Questions About Puffers

[Bella]

I am reading here that they should be in brackish water... I have Bloodparrots.. freshwater fish.... when i was at my local fish store.. I saw a few puffers in a tank with some blood parrots... Can they live in fresh water? I'm not planning on getting any... they are really really cool fish but I'm just not ready to have these fish yet... one tank at a time. lol.

 

[Davo86]

I am reading here that they should be in brackish water... I have Bloodparrots.. freshwater fish.... when i was at my local fish store.. I saw a few puffers in a tank with some blood parrots... Can they live in fresh water? I'm not planning on getting any... they are really really cool fish but I'm just not ready to have these fish yet... one tank at a time. lol.

Depends entirely on the puffer species as to whether they can live in Freshwater/Brackish long term,

Tbh, keeping blood parrots with puffers isn't really something to try longterm IMO

 

[Bella]

ya I thought the whole thing to be odd... If i were to keep puffers I would have them separate. They are very cute fish but I heard they are mean to others. lol.

 

[mixmaster jay]

http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/puffers.htm

have a look at this but i think most puffers benefit from a bit of salt.

ive been looking at getting an mbu puffer it says freshwater but my lfs says they prefere brakish

 

[Davo86]

[URL="http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/puffers.htm"]http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/puffers.htm[/URL]

have a look at this but i think most puffers benefit from a bit of salt.

ive been looking at getting an mbu puffer it says freshwater but my lfs says they prefere brakish

Dwarf puffers and South American Puffers are your commonly seen puffers that will all live in freshwater and don't require salt.
And as far as i'm aware Mbu are also a freshwater species?

 

[mixmaster jay]

thats what i thought but my mate really does know his stuff. he also did say there would be no problem in freshwater though

 

[lokkochaa]

thats what i thought but my mate really does know his stuff. he also did say there would be no problem in freshwater though

Mbu's get huge, you got a big enough tank? Like 1-2 foot (my lfs had one amazing thing)

My figure 8's love a bit of salt, but does depend on species and where in the river they live

 

[mixmaster jay]

for a juvi yeah for a year or so , soon upgrading to a 8 x 3 x 3 have a look at my links in my sig at the bottom

 

[Bella]

very interesting. Thanks for all the replies.

I took some time to look up puffers on youtube... poor little guys.. most of the vid's were kinda mean to them.(shaking them in nets to get them to puff) or holding them out of the water...Others were nice. I think the water at the store was brackish and the puffer was a fig 8.. kinda green dots on him.

by the sounds of it they seem really hard to take care of. I do keep excellent water but I wouldn't want to test my luck with a delicate fish like that. When i saw them in the store with the Blood parrots I almost bought one... because they were sharing a tank with blood parrots and they are very cute. I decided not a good idea to impuse buy.....Glad I didn't.. especally since I don't know much about them at all. lol.

 

[mixmaster jay]

making them puff up and holding them out of water is very dangerous for puffers.

i dont think they are too bad to keep as long as they can eat something like snails and mussels in the shell to keep there beak down and good water they should be fine but they do have different personalities lol

 

[frenchie]

correct, as far as water quality just have good filtration and weekly water changes and you should be fine. The harder part is properly feeding puffers.