The Puffer Forum

DO NOT PUT PUFFERFISH IN FRESH WATER!
CYCLE THE TANK FOR ATLEAST 2WEEKS-ITS GOTA BE PERFECT
DO NOT BELIEVE A THING THESE "FISH" SHOP OWNERS TELL YOU! AS THEY WILL JUST TRY AND SELL YOU LOTS OF THINGS THAT DONT WORK, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH AS WELL AS GOING TO LOTS OF DIFFERENT FISH SHOPS.
DO NOT KEEP YOUR PUFFERS IF YOU THINK THEY ARE SUFFERING, IF THE LEVELS ARE VERY VERY BAD TO A POINT OF NOT BEING ABLE TO LOWER THEM QUICKLY-GO GIVE THE FISH BACK-BCUZ THERE GOING TO DIE!

UNFORTUNALTY MY PUFFERS HAVE JUST DIED AND I THINK IT WAS A COMBO OF THINGS AND OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM WAS A STUPID FISH SHOP OWNER WHO PUT THEM IN FRESHWATER AND HAS GIVEN US BAD ADVICE FROM POINT GO AND SOLD US ALL THE WRONG THINGS. SO I AM VERY SORRY TO OUR PUFFERS WHO WE REALLY LIKED- BUT THANX TO THIS WEBSITE AS IT HAS HELPED, ITS JUST A SHAME THAT WE DIDNT FIND IT SOONER TO HELP THE FISH. ALSO WHAT I WILL SAY IS LISTEN TO PEOPLE ON THIS WEBSITE 99.99999% OF THE TIME THESE PEOPLE ARE RIGHT! THEY HAVE PUFFERS!

Sorry about your loss.

While there are many good LFS owners out there, most of them are either just out to make a buck so they don't care, or they just don't know any better.

I hope this doesn't discourage you from keeping puffers. IMO, find another LFS that knows how to care for the fish, take your time, and do things right next time. You'll have a much better result in the end.

There are a whole slew of FW puffers (check our Pufferpedia). You should actually cycle your tank in whatever kind of water the fish is in at the shop & raise the SG slowly over time, if your puffer is a BW fish.

Glad you learned.. research any species of fish BEFORE you buy it and you'll save yourself and the fish a lot of pain and hassle.

But never say don't put puffers in freshwater. There are many, many freshwater species and even some of the brackish can live in freshwater for extended periods of time.

Bad water quality is the #1 killer of puffers though. They just are too sensitive to ammonia, nitrites and elevated nitrates.

Sorry to hear that you lost em.

You're very right that many LFSs don't know anything about puffers. And many shops don't even know enough about keeping fish at all. Puffers are demandig fishes to keep, but sooo cool anyway. There are more freshwater puffers than brackish puffers (7 of the 9 species I keep are FW, 2 are BW). But it's true that LFSs often sell BW puffers as FW, like GSP (which was the first puffer I bought - and, yes, I thought it was FW. But she is still alive 1 year after. I must be one of the few puffer owners that haven't killed my first puffer). Puffers are very sensitive to ammonia and nitrites, and therefore the tank has to be properly cycled. The two weeks you say is far to little. A tank is not cycled before a little more than 4 weeks (I think it's actually 35 days), and even then you have to be careful. That is if you can't take any short cuts, like biospira (which you can't buy around here), letting the filter run together with a cycled one, or taking some stuff from a cycled filter and putting it into the new filter. If you don't take the short cuts, the nitrite level will be at it's highest at about 3 weeks - so putting fish in a tank before that, is asking for trouble. Putting a puffer in before that, is even more so.
You're right in not listening to the LFS. Do research before you go to the LFS. That's the best way of getting the right information.
It's too sad, but a lot of puffers die because of wrong information from the shops. Around here they seem to get more and more popular, and that also means a lot of unexperienced tank owners buy puffers as their first fish. And very often that goes wrong, and the puffer dies after a short time. It's not the easiest fish to start with.

im sorry about your loss...
yet you can get fresh water puffer...like dwarf puffers for example. very small yet just as fun.
i hope you get more puffers.
also cycling a tank for about a month with most fish is recommended...2 weeks might be too soon for more sencitive fish, like puffers. and always check the water pp's.

Sorry to hear about your loss

I always cycle for a minimum of six weeks, better to be safe than sorry.

Cycle for as long as necessary to produce 0 amomonia/nitrites. There is an excellent fishless cycling article in our Library.