Tetraodon miurus questions

[Mewtwo 89]

I was wondering if Tetraodon miurus require their beaks trimmed like other puffers? I have a memory of reading that lurking puffers such as Tetraodon miurus don't need their beaks trimmed but I'm not sure if what I read was true.
I also have another question about their diet. I was thinking of making their consist of mainly crayfish (I believe I can find them at walmart?), night crawlers, shrimp, and tilapia. Does this diet sound appropiate for Tetraodon miurus? Also they may end up eating some live fish because I'm planning to add some dither fish for myself, I was thinking of maybe some zebra danios since they will stay up at the top of the tank.

[DMD123]

The lukers like the Congo, Arrowhead, Dragon, Hairy are all puffers that do not require beak trimming. Diet is also pretty much the same for all of them. But puffers can have a mind of their own when it comes to what they will eat. So the diet you have in mind may work or you may get a picky one that will only eat worms.

Are the crayfish you are looking at frozen? If so raw or cooked? Generally raw is best choice but usually with crays it frozen cooked. I think it has to do with how quickly they can decompose if they die, so I think they cook them first before freezing to make them have a longer shelf life and for food safety.

As to ‘dithers’, unless the tank is huge the fish will probably get picked off and the puffer will just feed on them. I always wanted to try something like that but I feel my puffs would just make an expensive meal out of them. My Hairy and Arrowhead both have 65b to themselves but its not enough room for dithers to hide.

[Mewtwo 89]

Well the fact that I won't need to trim their beaks is good as I wanted to gain some experience with puffers before I had to trim a beak.
I'm more than ok if I get a picky eater, it simply means that I'll have to keep more of that certain food on hand which I can do.

I am looking at frozen but there is a chance I may end up getting some marbled crayfish and let them clone themselves for a while so I can have live crayfish for them to eat.

Well that's a shame, I figured that zebra danios stood the best chance as they like to stay at the top but I'm not going to worry about it. I still plan on adding some and see just how long they last. If they don't last long then I won't bother with getting anymore after they're all gone but if they last a long time then I'll simply replenish the stock when they get low.

[Pufferpunk]

Their diet in the wild is live fish.

[DMD123]

@Mewtwo 89, What size tank are you doing for the Congo? If it were a 55g (4ft) the dithers might have a better chance.... but likely the eventuality is they will be eaten.

[Mewtwo 89]

The tank size in question would be a 40 gallon breeder as I was told the size would be appropiate for three of them.
I don't know why I didn't think of it before but I'm actually setting up another tank for breeding guppies and instead of dithers having a semi permanent stay I can move some of the guppies in there from time to time and enjoy them for as long as they last without having to repeatedly buy more fish to replace the ones that get eaten.

[Pufferpunk]

Mine never needed >15g.

[DMD123]

The tank size in question would be a 40 gallon breeder as I was told the size would be appropiate for three of them.

Just making sure I got that... so the idea was to do 3 miurus together in a 40b?
Miurus are very aggressive puffers and will likely not tolerate others of their kind. Even in a 40b I dont think you could create territories big enough to keep them from going at each other.

These are best kept as solo fish. Unless you get a breeding pair. @Pufferpunk, maybe a male with two females? Dont even know how to begin to sex them.... I think I go back to the whole solo puffer here.

[Pufferpunk]

ABSOLUTELY NOT! You will certainly end up with 3 dead/damaged puffers. Even for breeding purposes, it is suggested to place in separate tanks, where they can see each other & put together only for breeding & then separate immediately afterward.

[Mewtwo 89]

Wait a second, unless I'm mistaken it was you, Pufferpunk, that suggested putting three of them together in a 40 breeder.
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=37261 Here, post number 2.

[Pufferpunk]

Yes, 3 Figure 8s.

[Mewtwo 89]

So, I just re-read your post Pufferpunk and I believe I now know what happened and where this all went wrong.

You said and I quote "Or there is a FW Spotted Congo puffer that has made an appearance in the past few years. They are happy, active fish but quite $$$ still, since they're new. I do believe folks are starting to be sucessful at breeding them, so I'm hoping their price will go down soon. You could keep 3 of them in a 40g."
I looked up Tetradon miurus and came up with the name "potato puffer" or "congo puffer", congo puffer is very close to spotted congo puffer. I looked up spotted congo puffer and came up with the scientific name "Tetradon schoutedeni". I believe I didn't think that the "spotted" in "spotted congo puffer" wasn't that important and left it out and ended up getting Tetradon miurus instead and thought that that was the puffer you meant.

It looks and sounds logical to me, does it sound plausible to you two also?

[Mewtwo 89]

After thinking about it I would rather have 1 Tetradon miurus rather than 2+ other puffers. I just love the look of Tetradon miurus and am fine with keeping one of them as their beauty makes up for it.

[DMD123]

After thinking about it I would rather have 1 Tetradon miurus rather than 2+ other puffers. I just love the look of Tetradon miurus and am fine with keeping one of them as their beauty makes up for it.

The Miurus will be fiesty, fun and affordable. I see where confusion could arise by using ‘Congo’ when researching. The Schoutedeni is a nice puffer that is more community friendly but at $200 a pop it is expensive. A wish list fish for me.

I know its said some of the lurkers don’t require a large tank and can live in a 20 gallon long, but I like to give them space and put in large decor. My Hairy and Arrowhead both have 65B to themselves. I don’t know if it has any bearing but they are both very active compared to what some say about them. My belief is that they are more outgoing with the space. No proof, just a theory... unless l just lucked out and ended up with active lurkers.

[Mewtwo 89]

For me, the tank size was never a question as I was working around size and weight limits and a 40 breeder fit perfectly. It all came down to finding a fish I liked enough and it ended up being this lovely little puffer so it being a decent bit bigger than a 20 long is nice as I may be able to see some different characteristics than he would show in a 20 long.

In a few years I will get a hairy puffer so perhaps we can compare our puffers then?