The Puffer Forum

Hi guys and girls,

I have been considering venturing in to the world of marine puffers. Ive had great success in keeping my Fugu, Green Spot, Fig of 8 and south american puffers and now I feel confident in moving up to a Porcupine Puffer.
I originally only wanted to get a porcupine puffer but stopped myself from jumping straight in, I decided to learn how to keep the above puffers first to get into the swing of things.

Now bascially, Im after peoples first hand experiences with Porcupine puffers, what are they like? Your good and bad opinions on them?

Would this tank be big enough for a porcupine puffer, 120cm in length and 50cm in depth and 70cm in height?

Also, my local shop told me that you can get different coloured porkies, black and yellow?? White and black? rather than the common pinky browny coloured ones? Could people add any pic to this thread?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated as I dont want to get one till I have crried out enough research!

Cheers

Neil

The tank is on the smallish side. That is about a 85-90 US gallon tank and you need at least a 120 US gallon tank to keep a Porc. Otherwise Kudo's on doing the amount of research you have!

There is a great article on larger SW puffer species in our Library & a wonderful sticky in this forum.

Porcs are my favorite puffers. I've had 2 ?for long periods of time and we have some at work) they really are great fish. IME they are semi picky though and won't take any kind of food offered. My current porc Shelby loves vegetables and worms. They are pretty docile and can get bullied by quite a few fish. They aren't really fin nippers either. Shelby will chase fish when first added to assert dominance but has never gone to bite. Porcs puff much more frequently than other puffers too, and will squirt water at you to get your attention (if they aren't to distracted by your belly at the front of the glass)
That tank would probably be a bit small, if you set up a nice sump and everything it should be alright for the bioload, and the tank itself should be big enough for the porc (For quite a while anyways they are slow growers)
I've seen different shades on porcs some being very light with dark markings to being all around very dark.
Another great thing about porcs is that you don't have to worry about manual dentistry. Their teeth naturally stay at a short enough length where they won't need to be trimmed.

That's all I can think of right now, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfacts/spectype.htm

use this link and go to Spiny Pufferfishes

they show different types of Porcupine puffers.. which I didnt know existed

quite interesting and informative?

(its an australian website though)

j_wishbone wrote:http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfacts/spectype.htm

use this link and go to Spiny Pufferfishes

they show different types of Porcupine puffers.. which I didnt know existed

quite interesting and informative?

(its an australian website though)

Australian, who'd a thunk it? (Sorry, feeling a bit on the sarcastic and obnoxious side tonight)

Wow thanks for the replies guys.

So, even if I didnt pack the tank out and only had one porc in there it would still be too small for him?

What does your username mean?

Dadof4 wrote:

j_wishbone wrote:http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfacts/spectype.htm

use this link and go to Spiny Pufferfishes

they show different types of Porcupine puffers.. which I didnt know existed

quite interesting and informative?

(its an australian website though)

Australian, who'd a thunk it? (Sorry, feeling a bit on the sarcastic and obnoxious side tonight)

hahaha what i meant was .. its only within the waters covering australia.. they could be more types of porucpines anywhere else in the world..

i just re-read that comment.. its just sounded plain stoopid! haha

Thebishmeister wrote:Wow thanks for the replies guys.

So, even if I didnt pack the tank out and only had one porc in there it would still be too small for him?

I'd say it's pushing it, if you set up a nice size sump/fuge it should be alright, but that's with no tank mates.

Hmmm... not sure what to do. I only have room for a 4foot tank!?

Most burrfish wouldb e fine in a tank that size for their whole life, and they can have a few tank mates.
Finding a healthy one is not easy though

crazedpuffer wrote:Most burrfish wouldb e fine in a tank that size for their whole life, and they can have a few tank mates.
Finding a healthy one is not easy though

how can you tell if they are healthy from watching them for 10 minutes behind a glass in a fish shop?

is there any tricks or tips, besides the obvious ick.. tapeworm coming out.. ?

If they are eating, and their tummy isn't sunken in too much they are generally a healthy fish. They shouldn't be laying in a corner either, they should be swimming around a bit.

A 120 gallon tank has a 4 foot by 2 foot footprint - fits a lot of places a 125 won't, gives tons of sump space below, and gives more turning room for single larger specimens.