Monotrete Palembangensis - clean up crew needed

[nmonks]

If you need a clean-up crew, you're feeding your puffer too much food. Putting aside the fact a clean-up crew is an oxymoron in a freshwater aquarium simply because it's always better to clean things up manually (not always an option in a reef tank) any uneaten food will end up as nitrate. Doesn't matter whether this is because it rots on the substrate or by passing through the digestive tract of a snail or catfish first. Either way, more nitrate than you want.

Since nitrate levels above 20 mg/l seems to stress some types of fish, most notably cichlids, but also pufferfish, you want to minimise the amount of nitrate in the tank. In other words, put as little protein in the tank as you need to ensure your puffer gets adequately fed, but not a scrap more! Easier said than done, I know, but your goal nonetheless.

Try feeding foods the puffer can consume whole. Choose foods with relatively low protein to ash ratios, i.e., unshelled prawns rather than whole prawns ("ash" is a term given to the non-digestible portion of the food because it doesn't burn away, and the key thing here is that it will not contribute to nitrate levels in the tank). Use forceps or a turkey baster to remove uneaten morsels of food. Save the messiest foods for just before a water change, and be sure to stir up the gravel or sand before you siphon out old water.

Cheers, Neale

PS. Monotrete is currently a junior synonym of Tetraodon. While Maurice Kottelat argued that Monotrete represented a valid group of species formerly included in Tetraodon, this has not been widely accepted by ichthyologists. For our purposes, the broad definition of Tetraodon works just fine, and is the one I think hobbyists should use to avoid confusion.

[Pufferpunk]

Choose foods with relatively low protein to ash ratios, i.e., unshelled prawns rather than whole prawns

Isn't the idea of feeding "shell-on" foods, to try & keep their teeth trimmed?

[darb]

But I am a notorious nit-picker... The accepted genus name for this fish is Tetraodon, not Monotretus. and the species name is lower case, palembangensis, even though it includes a person's name (Palembang's puffer).

HTH

well I wouldn't try and type latin from memory, so I cut and pasted from here: ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/T_Palembangensis/

As for the clean up crew idea, I am just looking to off load part of my duties. Typically I have been syphoning off the waste which is a good thing it ensures water changes are done, but is a bit of a hassle dealing with it on a daily basis.

I still may just try a large apple snail for several weeks, if in fact it does get eaten, then it shouldn't be an issue since the remains wouldn't be in the tank any more than eight or ten hours as a worst case scenario. I actually came across someone who had a Plecostomus in with his two T. palembangensis

From what I can see, I am not over feeding him, at about 4 inches I am feeding him a diet of primarily freeze dried shrimp, three to four daily (one at a time between other tank feedings) which readily fit in his mouth whole, it is just the recycling thing that he does which creates a bit of a mess.

[nmonks]

Who says you can't do both? Either way you look at it, shell-on foods are better than unshelled seafood.

Cheers, Neale

Choose foods with relatively low protein to ash ratios, i.e., unshelled prawns rather than whole prawns

Isn't the idea of feeding "shell-on" foods, to try & keep their teeth trimmed?

[Pufferpunk]

Is that FD krill you are feeding him? You really need to vary his diet greatly.

[nmonks]

As for the clean up crew idea, I am just looking to off load part of my duties. Typically I have been syphoning off the waste which is a good thing it ensures water changes are done, but is a bit of a hassle dealing with it on a daily basis.

Daily water changes sound like overkill, and I'd look seriously into whether your mechanical filter is up to snuff. Since puffers like strong water currents, a really big canister filter, ideally combined with a reverse-flow undergravel filter, is the way to go here. A reverse-flow system is "self cleaning" in the sense of shifting stuff from the gravel into the water column, where it can be easily removed via mechanical filtration.

I actually came across someone who had a Plecostomus in with his two T. palembangensis

And there's a guy in Siberia who lived to be 110 on nothing but potatoes, vodka and Marlboro cigarettes, but that doesn't make it a good idea. Pufferfish do seem quite variable in their behaviour, and it isn't at all clear to me why one person's pufferfish is peaceful even with fancy guppies, while the next person's pufferfish of the same species is a psychotic killer that even bites the keeper's hand. You'll know your own puffer best, and will be able to judge whether adding another denizen to the tank is a good idea. In general, it isn't, but I admit that my puffers live in multi-species aquaria and have done so for many years. So if you do go down this avenue, be careful, and have a Plan B in case it doesn't work.

Cheers, Neale

[busybones]

Just a thought but I think Lilswimz uses a turkey baster to pick up any uneaten food between cleanings. This may help you with your situation...

[RTR]

Monotretus was used by some folk at some time in the past as a genus name, but was replaced by Tetraodon as the only valid genus name currently for this group. Monotreteis an invalid variant of Monotretus.

If we ever get genetic analyses* of the much of or whole family, the revisions will be huge, massive. I would expect many new genus names. GSPs alone are so wide-spread with so many variants, they could end up as one huge species with multiple named and localized variants. or as a collection of closely related species under one genus name. We might even find out who or what the Ceylon is most closely related to - GSPs or somebody else entirely..

*This looks more promising all the time - their unusually "clean" (little or no "nonsense" code) makes them a researcher's delight. We may get more current species being bred for research and the "spares" going into the hobby trade.