Need Help/information About Tetraodon Sabahensis Aka Giant Spotted Puf

[Dominick]

Hey I'm new to this site. I joined to learn more about the puffer I bought yesterday. Here is my story:

I had a power outage that killed the previous inhabitants of my 100 gallon tank due to a 30 degree temperature drop. The only fish that survived was a small feeder goldfish. It has lived in the tank alone for the past 2 months. I finally save up some money and purchased what I believe to be the Tetraodon Sabahensis.

Yes I am an Impulse buyer. Yes the teenager at my LFS knows nothing of this fish. They sold it to me as a "Burma Spotted Puffer". He gave me a box of freshwater salt and told me to add 1 TBSP per 5 gallons of water. At the time my water tested at 7.4 ph and my tap water at home is 8.4. He told me that the fish prefers ph range of 6.5-7.0. I did a 30% water changer and used a phosphate buffer to achieve the 7.0 rating. My water temperature is 82 degrees.

I knew nothing about this fish 25 hours ago. There is very little info available online. I looked at photos of nearly every brackish puffer out there. I am quite certain that he is a Tetraodon Sabahensis. From what little I did find it says that the fish enjoys high ph of 8.0 and is fairly tolerable of salinity levels. I'm not sure what to do mostly of what the guy at the LFS told me and how different the information between this and the websites I have read. I don't want to stress out my new buddy so what should I do? I was thinking partial water changes until I slowly raised the ph to 8.0??

Does anyone own or has owned one? Could you please give me as much information as possible. I would not only like to know ideal water conditions but also possible tankmates, if plants are ok, how much light to use (right now i am not using a light at all), how big it will get, and what to feed him.

Thanks in Advance!

 

[nmonks]

Greetings,

Maintenance of this species is identical to T. fluviatilis or T. nigroviridis. In other words, while tolerant of freshwater (and apparently a freshwater fish in the wild) in aquaria brackish water conditions appear to be necessary.

Juveniles will do well around SG 1.005; adults need SG 1.010 upwards. Making rapid salinity changes is not a problem for the fish, but for the filter bacteria. I'd recommend raising the SG to 1.003 immediately, and then over the next couple of weeks raise the salinity slowly to 1.004 then 1.005 through water changes. You won't need to raise the salinity any further for a good 6-12 months or more.

Rather more important than salinity is carbonate hardness: these fish are intolerant of acidification. If you already have very hard water out of the tap, no big deal, but do check the carbonate hardness is upwards of 7 degrees KH. Marine salt (as opposed to tonic salt) will raise the carbonate hardness quite well. You can also add calcareous material to the filter, e.g., crushed oyster shell.

Generally these fish do not make good community tank residents. Some people have success keeping them in groups, and that's worth a shot. In large tanks monos and scats often coexist well enough, but I'd not bank on any of these options working in every instance. There is some suggestion wild fish feed on scales and fins of other fish, and this may well explain why people find these fish "aggressive" or "nippy" in captivity.

Cheers, Neale