Puffer fish

[gearyboy]

Hello guys Ive just bought a new tank with the intension of keeping puffer fish ie spotted or figure of eight. What I would like to know is

1) what fish you can keep with them?

2) How many puffers should I keep its a 126 litre/27.5 gallon tank?

3) What sort of habitat? plants? rocks? etc

Cheers Guys and gals

Matt

For the first question I have had different people say different things ie on there own or with others

 

[fish_keeper2]

you would probly get more help in the odd ball or brackish section. the puffers you are asking about are brackish.

 

[SirMinion]

Hello guys Ive just bought a new tank with the intension of keeping puffer fish ie spotted or figure of eight. What I would like to know is: -

1. what fish you can keep with them?
2. How many puffers should I keep its a 126 litre/27.5 gallon tank?
3. What sort of habitat? plants? rocks? etc

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Hi Gearyboy, welcome to the Forums.

I'm assuming that you're asking about the Figure Eight Puffer (tetraodon biocellatus) which grows upto 2.5 inches, and the Green Spotted Puffer (tetraodon nigroviridis) which grows up to 5.5 inches.

1. Most puffers must be kept alone due to their fin-eating habits and their aggresive personalities, however it's possible to keep bumblebee gobies with figure eight puffers
2. In 126 litres (27 Imperial gallons, 33 US gallons) , you could have two or possibly three Figure Eights or one Green spotted puffer.
3. Habitat for both the Green Spotted puffer and the figure eight should be heavily filtered brackish water in a tank with rocks and caves and a sand substrate. The Figure Eights will do fine in mildly brackish water for life and can therefore also have salt-tollerant plants such as Java Fern as well.
   GreenSpotted Puffers need the water to be increasingly salty (that's marine salt, not 'aquarium', table or cooking salt) as they get older and can go to full marine as adults.

Hope that helps!

Because both of the species you've asked about are brackish water puffers, I'm moving this to the brackish section.

 

[gearyboy]

Thanks for that but im still confused as I have seen two local garden centres near where I will keeping the above puffers in just a tropical tank. I even asked the staff and on both occasions they stated ' puffers can be kept in a tropical tank' Are they wrong ?

Matt

 

[pica_nuttalli]

I even asked the staff and on both occasions they stated ' puffers can be kept in a tropical tank' Are they wrong?

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yep.

 

[Erised]

They're pretty wrong indeed.

True, you can keep them in freshwater ... for about 2 months probably, and then they'll die. They simply require salt in their water to live out their full lifespan.

 

[SirMinion]

Sure, they can be kept in a tropical tank... that's tropical brackish water with no other fish.

There are puffers that can be kept in tropical freshwater, but still not with other fish.

An example of a freshwater puffer of comparable size is the South American Puffer (Colomesus asellus).

 

[maisy12345]

Hi ,i also enquired about these fish ,figure of eight puffer ,as i too saw them in a tropical tank ,was told i could keep about 5 in my 28l,no problem and they`d grow to 2 inches?
Could someone also explain what brackish means and is it difficult to do as i`m a newbie ?

 

[mattyp84]

5 in a 28l ?!? no chance

i have 4 F8s in a 90l with sand substrate, rocks and plants and its tropical not brackish, but i maybe over stocked and wrong, but this is what maiden head aquatics told me would be fine, and tbh ive always heard good things about them.

Mine get on fine, never have any aggro issues and are looking healthy and have a great personality, ive had them for about 6months and they are about 2.5-3" long now

as i said i could be wrong, there are far more knowledgeable people on here.

Great fish though!

 

[divegirl]

Hi ,i also enquired about these fish ,figure of eight puffer ,as i too saw them in a tropical tank ,was told i could keep about 5 in my 28l,no problem and they`d grow to 2 inches?
Could someone also explain what brackish means and is it difficult to do as i`m a newbie ?

Hi, there is no way you could keep 5 F8's in 28ltrs, that's barely enough for a single Dwarf Puffer!

Figure of Eights do best, as do most Puffers in a species only tank and you would be looking at at least a 12 usg for one and add 5-7 usg for each additional fish!
Brackish is the area of a river that is in the estuary to the sea. At high and low tide the salinity of the water goes up and down. F8's need a low to mid range sg that can range from 0.05 - 0.08 [this would need to be measured on a refractometer!
They need meaty foods and I have never fed mine on any sort of flake although they will take pre-soaked freeze dried blood worms at a push, but prefer live or frozen. They need snails and the odd mussel shell to keep their beaks ground down.
You need a good filtration system of around 7 times your tank volume [mine loved to play in a fast flowing outlet] and they need a well planted/wooded tank or they will fight...the line of sight needs to be broken up for them.
They are not a hard fish to keep but I suggest that you do a lot more research and double if not triple you tank size first.

Lisa x

 

[DavidJHarrisonEngland]

Hi,

I've had Spotted Puffers which are just like Figure 8's as far as their needs are concerned, I kept them with other fish & everything was fine as long as you don't let them get too hungry or they will nip the fins of other fish but NEVER over feed. Shops will tell you that it's OK to keep them & other Brackish fish in F.W, the reason for this is that a lot of people think Brackish fish are hard to keep even thoufgh they arn't so it puts them off buying Brackish fish & the shop selling them wants to make a sale!!!

They wont last too long in F.W, its ok whilst they are young but WILL need to be in Brackish water.