The Puffer Forum

Ok this is largely a warning as i know this will come up on google if searched by newcomers to the hobby. So to start i got handed a sap to rehome, after quarantine he lived in a small tank with many snails to eat and all was good. My beloved fahaka dies so the sap gets an upgrade and is mixed with rasporas among others, in a short space of time his teeth have grown massively even though there are many snails added regularly. The soft foods are eaten first and snails are grazed on resulting in overfeeding. As a senior member would quote nimft (not in my fish tank) plus i now need to do dental work more regularly. No way. So where to go now? They cannot stay together for my sanity, I will not downgrade his swimming space as he uses all 5 ft as swimming space. So i se up his own 5 footer, he will be joined by more saps as soon as i track some down. The point of this post is to say that although a relatively friendly puffer they are by no means a community fish. Dont get me wrong i believe the dither fish helped him settle< balls to the 3 monthly dentistry< neither you nor the fish needs that stress. These guys require a species tank with lots of room. No way a beginners fish, prob one of the harder to keep puffers. Even after 2 decades of fish keeping i feel like i am in a tricky situation< how do i know teeth are too long? They need a trim now so will do so and his release will be into his new tank. No wonder so many die young just like mbu- but thats a different story.....Ok this is not a community fish. No way

+1, thank you!

No problem, I thought I could handle this. I was wrong, species only tanks are the way to go.

I would rather go bw with f8, seems so much easier. But heh, i got this guy so he will get the best love from me. He will live out in my care, i noticed 9 guests were viewing so i hope i saved some puffers

Sticky worthy post!

Thank you purplecandle, if my personal experience can help others then i feel great. These softies are not easy. My fahaka was a breeze in comparison, the brutal fact that i feel the same minimum tank size makes fatboy 2 (new fahaka) much more favourable makes me want him more lol. Please consider before you buy, we see alot about gsp puffers being inapropriately housed but these guys need serious devotion. Not that others do not as we all know here.

Another +1. IMHO & IME, SAPs are not community fish (very few FW puffers are - in no small part due to the difficulties betrtie cited). They also are not tight schoolers. I doubt that it is possible to over-size their tank. On their own with basically snail diets they are not hard to manage, but are space and current hungry.

When I first started keeping puffers, I put 2 SAPs in my nicely planted Amazon tank with around 150-200 neon tetras.

I just didn't notice the first couple of dozen vanishing....a very expensive lesson for me there.

Ouch! But I'll bet that the SAPs loved the tank...

Another thing I found is that saps are keen gardeners, few plants are left intact.

i have a 65 litre tank with 5 harlequin raspora and 3 leopard catfish
was thinking about getting 2 south American puffers is there any problems with this idea??

I will take your experience in consideration but I also know what doesn't work for one person will work for another and what works for one person doesn't work for another person. I just got my group of six SAP . I have thousands of MTS in my tank in which most of them have been eaten by the group of SAP in just alittle over four days. I'm starting a tank for snails only and will be dropping a lot of snails in the tank each week along with feeding them a variety diet. They will be kept with rummynoses in a heavy planted tank with a lot of nooks and crannies . I've only had them for four days so this is very new. We shall see what happens in the long run.

How hard is it to obtain SAP's in Western Washington state if anybody knows? I have a 125 gallon tall tank I'd like to try a pair or so in.

Canary wrote:How hard is it to obtain SAP's in Western Washington state if anybody knows? I have a 125 gallon tall tank I'd like to try a pair or so in.

check with Anthony :
Anthony Perry
Sales Manager
The Wet Spot Tropical Fish
4310 NE Hancock St.
Portland, OR. 97213
PH: 503.719.7003
Email address: sales@wetspottropicalfish.com

Canary wrote:How hard is it to obtain SAP's in Western Washington state if anybody knows? I have a 125 gallon tall tank I'd like to try a pair or so in.

If you posted that earlier, I would have recommended my bro to give you his SAP in Kent, WA for free. He did not take good care of his SAP and only fed soft food. No hard food at all. The teeth was overgrown at one point, but I dropped by one day and saw that his teeth was shorter. I have no idea how the teeth got shorter. Only think in the tank was a couple of fake decor.

Anyways, I have only seen SAPs at A Place for Fish in Burien, WA. I think I saw some at Midway Tropical Fish in Des Moines, WA. You might want to give them a call to check inventory or special order SAPs, however I think the puffer season is over and they might not have any left. These fish stores, which is in my area, never special order anything for me. Its very annoying. I have no place to special order any puffer.