The Puffer Forum

So i was at exotic aquarium the other day and saw an Mbu puffer labeled "wild caught Mbu puffer". So i just told the guy "there is no such thing as a captive bred so what is the deal with this label?". He said that "these puffers are bred in china, this one is wild caught" so then the argument started. To my knowledge no one has ever bred Mbu puffers and just the thought of the massive aquarium you would need to house a bunch of Mbu's would be insane, but just in case news came out that someone has bred them and i didn't hear im asking if anyone here has heard of anyone ever breeding an Mbu?

i'm pretty sure you are right about the breading. You never know; some of the online fish stores have 15,000 gallon tanks so you could probably bread in that. Most of those are SW though.

He is just full of Shizzle. He probably doesn't really know how big MBUs get he just knows they get big most likely.

People like that aren't worth fighting with.

yeah some people jsut dont want to admit there wrong

there was nothing hostile to it, probably was a waste of time, i just like to call him out because he is the self proclaimed "puffer expert" of the store so he was probably just trying to impress me with his "expertise"

That's just kind of dumb :/

yeah you know the last person who said they where a "fish expert" i talked to hadnt had a tank in 20 years

jimi wrote:yeah you know the last person who said they where a "fish expert" i talked to hadnt had a tank in 20 years

yeah my new roommate saw my tanks and talked about how he took care of the tank at a youth ranch he worked at.....30yrs ago....and hasn't had a tank since. He was trying to sound like he new a lot....buuuutttt not so much.

Everyone is a self-proclaimed something. lol

I have come to learn a phrase that I use often. "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers".

I have a self proclaimed super power. I have the power of hindsight.

All I do these days is not to try and interrupt the sale of a puffer....just redirect them to TPF while I am at the store.

I do totally agree with you guys in that Mbu's have probably not been bred in captivity. Likelihood is this guy's just an idiot.

*However* just for the sake of playing devil's advocate, there are a lot of fish bred over in asia which just don't make it here- or the information doesn't make it with them. The breeding trade can be rather competitive, and I wouldn't be surprised if breeders didn't want to share that they had succeeded in breeding a fish. A friend of mine, who also works at my LFS spends a lot of time in Taiwan, and regularly tells me that there are fish being bred over there that we don't think are possible.

For instance, I didn't think that Corydora schwartzi were being captive bred, but lo and behold, one day at my LFS was a tank full of very young c. schwartzi who *must* have been captive bred.

Just saying

although the fish could be breed there sheer size makes it unlikey in my mind

most mbus are very tolerant fish, My current Mbu bubba doesnt mind other puffers atall hes been with a mbu previously for over a year and a half but still breeding i guess would be very verry very difficult ive certainly never heard of it.

to my knowledge there all wild caught. the price 400dollars is a little steep where i can buy them at my LFS for about £50 2-3" and there a great little shop. they refused to sell me some chilids the other day because of ich. Even though they know i can quarintine them myself. But they did say that if there not ok in 2 weeks i can take them half price as i would have more time to get them fighting fit hopefully.

I had an inrersting conversation the other day which might open your minds to this possibility. It was suggested that they could be bred on huge fish farms in massive pens in stretches of river that the Mbu are natural too? Its unlikely but more likely than a huuuuuge tank. If you have ever seen these types of farms with pens the size of football pitches the idea does hold some merit

I don't see the reasoning of breeding this giant species of fisf, as very few folks in the world will be able to house them properly so how would be worth the profit or space?