The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone!

As you know, we are constantly trying to come up with new ideas and ways to make TPF the best and most helpful Puffer website out there! Something we have long been meaning to create is a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page that goes over many of the first questions people have about keeping puffers.

We need ideas of things you'd want to see included on this list for one..

And secondly, we need photos to illustrate some of the other items. We have some photos already, but we could really use a few more, high quality, in focus pictures of things such as:
-a puffer with ich
-a puffer with white, stringy feces due to IP (with the actual feces trailing behind, sorry, yes I know its gross)
-a puffer with a black belly
-a puffer with fin rot/fungus
-a puffer with bitten fins (we have bite scars already, but if you have good shots a few extra would be nice)
-a puffer napping (curled up, darker colors, etc) I have one of a dwarf, but would prefer a GSP or something like that
-snail photos for species ID, I think I have a ramshorn, need MTS and pond

If you have photos we can use for this, please either post them here in this thread (as an attachment) or email them to thepufferforum@hotmail.com, with "FAQ Photo" in the subject line.



A list of the things we are hoping to have on the FAQ page:

I just bought a puffer, how do I take care of it?

My puffer is sick, what do I do?

What is brackish water and how do I make it?

My puffer is nipping my other fish -

Does my puffer want "friends"

Clean up crew?

Can I keep a suckerfish or pleco with my puffer?

What should I feed my puffer?

What kind of snails are best?

Circular marks or scars - bites from other puffers (with photos)

Naps - that yes, puffers do take naps and a description of how they look/act as they wake up

Ich vs spines - with photos to ID the difference

F8 vs Ceylon vs GSP which do I have? - with photos labeled to show the differences, such as the eye spots on F8's

Salt - "the store said they can survive in freshwater but I should use salt.. how or why do I do this, etc"

Cycling, what is it and how to do it. - article

Do I need to QT fish, inverts, food, etc?

How much salt does it take to raise it __

My pH is too hogh/low, what do I do

My puffer puffed up and now is floating full of air - link to depuffing article

Puffer is not eating - water quality 1st - link to article

Is my puffer a boy or a girl

I want to breed my puffer, how do I do it? Two big problems in breeding puffers.. sexing and aggression

Just bought a GSP, how do I take care of it - with a link to the GSP article

Just bought a puffer, what kind is it? - link to PufferPedia and direct (photo?) links to GSP, Figure 8 maybe dwarf

Pacing up and down the glass

First Aid Kit

Power Outage/Filter Failure

Tank too warm

Tank covered in brown algae - diatoms

Tank covered in green algae -

Biospira - which do I use, freshwater or marine

Test kits - which do I use, freshwater or marine

How many puffers can I keep in my tank?



Any ideas for additional FAQ's would be appreciated, although of course we do want to keep the size of the list under control

Thank you everyone!

ceylon Vs Gsp

these two pictures clearly show the differences...

the first is a ceylon, the second a GSP.... feel free to use them if it helps...

internal parasites and ich ...

ceylon with black belly 'hunting colours'



same fish as above so shows the difference beetween white belly and black belly...


again please use if it helps...

This is a good idea. For the two Qs about Bio-spira and test kits, you could also have "how do I use it?" as well as the 'which should I use?' question for each one.

Here's one of cheech sleeping under a rock. You might want a better one.

Here's one of chong when I first got him before I treated him for IP's and with nipped fins.

Chong has had a dark belly for the last few days. I'll try to get you a better picture tomorrow.

sleepy puffer

Thanks guys, keep them coming! This is a great start!

That photo of the porc reminds me, I do have pictures of Paris with a really sunken belly to use too.. for the most part I'm trying to stick to the most common species (GSP's and Figure 8's ) simply because someone new to puffers is most likely to have those, and its easier to compare your fish to a photo of one of the same species.

Here are a few shot's I got this morning.

Oh yikes! That's one dark belly! Its hard to believe a fish that fat could be that unhappy..

We just lost his brother Cheech earlier this week. Chong is depressed.

Here's a pic of my gsp sleeping

We need one with their tail curled, sleeping.