The Puffer Forum

i recently bought a topaz puffer from my local pet store and the woman said (very much in passing as i was leaving) "oh they need brackish water". i found out what it ment and im worried about adding salt to my tank as i dont want to harm any of my other fish:
400 litre tank

2x pacu
sultan plec
mozambique tilapia
bristle nose plec
parrot fish
sail fin plec
convict
devil plec
4x silver dollars
2x catfish
Parachromis motaguense
talking cat
Leporinus


i know i have a lot of fish but its only untill i move house and set up another tank.

another question i have is; i know very little about their normal behaviour. he seems very withdrawn and shy. not really establishing himself and im worried he'll get bullied. i have a smaller tank but from wat ive read he's capable of eating the other tank empty.

if anyone has any advice i'm all ears. thank you

Please do a search on every one of your fish & look up their adult sizes. Those pacus get 3-4 feet!

BTW,

As they need brackish, the current fish you've got aren't going to work with him. If there's a lot of boisterous activity in the tank the Ceylon may be struggling to get settled and could possibly be stressing a little which could account for the withdrawn behaviour. Ceylons are generally very active and interactive with owners once setlled.

Marine salt isnt going to work with you current stocking list of fish in anyway and if there is no possibility of being able to move him to another tank by himself which you can convert to brackish it might be worth returning him for now.

Welcome to the site


Good luck finding a home for those pacu's in the future.

Moved to brackish puffers.

Matty if you can upload some pics of your puffer we'll be able to tell you exactly what it is, LFS often mislabel puffers but it would confirm whether it was a Ceylon or not.

Welcome to the forum, and def. try to get pictures or I.D. him in the pufferpedia.