The Puffer Forum

I have a South American Puffer, got him last fall when he was young. I had him in freshwater, then after several months put him in my Brackish tank. The past month or so, he was in need of teeth trimming. I finally got around to trimming his teeth, which was quite easy and went well. I put him back in the brackish tank, he would not eat anything of a frozen nature, like bloodworms brineshrip etc, yet he just loved frozen bloodworms even as much as 2 months ago and even before i trimmed his teeth. He would eat some small snails when i could find some to feed him but thats about it.

Well i finally decided to put him back in my big freshwater tank, he did not look like he was happy in the brackish tank. I started feeding the fish some flake crisps, he just loves them, he also eats shrimp pellets now (which he would not eat at all several months ago). When i put in frozen bloodworms for my elephant fish and the other fish, he steers away from it altogether.

I have several other puffers in my brackish tank and they just love frozen food. Cant figure this guy out, but Hey at least he is eating again!!

Just thought i would share this with all you puffer people.

Regards Andy.

Why did you have him in brackish water? South American puffers are strictly freshwater.

CoreyK wrote:Why did you have him in brackish water? South American puffers are strictly freshwater.

I would tend to agree, however I have heard of and read about people keeping them in low end brackish water succesfully???

I have read that too but it's always better to keep them in FW, as you can see for yourself. What SG was he in? What other puffers are in the BW tank?

The reason i had him in the brackish water is the guy i know very well at one of the local pet stores said he would do better in brackish water, i tended to disagree with him, but thought hey he runs the store seems to know about puffers, so i tried it. Since i put him back in fresh water, he is doing so much better seems not to aggitated and is eating well again.

The SG was just below 1.00 , the low end of the brackish scale, slightly brackish water. THe other fish in my brackish tank are 1 Figure eitht puffer, 1 spotted green puffer, 5 bumblebee gobies, 1 green scat, 1 silver scat, 1 Mono Argentus, and 2 flounders.

Guess he doesn't kbow as much about puffers as you thought...

Many of your fish should be in high-end BW. Your F8 though, needs to remain in low-end BW.

how big are your freshwater and brakish tanks?