The Puffer Forum

Puffer Queen wrote:These puffers are in the diodontidae family (2 fused jaw plates). Dogface puffers, stars and stripes, reticulated, etc are in the tetraodontidae family (4 fused plates forms beak).

Ok, that certainly makes sense. Thanks for the info Puffer Queen.

Samaki- Yeah, that's exactly what my puff is doing. He'll eat certain foods right away, but anything bigger, smaller, or a different texture than what he is used he will ignore and continue to beg for food as if I didn't drop it into his tank. Hopefully he and I will have a break-through and he'll eat like your porc.

samaki wrote:Great to hear that he's doing well. Like Puffer Queen said, the teeth of burrfish and porcupine puffers are fused into plates. They are naturally flat, and are often nearly covered by the "lips". I agree that I wouldn't worry too much about overgrown teeth, unless they get quite long.

These do not overgrow like the arothrons (tetradonitae)
Your burrfish's refusal to eat

Keep offering a variety of food to prevent nutritional deficiencies - onset of symptoms could take months to show and once symptoms occur, reversal can be problematic

I like to offer my fish as many foods as I can find, so I'm trying to get this guy to accept more foods.

I'm offering him different foods mixed in with his 'accepted' food every feeding time to try to trick him into eating. My husband said he successfully got him to shrimp, but he wouldn't accept any from me. At least he's started accepting cockles!

I'm also soaking his food in garlic, which must make everything taste the same so I'm assuming it's different textures he doesn't like.

Good news- He is now accepting mussels as of this morning. I'm sure it seems logical that he would accept mussels when he eats cockles, but he wouldn't eat mussels because they are slightly different in texture and taste... Silly puff!

Another update:

He is now eating shrimp! I have gotten him to accept small chopped up chunks of shrimp and he has eaten 2 larger shrimp this way. He was a bit finicky with it yesterday, but today he was so excited about me feeding him that he popped his body 2" out of the water. I think he's at the point that he will accept whatever I offer him.

I'm going to offer him some SF Bay Marine Cuisine because it has some 'veggies' mixed in with it for better nutrition.

great news - progress.

I am in *love* with that fish, it's so cool and I want one.

Are there any "burrfish" (I know that's not very scientific) that don't get very large that I could keep in a 3' tank?

I don't think so. Take a look over at fishbase and browse the burrfish section. I have done so myself and the smallest burrfish (available in the trade) I have come across were these guys, but Web Burrfish are said to be available in some areas as well and reach 10". A lot of the species are either just too large to be found in the trade or I think they just aren't located around areas that would be profitable enough for collectors to bother with.

http://www.fishbase.org/ComNames/Common ... chList.php

I'm already pushing it having this guy in my 4' tank- I've read all sorts of recommendations ranging from 70 gallons minimum to 90 gallons minimum. Space-wize he will be comfortable because my tank is 18" deep and 48" long (same as a 90 gallon), but I'm sure bio-load is the reason for the larger recommendations. I just have to be prepared to upgrade or add a refugium if the nitrates are too high once he reaches his full potential of 10-11.5", which would be an absolute pain, but worth it for this 'mini-porc'.

Puffer_Queen- As far as your ID of this guy, is it typical for them to have the little 'devil-horns' mine has? Of course people confuse these species all of the time so it is hard to know what the pictures I see are really of, but I never see any of the puffers with markings like his with the little yellow-brown horns he has over his eyes. He also has those dark patches under his eyes giving him a 'racoon-eye' appearance. I haven't seen any species pictures with either of those features. He does have the 4 spots which are consistent with pictures I have seen, so I am thoroughly confused about him.

He does not look like this fish, similar lined-markings and spots but lacks the features mentioned above:
http://www.aqua.org/animals_stripedburrfish.html

This picture is a good example of the horn, but that black splotch under the eye is different- more like a mole than the racoon-eye I am talking about.
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/ ... ur43_s.jpg

Are there just variations within the species or are there two different ones that are very similar? It seems the pictures of the ones without the 'horns' have less spikes which are also less prominent and they also don't have as fine a lined-pattern.

Thanks very much for the info, I did some research myself and came to the same conclusions.
I'm considering a 92g corner tank that I imagine one would be happy in, but I dunno if I have the cash right now to do that big of a marine tank.

I wish someone would selectively breed a few species of puffers to make them smaller, lol.

CoreyK wrote: I wish someone would selectively breed a few species of puffers to make them smaller, lol.

Don't we all

I got the picky thing to eat squid this weekend, so now he has 4 different foods on his 'acceptable but not prawns' list. He'll be moving into his new tank this week, so keep an eye out for the pics!

OraLacerta wrote: I got the picky thing to eat squid this weekend, so now he has 4 different foods on his 'acceptable but not prawns' list. He'll be moving into his new tank this week, so keep an eye out for the pics!

Looking forward to pics - he is the most cute/hilarious looking fish ever

I second! More pics pleeeeez