Puffer help !

[freshcichlid]

ok i just bought my new Tetraodon fluviatilis, right now he is in a little tank until i can get a bigger one for him. but i am wondering are there ANY tankmates that will go with him, i mean ANYTHING ! i will probably get a 10gallon for him, can i keep another one of them, or what else ?
and how hard is it to care for this little guy, i will feed him brine shrimp and he has a fake plant and a rock ! haha but is there anything else i should know !
thanks

 

[jflowers]

Tankmates, um no, he/she is a species only fish. I have kept breeding kribs in the same tank, but thats an exception, not a rule. Puffers, any puffers, are species only tanks. And a 15-20 gallon tank is what you want when it gets bigger, what sg is it in now (sg is the specific gravity of salt you have it in now), a young specimin should be in an sg of around 1.005, an adult upto 1.025?

Jon

 

[freshcichlid]

well now i have no salt because it was said and told to be a freshwater guy !
so i guess tommorrow i need to go get a hydrometer and what kind of salt ?

 

[fish_r_great]

A lot of people use marine salt in puffer tanks.

 

[SirMinion]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but...
There are two puffer species that are sold as green spotted puffers, tetraodon fluviatilis which is yellowish green with dark green irregulaly sized and shaped spots which grows to 8 inches and tetraodon nigroviridis which is bright lime green with evenly sized and spaced black spots and grows to 5.5 inches
Are you sure that yours is t.fluviatilis?

Either way, both species are brackish and will suffer if kept in freshwater beyond "childhood".

As this fish grows up to 8 inches, you're going to need a considerably bigger tank than 10 gallons.. think more in the region of 40 gallons with double filtration.

In a brackish tank, your tankmates are limited to other brackish fish which rules out all plecs and nearly all other catfish.

The temperament of the puffer rules out pretty much everything else although some people have had some success with knight gobies.

 

[freshcichlid]

and to think i was happy about getting this little guy.. ill call my LFS and see if he wants my little guy, im not taking him back to walmart , they'll kill him !

 

[Pufferpunk]

The fluviatilis is not generally sold as a GSP, but more often as the Ceylon puffer. Please do not buy fish you know nothing about & aren't prepared to house. These are wild-caught fish & need very specalized care. Is it in an uncycled tank?

Read: Green spotted puffers

If all the puffers at Walmart die, maybe they will stop carrying them.