The Puffer Forum

Hi having kept marine and fresh water fish of all sizes for the last 15 years. I had the opportunity to setup a tank just for puffer fish. As i have always wanted to kep them but on advice was told to keep them in a species setup.
I initially had a 15 uk gallon tank with two 1" green spotted puffers in it which was matured by fishless method. but unfortunatley on of the puffers managed to jump out and the gap was so tiny i dont know how it did it. unfortunately he died.
I know have the remaining little puffer in a 55 gallon tank with several un-indentifed cichlid fry which i used to mature it. the puffer is now 2" and he is
far more active now he has companions he seemed to sulk and hide when the other had jumped out. I know he will probably eat them eventually but the are just excess fry from my cichlid aquarium which to be honest needs culling.

Tank params:
temp 25'c
Ph 7.8
ammnoia nil
nitrite nil
nitrate 15
salinity low going gradually build up
planted with rocks
water changes 25 % weekly with ro and minerals and 7.8 buffer


3 questions:
1.) he only seems to like blood worm and ignores river shrimp, cockle, occasionally eats krill. how can i get him to eat better food?
2.) are they known jumpers?
3.) I am probably going to get another gsp soon do you think the existing puffer will accept the new puffer he has been on his own for a month or so.

any advice greatfuly received.

firstly...

there's articles in the pufferpedia on feeding etc. Mine was quite fussy to start with, loves shell on king prawn, and normal prawn, krill, mysis etc... if you're still struggling to get him to eat, try soaking in garlic, and/or not feeding for a few days, he may just not be really hungry, but blood worm are a tasty little snack, Bonzo would still try to eat those even after he'd polished everything else off, no matter how full he was

They are known jumpers, a lot of people say this can be down to water conditions, they are trying to find more suitable surroundings, I have only ever heard bonzo hit the lid once though, so he's either dumb and takes what he's given or it's actually okay for him in there

I don't think you'll have too much of a problem, but when you do add the new boy, change the layout of the tank to stop any territorial squabbles

what SG is he in at the moment?

p.s. ... did I mention reading up about this in the pufferpedia

The post above has great advice! I know my F8 had to be offered a new food several times before I could get him to eat it. The best way I found was to withhold a meal for a day or two, and then only offer the new food. Sometimes you have to offer the same new food several days in a row, but they'll eventually get the idea.

My F8 took 3 weeks to realize that the live ghost shrimp were there to be eaten, but then it was a massacre.

Your tank seems to be big enough that the GSPs will have plenty of room to mark out their own territory. Like was already said, change the decor around, and maybe add some new decor when you add the new fish.

Just make sure they are roughly the same size. Even though the min is 30 gal per, I have been told that if you have a really aggressive specimen that the bigger one might cause you troubles ( no so dif from other fish) Tho, moving the decor should help as previously stated.

Yes they jump. Mine love to splash the surface especially at feeding time ( i tried frozen food that some of it floats, and they go full bore and hit it as the leave the water.

As to the feeding question, I put ghosties in with mine for a while before they decided to much them also. So i guess patience on that one. As for other foods, IDK mine pretty much eat everything.