The Puffer Forum

firstly hello to all, i have just joined site. I have looked through a few forum discussions on these pages since joining and i have to say i am quite impressed. Everyone on here really love there puffers and i have been looking for a site like this for ages being a huge puffer fan myself. So far i have owned, 2 mbu's, 1 pelambangsis, 2 red eye, 2 leopard, 4 figure-eights, dog faced, valentini, puffers. ( sorry i know a lot of you use latin names but i just use the common names for them!! ) At the moment i have a mbu called sushi and a porcupine puffer. The reason for this post is about mbu's. Everytime i hear about people who have these you always here someone pipe up with " oh you can't do that, they need a million gallon tank with 250 filters etc etc etc " which is simply ridiculous. Yes to a point i totally agree with this, but on the same note is it less cruel to keep a 2" fish in a tank than a 12" fish....i think not. The simple fact is none of them should be in tanks....thats the bottom line. We buy them for our own selfish reasons because they are an attraction to us, and personally speaking i get satisfaction knowing that i'm doing my very best to keep them happy. The simple fact is that things like mbu's should not be dragged from the water unless they come with a free million gallon tank, but they are, and i have never been given my free tank yet!!.

I currently have my mbu " SUSHI " in a 6' x 2' x 2' with 2 eheim pro3, and 1 pro2 filters, phosphate filters, uv sterilisers, and he is about 11" long inc tail. He is extremely happy and anyone who has owned a mbu will agree how much they love people. I don't know if i can go any bigger tank wise, it obviously depends on my house situation and money situation, but most will agree i have a fairly large tank. My point is this, As i said i do agree with people regarding tank sizes etc

BUT people will still buy these fish so they will keep dragging them from rivers.

The amount of people i have seen in fish shops with there kids saying how sweet that baby mbu is without even knowing what it is, and talking about buying it to add to their 18" x 18" x 10" tank that currently holds 250 guppys, 100 neons, 50 corys, and has a air pump but no filter cos they dont need it!! how happy is a mbu or any other large puffer or even any large fish gonna be in there!!??? I knew how big mbu's get being my last got to about 17" before i lost him which i was gutted about. And frankly i am doing my bery very best to keep mine happy, tank, filters, food etc costs have not been cheap so far and i expect i will still spend lots more, and i do not regret any of it, My ideal situation would be to have a 10'000 gallon tank and have full wall viewing of him bopping about but but sadly i do not expect to put in an appearence on mtv cribs just yet.

Every puffer will die, in a tank...bottom line, its just down to us to do our best in the time they are with us, surely a mbu that has lived for 2,3,4, or 5 years in a large 5', 6', 7' tank has had a much better life than one that sat miserable in a fish shop for months while people prod the glass shouting and screaming at him, then being dragged out of the tank by a spotty kid who don't even know its a fish let alone what species, and don't realise why this yellow thing in his hand is getting bigger ( i HATE it when fish shops take puffers out of the water to bag them, whats wrong with some people!! ) to be thrown into a bag and taken home to be put in a 50 litre tank where they sit watching all the neons and guppys swimming all over them, then after a couple of weeks when they have not been fed enough cheap goldfish flake food to live...then go on to die...unhappy.

I'm 100% sure this goes on, a fish shop is a shop, there to make money. Most employ kids because they are cheap, and its not the kids fault, they just wanted a job to pay for cider on sat nights, we have all been there. But most of them dont know whats what, so will sell anything to anyone. The shop is happy, The shop worker is happy, The customer is happy....so everyone is happy?? NO, the fish is not.

All im saying is that all of us out there who are doing there best and have large tanks with there prize mbu or any other fish should not feel bad, yes we are being cruel, i do feel bad that " sushi " is not in his natural environment, but things could be so much worse for him as i pointed out. And lets be honest in the wild who is gonna come along and throw him his cockle in shell and shrimps so he can get his dinner!!

Uh... good point?

I see your point and do agree with you to some degree that to be better in someones tank that does know what their requirements are and would be in the future and would do their best for them. As long as that person has a decent size tank a decent amout of knowledge to back it up. If they havent got a decent sized tank and just think they are oh so cuddly and cute then leave them alone.

Mbu's are good sellers they arent gonna stop being sold in shops unless they become either protected species and imports are restricted or banned and the plain truth is that people buy them so they keep getting them and that is not going to change.

I'd still buy one.

I have to disagree. For every Mbu "rescued", another mbu is taken from it's large home in the river & placed in the exact same LFS tank. IMO, 2' tank will stunt your potentially 30" fish.

Have you read the mbu story in our FW Puffer forum? Written by a pufferkeeper of over 50 years.

Even if mbu's were banned etc, you know for a fact people will still get hold of them, all it would do is push the prices up and all these rich kids who just want something to look flashy in there houses will pay the price to have them. Its the same as the snake/reptile trade, most of the venemous types have been banned from being sold but people still find ways and means of getting them, and like i say the only people that win again are the shops/importers. Plus another point i have thought about today is that with the way houses are built nowadays using timber and plasterboard to be thrown up quick due to demands for flats how many people seriously have a home that will hold the weight of a 15'000 gallon tank!!! Id love to see my landlords face if i told her that i was planning to turn her front room into a fish tank by sealing the doors and windows and filling it up with water.....im guessing my answer would be.....MOVE!!!.....and forget about getting your deposit back!!! ha ha ha

I think mbus should only be allowed to be kept in captivity with licenses and stuff, just like people need if they want sea dragons and many other kinds of pets.

i do agree with people saying that is isnt fair that they are in tanks, but your all missing my point...they are dragged up and thrown in shops, and most owners do try there hardest to keep them happy and that some do end up in tiny tanks left to die miserable. If we was all to be more honest...keeping ANY animal is cruel, its not natural to have something that is designed to roam free wether it be on land, in the sea, or in rivers to be kept by us for our own pleasure. Yes they should be licenced and more care should be taken in importing and selling of them, but its not and doesnt look like that will be the case for a long time. So until then, i have respect for people that spend hours of there time and lots of there money in trying their best.

No one ever stated they needed a 10,000 or 15,000g tank. 1,000g is what we are recommending but even a 300g would be better than a 180. If you read the mbu story you can see what happens to a mbu in a 180g tank. This is not just about swimming room either--it's about dilution of all the waste these huge puffers produce.

How large is your mbu now? What happened to the last one?

thanks for the advice....i would never have known that more water dilutes pollution better....and thats clearly why i posted this. Obviously i was asking for advice so everyone can tell me that they know so much more than me. And with all due respect why are you asking me what setup i have.....you feel that your view on this is better than mine even though clearly you have only read what you want to, i have put what tank i have and what size my mbu is which tells me that you did not read it before judging. Clearly you still do not see the point i was trying to make....so before you start telling me my set up is crap and you know my mbu better than me even though i have owned him for 2 years....take 5 minutes to actually think about what i was saying, this post was not about who is better and who knows more, and if you look back i was having a pop at shops / importers and people generally making money off something that should have been left alone in its natural environment. I felt that when i bought my mbu that he stood more of a chance of having a happy life than being bought by someone who has no clue on how to keep goldfish let alone anything else, and like i have pointed out i have put a lot of time and money in doing so and will up until the time i lose him, at which point i will be more gutted than you would know but on the same note i will be happy knowing i did try for him, rather than let him die in a shop or worse down a toilet.......

I don't think anyone was forming opinions on you or how you take care of your fish by asking you what size tank you had. IMO

I never asked anything about your set up at all. I missed where you posted it was 11".

This is why I hardly ever bother coming on the forum as people are always too quick to Judge!!!
The classic was when some snacked about the size of our tank when theirs was actually smaller.... Hypocrite!!!

I love my puffers. I do the best I can, and if at some point I see that I'm not good enough, or that they need more than i can provide, I'll be happy to give them to someone who can do it better than me, rather than see them everyday and saw "sorry tour life sucks, wish it were better"...

Here, Here!

No violence on the forum!

There will always be those few...