotted puffers. I have a problem. On my way home one of the spotted puffers has taken a bite out of the other what do I do to help heal this? Help.

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Jasmine Brough Hinesley - 2013-04-06
Well, as with any wound it will need time to heal. You could try putting in antibiotics to the water to reduce the chance of infection. Also keep an eye on the fish. If they continue to be aggressive towards each other the best thing to do is separate them into different tanks. Also, provide plenty of hiding places and plants so that they can each form their own 'territories'. This should reduce/eliminate fighting.

estrondo - 2009-06-20
I am looking for somewhere to get a hold of more of these puffer fish. We originally had 3, but lost two. We absolutely love them, but have had no success in being able to replace them. Does anybody know where (in Canada) I can get more of these wonderful fish?

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Anonymous - 2010-03-29
I've seen them at Big Al's in Edmonton Alberta just the other week.
steve m - 2012-08-26
You can find them at Big Al's fish shop in Hamilton Ontario if this is in your area, maybe they can ship!
Anonymous - 2012-12-08
I got mine at Pisces Pet Emporium in Calgary.
Cory - 2012-12-16
Big Al's Aquarium Services in London Ontario has about 7 of them right now. Ask for 'Tony' the week-day fish guy. He is really great! :) I just got one. Absolutely adorable!
Max miller - 2013-03-21
I need help fast ! My South American puffer is not eating anything he is in a 50 gallon with. Just 10 pea puffers the pea puffers are eating beef hart . But the. Puffer is just not eating anything like beef hart, live worms and gost shrimp.
Clarice Brough - 2013-03-22
Hey Max, if your South American puffer is new to the tank, it may just be getting its bearings, so I'd be patient. You could also try offering brine shrimp, as shrimps help mimic their natural diet. However if you've had it for a long time, check its teeth. Their teeth constantly grow, so puffers need crunchy foods like snails in their diet to wear the them down. If the teeth get too long puffers will refuse to eat, and so the teeth must be trimmed.

Anne - 2009-03-14
I have a striped puffer for about two years, he/she is awsome! Very docile so far, actually I have a hard time keeping things in the tank with him/her, but not because he bothers anyone, it's the other way around! We call him "lil man" he's been so awesome. He stopped eating live food a year ago, I got worried something was wrong as he was keeping a couple guppies as buddies. But I got him eating a variety of frozen foods. He's about 7" long, plump, beautiful blue eyes. He shares his tank with two small clowns, anemone, blue damsel, and an engineer goby that's huge. oh yea, Patrick, the chocolate chip star, he gets hand fed too. They are smart, people tend to think fish don't have much brain other than instinct, but I beg to differ!

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Anonymous - 2013-03-20
this is a freshwater fish.... why do u have it in a salt water tank?

Anonymous - 2011-04-20
I am a beginner to the world of fish, and I think I know what I am doing, but want it to be verified.

Here's my setup: 30 gal tank with 2 Sunburst Mollies and 2 sunset platies. I have the temp controlled at 72-78 degrees, I have some big rocks (one big enough to provide shelter), and a few plants, as well as a Chinese dragon bubbler.

Here's my question: I added a Green Spotted Puffer to the mix. Is that ok? I went to WalMart, and their fish fact tag says that the puffer will be ok with Mollies. He seems to be swimming around the whole tank, not bothering other fish, but I am worried about it after reading this website. Any suggestions?

Also, you might not be able to help on this, but my male Mollie keeps picking on the female. I was told to expect them to mate, but it looks more like torture and not mating. It could be that I am a beginner (outside that of a Beta) and just do not know what to expect. Any help here would be appreciated as well!

Thanks in advance!

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Charlie Roche - 2011-04-20
You can click on the links attached to provide you with more detailed information on the fish you have selected. Just a note to say that it is recommended that if you have other fish with a Pufferfish, you have at least a 50 gallon tank. The puffer fella likes to nip at fins. He is not supposed to be agressive and he is supposed to get along with other fish but you need a larger tank. You need a bit of vegatation there for the fish to hide and play in, whatever. Two mollies mating (movie on U-Tube) looks like the guy is trying to slam her, push her and shove her. Weird to see but it must work. Now maybe yours are fighting so watch the movie and then you'll know for sure. Looks like they were fighting to me too.
Anonymous - 2011-04-20
Hmm. I wasn't told that I would need a 50, but that could be the case. The little guy has been in the tank for about 3 hours now, and he is starting to warm up to it. He swims around a lot, and doesn't seem to bother other fish. He was almost completely grey when I added him, but now his head and some of his body is back to Green. I have a 10 gal that my Beta is currently residing in that I could move him to. I bought some live plants tonight as well, so within a few weeks I should have some more greenery. I currently only have plastic plants, good ole WalMart doesn't say anything about live plants being a necessity.
Charlie Roche - 2011-04-21
Yep, the information says if you just have the puffer, then a 20 gallon tank is fine but if you are adding (or have) other fish, you would need at least a 50 gallon. Puffer fish also need something to wear their teeth down so snails or some such other hard food. The 10 gallon tank is too small for the puffwer, definitely too small if there is another fish in it.
Did you find the move on Mollies on U-Tube? There is one on just gold fish also. Strange.
Yes, you need some plants. Have fun and enjoy. Remember all these fish are going to get bigger. The mollies will probably go 4 - 6 inches.
Anonymous - 2011-04-21
Yes. Well, I took Mr Puff to Petco and donated him. I decided that I didn't want to ruin his little life just because I jumped in without surveying the water first. I think once I am out of an apartment and have my bigger tanks I will go get another puffer and try again. Thanks for all your help!

Oh, random question. How many more fish can/ should I put in this 30 gallon? Currently I have 2 Mollies and 2 Platies. Thanks!
Charlie Roche - 2011-04-21
I am responding to the other email which tells me you took the puffer back. You are asking how many additional fish you can put in a 30 gallon tank with 2 mollies and 2 platies. If you think 1 inch per gallon (just as a rule of thumb) and subtract out for gravel, decorations etc a 30 gallon should leave you with about 27 gallons of swiming area. So the two mollies are 12 inches (as adults) and the two platies are 5 inches (as adults) which equals 17 inches. So you can add two other compatible fish whose adult size is not greater than 5 inches each. OK? Yeah probably best to take back the puffer. Good thinking on your part.
Dioafui - 2011-05-09
You're fine, but the male fish will chase the female to death. You should have at least three females per male, because of his desire to pro-create. I don't know about puffers, but you spelled betta wrong.
nic - 2011-08-05
Here's where you went wrong. NEVER buy fish from Walmart they are cruel to their fish. They all have an illness and are not healthy fish and Walmart does not have any idea how to care for fish. They just want to make money. I had gotten a mollie and it had 50 babies and think first about how big each baby gets. hope this helps.

p.s get live plants like water sprites
brookes - 2013-03-17
thats not true i bought mine from walmart and it was a little agrisssive at the first 4 days then it got calm it was just scared thats all. all i got to say is love your green spotted puffers. i mean who can't love that little pug face of there's...lol..!

Steve Bussard - 2007-02-14
I've had my fahaka puffer for about 9 months. Currently he is approximatly 3" and for the time being he is being kept in a 10 gallon. I knew these guys were VERY agressive when I bought him, but since I got him I've had to either hold his food for him or "knock" them unconcious for him to eat anything besides snails or crayfish. I actually had a feeder in the tank with him for more than 6 weeks, without so much as a lunge toward it. So I decided a couple days ago to introduce him to my 90 gallon. I have several fish in there mostly 3" or less, consisting of cichlids, spotted puffers, and angel fish, along with a 20" pleco. Everything went well with him the first 2 days. He only attempted to eat the pleco, which he basically bit his tail, which did no damage, so I wasn't worried. I decided to get a new little silver shark catfish, and when added to the tank he went right to the fahaka. To my surprise, the fahaka moved out of the way and let him go by without so much as a second look. I thought "this is awesome, I'm going to be the first that I know of with a fahaka in a comunity tank!". I was very wrong. No more than 30 seconds later he bit the 3.5" silver in half, with no warning at all. That was the end of his stay in a community tank. He is one of the most beautiful fish I own, but do yourself a favor if you get one, don't attempt community adaptation, unless you don't mind losing some of, if not all of your other fish.

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Alex - 2010-12-23
10 gallons is way too small for a fahaka puffer. The fact that he will not eat feeder fish and that you have to knock his prey out for him tells me he will soon refuse all food and waste away. My fahaka Vigourously takes food every day and has been growing on the average 1 inch per month. Also, looks like you helped him by placing him in 90 gallons. That can be seen by the sudden increase in his appetite and interest in eating other fish. This species is being evaluated in 2011 for the new impact of the aquarium trade on it's numbers in the wild. It would be a pity to let yours waste away in a 10 gallon.
greg - 2011-03-21
I have a fahaka about 2 and a half inches sooo aggressive, even when he's not hungry. If he's in the tank with any feeders I find them floating at the top of the tank, had him with a spotted puffer terrorized it, bugged my albino pleco a bit but now lives together with just the pleco fine.
PJ76 - 2013-03-04
That 10 gallon tank is not the best idea for a Fahaka puffer. Putting him in the 90 gallon is the best move you can make for him. In the 10 gallon he was restricted, probably bored, therefore leading to the lack of eating. Adding him to the 90 gallon probably woke him up...add some live ghost shrimp or crayfish to the tank, he will turn his attention to them and not to your fish. I have had one for about 3-4 months now and he is about 4-5 inches in a 125g tank. I have a variety of other fish in the tank with him. Just like yours he nipped the tail of the pleco but to this day has not made any effort for the other fish. The tank is large enough for them all to swim and roam without bothering each other. I usually pick up a couple of small crayfish every week or so and drop them in the tank. When the fahaka is hungry he finds one and takes it out instead of bothering the fish. Not to say that he will never bother the fish and it's a perfect solution, I am waiting on the day I wake up and find fish missing or dead which is why they are all cheaper fish and my more expensive ones are in another tank. However when your Fahaka really starts to grow you can expect more dead or missing fish so you may want to really concentrate on keeping him in the 90 gallon now...he's going to need it!

Liam D - 2008-02-06
Horatio and his teeth!! Following on from the overfeeding incident Horatio seemed off his food and was a nasty grey colour and not his usual interactive self. On looking at his face he appeared to be all teeth, his top teeth touching his bottom (GSP s have 4 teeth/beak for crunching shells). Googling puffer teeth showed I would need to trim them for him to eat or he would starve! Fearing he would die anyway I carried out the following procedure. I used a dish about 2 inches deep containing his tank water, about 1/2 pint, to which I added 3 drops of clove oil. I placed him into dish and gently rocked the dish until his fins stopped moving and he rolled onto his side. Then I fished him out in a net trimming his teeth with cuticle cutters (heart stopping stuff), steady hand required and not for the faint hearted! Once I had trimmed back a suitable amount I placed him back into his tank still in the net with the filter water on him until there was movement. About 20 minutes later he was swimming around. A day later he was looking a lot less grey and is now his playful self.

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nick - 2013-02-21
i dont have pufferfish but every fish i buy it dies over the next couple weeks what should i do about this the oly thing i got is two corycats and thair the only ones that didnt die

natalie - 2013-01-29
I have a dwarf yellow puffer sharing a tank with several other fish. I've noticed that he has gone completely black and almost lifeless. He keeps on resting on the live plant. Could you tell me if he is dying and if I can do anything to help him please?

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Jeremy Roche - 2013-01-30
It is usually a water condition issue. What is the salinity of the water? Check all your levels. These fish are very sensitive to conditions.

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