The Puffer Forum

I have had my baby fahaka puffer, Oliver, for almost 2 weeks now. He still just sits in his corner unless we are feeding him. Occasionally i will come in the room and see him a couple inches from his normal corner that he just sits in (not even moving his little fins) and as soon as he sees me he runs back to his corner. I do think he is a little irritated with the chiclids because they push him, do you think once we move him into his 150g tank by himself that he might start swimming? I went back to the lfs that we got him at and all the other fahaka babies were just swimming around and looked happy. He is very acttive and not shy about food but other than that he is lazy!! Help!!

I would suspect the activity of the other fish may bother him; he should probably be moved into his final home ASAP, to avoid any aggression, as well as a variety of other reasons.

Cichlids tend to bully fish into corners, and leave them be if they stay in their place, at least the ones in the pet store where I work do. He's probably just learned he gets beaten on if he moves far from there, and being an intelligent fish, stays put.

Well i am getting his 150g tank on friday. How long do you think i should let the water cycle, filter etc, before introducing him into the tank?

Read the article on fishless cycling in the library.

yunachin wrote:Read the article on fishless cycling in the library.

This is the way to go. hopefully shouldn't take longer then two weeks so get started.

I am happy to say that yesterday Oliver, my puffer, finally was swimming the tank with the chiclids. He looked so happy. He was everywhere and he opened his tail pretty often, its beautiful. I dont know what changed but i hope he stays that way!

Just plop a filter cartridge from the cichlid tank into the filter on the 150, then add your puffer, instant cycle.

Id rather take all percautions, i dont want to kill my puffer and im really new to fish in general. The chiclids are my first fish and ive only had them 3 months.

Go with the fishless cycling--it'll be a great learning experience for you.

So tell be about Fahakas...I have never seen one in person and honestly know very little about freshwater puffers - they seem to be the 'big guy' of the puffer FW world...the stellatus if you will. I have looked up some good info - but very interested in how their personality is compared to that of marine puffers...

T. mbu can grow to be twice the size of fahaka. Both of these species can have great personality (similar to many of the SW species), but fahaka seems to be more aggressive. In most cases fahaka must be kept alone due to aggression towards tankmates, but many people have been keeping mbu in community tanks (as long as the other fish are large enough). From what I have seen mbu is more personable than fahaka, unfortunately for the average keeper, mbu gets so large.

Mikeosoft - thanks! Good info....always interested more and more in FW puffs as I go along - probably won't try to keep them - at least for now - I do love my marine puffers. So MBU - you said most don't keep them due to size although they are very personable - What about multiple MBU (given a large enough tank size?) Thanks

I'm not aware of anyone keeping multiple Mbu in a single aquarium, probably due to the size. As I'm sure you've seen from your SW puffers, these fish generate a TON of waste so water quality becomes a big issue. Not to mention the stress of being convined in tanks only twice the length of your body. As the popularity of the Mbu increases, it seems like more people are willing to provide larger aquariums for them, so maybe someone has tried.

Of the pictures/videos I've seen of Mbu in the wild they're often seen with other Mbu, but it's hard to compare their behavior in the wild with what they would do in an aquarium.

Btw.. Sorry for taking this thread off topic.

It has been a while since anyone posted to this thread, but the following may still interest someone anyway.

Our experience with our (formerly) lazy Fahaka puffer, can be found at:
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=12791

Summarizing, we increased his water temperature from 76 to 81 and there was a very significant change in his activity levels. We're researching Nile River waters temperature now to see if we were previously keeping him too cool.
-Robert