The Puffer Forum

Hi There,

My names Pete, im 21 years old living in the UK. Im currently a music student in between 1st and 2nd years and have been working for Maidenhead Aquatics as a FT job during the summer months with a will to continue part time to support myself through the next 2 years.

I fell in love with South American Puffers a year ago in a Maidenhead aquatics that im working at currently. I ended up getting my girlfriend a tank as a present for completing her degree but she prefered guppys (woops). We spent a year getting it wrong and it was heartbreak everytime with neons, guppys, gouramis all dying. We have kept Platies in the tank for the last 8 months and also had a few babies. A small bristlenose plec (called hoover) has lasted 18 months and done a great job. Becuase of all the problems with the tank from 18 months ago, i went into the shop once a week every week for a year and have practically learned from experience what it takes to look after a fish. I love my job and would give up college for them if there was a job stable enough in this current climate. I suppose to have any job now a days is good news but to work with fish like Mbu's, i hope your all jelous lol.

2 weeks ago, we were delivered 3 Mbu's. One is about 7 inches and interacts with the staff an awful lot. He is quiet a bright one, big yellows and dark blacks. Hes currently on blood worm but hes happy to take prawn out of my hand (aslong as i play along with his game). If i just drop it in he wont have it, i have to do a special prawn dance or something similar. Hes very interested in whats going on everywhere and the guys think he's maybe 8-9 months old.

The other 2 Mbu's are around 3 - 3.5 inches. Very black and like to hide, they sat at the bottom of the gravel and hid behind rocks for the first 10 days. There tails are still shut but they are hanging around the middle of the tank, having a look around. Only taking blood worm. Prob looking at 2-3 months old.

Some of the guys have been giving me advice on keeping a Mbu as a father and son work with me, they kept a Mbu up to about 11 inches big in a 160 litre tank, he moved to a Maidenhead Aquatics sump of about 800-1000 litres and lived happily ever after for 18 years after. I have been studying up to keeping one of these 3 Mbu's and have managed to get a tank in my mum and dads house, its a 4ftx 2ft x 2ft. The filtration is 6-7x the capacity an hour as i upgraded when i purchased, we have worked out the rock, wood and plant combination and all to do now is cycle for a couple of weeks.

I am however wondering if its worth using RO water. My area is awful and we're looking at a PH of 8.5. In the Aqualog book of Puffers, its said that a Mbu's PH level in the wild is 6.5-7.2 where the RO water i can get hold of at work is 6.4 roughly. RO water is obviously safer and for Puffer fish can be essential for water quialty control. At work we are split in a decision. Im just open to any opinions from people who have kept Mbu's at any water levels, i understand that this is a US website so water could be very different in North America.

Im also getting pre-match nerves. I have taken advice, read websites and forums, read books and im still unsure about the Mbu. Theyre the most beautiful puffer but come with great responsibillity. Im definatly in the right place to learn the trade and im quiet a determined character. The guys at work are telling me to quit worrying so much and just go for it. Space could be an issue in a few years time but you never know whats round the corner. The SAPs are still pretty cool but nothing compares to a Mbu and although ive read a lot, there seems to be nothing that compares at a smaller size.

If anyone has any ideas that can help me in my decision on which puffer to get, as well as the RO water conisderation then please just say what you think, honest opinions only lol.

Thanks for reading and hopefully you guys can help me make some final decisions, with some pictures too ofcourse.

Cheers, Pete

Hello Pete! Glad to see you coming to the right place. Just a heads up, this sight is mainly for around the world not the U.S strictly, we have members from Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and some other country's. Well let me get things started and I'll get into finer detail soon.
Well the MBU puffer will at least out grow 160 liters(42.280 gallons). If you had the smaller MBU it will be able to live in there for a few months. The PufferPedia says MBU's need 1,000 gallons each(3,784.3) because the get so big 99.9% of the time. You would have to ask the other members how many gallon/liter you should keep one in, I don't wanna give you the wrong answer. The water I would say if you can, get water from the store or a fish store that sells it(my LFS sells filter pure water by the jugs for a cheap price) and the mbu would like the pH depending at what its kept at but it should be kept at what the book/puffer peida/experts say. Some pet stores are wrong on the info they give, ex: they will tell you green spotted puffers are 100% fresh water, there high end brackish to full marine.
The food you are giving the puffer is ok..You really wanna keep the beak/teeth down low, so feeding snails(fresh water apple/pond/rams horn/etc.) would be good. Also feeding clams/mussels on the half shell.U always wanna feed raw not cooked foods. If the food is frozen(not cooked or salted) you wanna defrost it in tank water(get a cup put the food in there and put some tank water and feed). Some puffers eat bugs(meal worms, night crawlers) My dwarf puffers eat water bugs if they find them. Some will eat veggies, recently someone fed there puffer water melon and the puffer wanted more.
Same thing, if you wanna feed them veggies it will have to be un-cooked and un-salted.
Here you can read up on all info for puffers: library
If you have any questions let us know, we will be glad to answer them all.
BTW welcome to the site.
-Spongey

So i reckon using RO water should be a closer PH than my tap water so hopefully the Mbus should be ok in anything close to 6.0 .

Any ideas on smaller puffers to start out with? Prob not as small as dwarf but SAPs or any other fresh water puffer. Not sure if i want to go brackish yet, using the RO water will make it easy to convert to salt but unless i fall in love with a puffer in brackish water i dont think i want to take the step up. Ive got a month to think about things as i go on holiday for a week, allowing the tank to cycle.

Hm...Red eyed puffers are a tad smaller then a sap but bigger then a dwarf.
there are lurker species
-congo
-suvatti
Figure 8's make great brackish puffers.15 gallons each

RO water must be reconstituted with minerals using a product like Osmo-Prep. There is an excellent article stickied in this forum & also one in our Library. Eventually you will have to double the tank size you are cycling now for it. I personally don't think this is a puffer that should be kept by anyone in the middle of a life transition (IE: student) or anyone who doesn't own a home with a basement or concrete flooring.

You really don't need to worry about pH. I have the same high levels out of my tap, and my fish don't care at all. Unless I want to breed them, I don't need to worry about it. I don't think you'll have a problem. Enough RO water for a mbu would be fantastically expensive, too, with 50% w/cs per week.

I agree that if you want a mbu, you should wait. It was hard enough to move a single 10g home out of my dorm, with plenty of grumbling from my parents. I can't imagine moving a tank big enough for a mbu. It wouldn't even fit into a dorm room - probably not even through the door!

Pufferpunk wrote:
RO water must be reconstituted with minerals using a product like Osmo-Prep. There is an excellent article stickied in this forum & also one in our Library.

What is the article called?

At work today the bigger mbu was hungry LOL . He snatched at blood worm in the morning like the other mbu's but in the afternoon we tried cockel and prawn. Practiclly took my hand off on both occasions but that's a good thing. The other 2 didn't fancy it but that's ok for their age.

It's been hard but I think I'm admitting defeat. Keeping a mbu looks like being a full time job in itself so the next step is changing the water. The water in my first aquarium is now changed to Reverse Osmosis water. The ph has changed from 8.5 to 7.0. It's cycling now and will be for 3 weeks before any pruffer gets introduced. The final step is aquarium salt. It seems to me in my experience that even giant puffers do better in a marine enviornment regardless of preference. Salt can be invaluable to water quality and therefore regardless of which puffer I end up getting ( maybe green or peacock or something similar up to 18cm) I believe that a fully salted aqurium is the way forward.

Thanks for everones help and I'll keep you informed on the new mbu's at the shop. Oh and if anyone has any suggestions on brackish or Marine puffers then let me know your thoughts!

Two things: first, whatever your place of emploment has told you, aquarium salt does *not* create marine water, and therefore cannot create brackish water. It can treat some diseases, such as ich, and help to reduce stress. However, it does not contain the minerals and other elements present in marine salt such as Instant Ocean. Also, a freshwater fish simply MUST NOT be kept in a "fully salted" marine aquarium. Salt is not "invaluable to water quality" for freshwater fish! Please, please don't put a mbu in salt water. This would kill a beautiful and rare creature.

If you are interested in saltwater puffers, then dogfaces, porcupines, and stars-and-stripes puffers are all great choices. On the smaller end of things, valentinis are adorable, too. Look at the PufferPedia for complete profiles of all the marine puffer species that members have kept. If you see something you really like, definitely come back and ask us about it! Folks will be happy to share.

OK so maybe i will be a bit more specific. Its tropic marine aquarium salt as oppose to just aquarium salt. The minerals dissolved into the RO water before hand at the shop is Marine Aquarium RO Additives. I believe these to be adequete for brackish/marine water but if i am mistaken then please let me know.

Thanks for the help on the marine puffers. I will be looking into this every day until i get a puffer im sure.

Im still learning the concept of how some fish can live in different mixtures of fresh and brackish waters throughout a lifetime (from babies up river to back down the river adulthood) and even transfer through to marine waters like the Green puffer. The concepts of which fish is better in which water seem to be diagnosed on something between opinion and tested theories as i have heard a lot of them over the last 2 months. Ive heard contrasts of stories that some peoples brackish fish died instantly in fresh water all the way up to a Mbu in the UK being accustomed to a marine tank that has been settled in the tank for the last 3 years. All i know is im still learning but im learning fast. Some stuff i understand and other stuff not so much. Everyday i learn something new, weather it is right or wrong. Its such an opinionated hobby but maybe thats why we all love it!

Oh, yeah! Of course that kind of salt's fine! When people talk about "aquarium salt," they ususally mean a salt that is used for medication. That's why I was confused. A lot of fish stores tell customers that it's fine for brackish water, and we see lots of newbies come by saying that they're using aquarium salt. That's what I was told, too.

I wonder if that mbu in the UK is actually a mbu. It's entirely possible that it's an incorrect ID. If not, I believe that it won't live anywhere near as long as it should. GSPs are like salmon and travel through different salinities; they're built for it. Most fish are not like this. They were made for fresh, brackish, or marine. You would never see a mudskipper on a coral reef, or a tuna that's travelled into freshwater rivers.

Yes, you'll find opinions all over the web but what makes this site different is we have many, many years of real practical experience here.

i cant see a mbu living in marine conditions atall. cutie pie when she was alive was funny with tonic salt i can only imagine what marine salt would do to one long term. to be honest if your after a larger puffer and your a student i cant see it being practical atall. I moved a 6x2 and 8x3 recently took me over a week to move bubba into a 1k L holding tank and settled move the tank to another room and set it uup again its just not practical even for me and i own my place!

i cant see a mbu living in marine conditions atall.

+1 Something seriously wrong with that info.