The Puffer Forum

When his belly is nice and flat again you can feed him again. Atleast that's what i've been told and now use. But if he still shows some humps and bumps from the food inside, give him time to digest

You need to wait until he holds up an "I'm Hungry" sign. No really, feed him until he has a slightly rounded belly, every other day.

Oh really?? Wow, so you can actually see his stomach deflate, I didn't know that.

So I don't have to feed him like twice a day or something, sometimes even every other day or when his tummy goes flat. Will he still be looking around for food before his tummy goes flat or will he do so when it does only?

Any big issues to just feeding him whenever he wants to eat?

ATM, I'm not too sure what a fat fahaka looks like and what a flat hungry one really looks like. He sorta looks inbetween right now and after I fed him today as well, guess I'll see.

They are adept beggars--you can easily kill them with kindness. There is a sticky here on overfeeding puffers.

Whats the first few signs that my puffer needs more tank room?

By the way when I click on your puffer tank links, it says Can't contact servlet runner at localhost:8914

From what length age does it have to be every other day? because I feed mine every day (but only when his belly is flat again). Master Yoda is now about 8cm (about 3inches)

There's no real rule of thumb but every other day, until about 4", then every 3 days, until about 6", etc. You'll have to use your own judgement. For example: My fahaka is 12" & he eats a big meal of shrimp or clams or earthworms or crayfish, etc. 1x/week but when I feed his tank mates (yes, he allows them), he eats little bits of their food too.

Natty wrote:Whats the first few signs that my puffer needs more tank room?

Um, any answers to this question?

Mine started out at 1" in a 15g, moved into a 29g at 2", 40g at 3", 55g at 5" & 125g at 7". You may not have multible tanks available for this many moves as I have & might want to just upgrade to the largest tank.

Yeah but what kinda signs am I looking for that might tell me that my tank is a bit too small?

Don't wait until the puffer tells you/shows signs, he may already be stunted at that point. Go by the measurements I just gave you.

Pufferpunk wrote:Mine started out at 1" in a 15g, moved into a 29g at 2", 40g at 3", 55g at 5" & 125g at 7". You may not have multible tanks available for this many moves as I have & might want to just upgrade to the largest tank.

So, you went through about a tank a month? Impressive!

Pufferpunk wrote:Don't wait until the puffer tells you/shows signs, he may already be stunted at that point. Go by the measurements I just gave you.

I didn't know tank size can stunt the fish's growth as long as they can move around in there? As long as he eats, he should grow right? Right now he's about 2.5" but the temporary 10 gallon planted still seems quite large for him though?

Oh yeah, so far my fish is eating, but he lays around a lot. Is that okay?

Fahaka's grow about 1 inch per month over the first year so get ready to start gradually increasing tanks or do it right and get a minimum 120 gallon as your next set up. Believe it or not the bigger tanks can be found on Craigslist.org and Ebay for a relatively cheap price, the bigger the tank the more difficult it is to get rid of so the prices stay fairly low. I bought my 180 gallon for less than my 75 gallon. The hormones they produce can stunt them faster than normal fish because of the lack of scales.

Pufferpunk wrote:Mine started out at 1" in a 15g, moved into a 29g at 2", 40g at 3", 55g at 5" & 125g at 7". You may not have multible tanks available for this many moves as I have & might want to just upgrade to the largest tank.

So how did you know when it was time to move your puffer to something bigger since you did move it quite a few times?

I also am thinking of getting a squarish kind of tank since a 6 foot long tank probably wont fit in my house. What should be a good customized size? I was thinking 30" deep, 36" wide. I don't know.

Oh, if I get an 125 gallon, how do I know if my house will be able to support that much weight? What's a good cheap price for one and how do i go about finding if the tank is still in good condition, a leak would be devastating.