Multiple SAPs

[nmonks]

I've recently experimented with having more than one SAP in my 180-litre aquarium. I'd already had one specimen in there for a year, and apart from nipping certain fish, now removed, it's been absolutely fine with a variety of other fishes. But it was always neurotic and did that back-and-forth swimming thing, as well as up-and-down a single pane of glass.

So I took the plunge and bought a couple more small specimens a few weeks back. Things have been very different. Instead a single neurotic fish, I have three puffers that are much more responsive, either watching me at my work desk or else forming transient groupings as they swim off to explore the tank.

They are all much less nervous. For various reasons I've been rebuilding the decor in the tank and moving plants about, and despite all the commotion, the puffers are very settled. As soon as a plant or rock is put in the tank, they converge on it and swim and down it, looking for potential prey, just as I've seen wild puffers do in their natural habitat. They also seem much more surface orientated, scanning the undersides of floating plants or long Vallisneria leaves.

At feeding time, they are bold and for the first time seriously aggressive, hand-tame feeders (see this movie):

http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/files/feeding_time.mov

I know this is early days, and I know some people have had bad luck with these puffers. But I'm starting to think a lot of the weird behaviour associated with this species is down to it being kept singly. I was reading a scientific paper on their reproduction the other day, and the upshot is they're broadcast spawners with planktonic fry, which explains their singular lack of territoriality.

Anyway, thought I'd pass this on, in case anyone else has a single specimen and would want to try buying it some tankmates.

Cheers,

Neale

[Woland]

Hi Neal.

Your experience kinda echoes my own.
RTR suggests that SAP's are schooling for life.
I believe he once reported that they had been observed in the wild (by fellow scientists) in largish amounts, around 2-300 individuals.
Pity the snails!

I sold of my biggest SAP around a year and a half ago.
The specimen was quite a bit larger than those in your video.
It portrayed stress-behaviour for most of its time with me, and ended up in a 90+ (US) gallons heavily decorated community tank where it kind of chilled out with two juveniles of its own kind.
My guess would be that these fish require a tank sized out of proportions and a largish (6+) school to exist within.

[lisalisa]

I've been toying with what to do with (if I keep) the 210-gallon aquarium that housed my fahaka until a few days ago. One idea was to have a school of SAP's in there. I really like the idea of a very large school of them with a load of area to roam.

[The Fisherman]

I've been toying with what to do with (if I keep) the 210-gallon aquarium that housed my fahaka until a few days ago. One idea was to have a school of SAP's in there. I really like the idea of a very large school of them with a load of area to roam.

*drools*

whoa! Thats kinda scary, I had the same idea a few months ago, if I could afford a tank that big.

Great minds think alike I guess!

[coryc]

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[Tihsho]

All the SAPs I've seen are like sardines. They move with one another and all seem to check out the same thing. Seems like a school of puffs with the same personality!

[Pufferpunk]

The Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago as had schools of them. Around 20-30, I think. That's a lot of snails to feed though. Lots of them had severly overgrown teeth.

[Tihsho]

Hah, forget snails. Time for them to start dumping in bushels of small crabs!