Red-Spot Puffer... advice please

[diverchic]

Hello!
We just got a Red-Spot Puffer that had been in the LFS for about a year or two and is a bit agressive so on it's own. We currently have some bubble balls, a plant and two pirate ships in with it... it's previous home was used to store extra plants, etc in as it had been there so long.
It's quite hungry - so far has eaten:
Day 1 - half a mussel
Day 2 - frozen bloodworm
Day 3 - half a (large) raw in shell prawn
Day 4 - frozen bloodworm
In the store (visited it many, many times before purchasing) it would generally come up and say hi and look at people and it did spend most of it's first day exploring the new tank, playing in the bubbles (once it realised attacking them was pointless) and would come to the point in the tank where it was closest to my partner and I.
Since then it has taken to mooching around in one corner (near a silver speaker that we have) and not doing much, other than eating when food is put in the tank.
Is this normal behavior? It's the first puffer either of us has had... we also have:
large tank
7 x shubunkins
5 x scissortails
1 x candy stripe plec

small tank
5 x guppies
4 x danios
2 x red crabs
1 x apple snail
3 x glass cats
1 x small plec

the medium tank houses the puffer.

We're just not sure what this guys normal behaviour is and want to make sure it's a happy puffer.

Any advice is welcome

[APOCRAPHYA]

Hi there. I am no expert and someone with more experience will be able to better advise you

How big is your tank, what are your water parameters and how often do you do water changes etc. It's good that your puffer is still eating. Is it's tummy slightly sunken in at all? If so it could have IP (internal parasites) and therefore would need wormed. Is your pirate ship ornament hollow? Hollow ornaments cause anaerobic bacteria which is a silent killer in aquariums as they don't need oxygen and release poisonous gasses into the water.

Puffer fish need alot of plants so that they can hide whenever they feel threatened and also to explore.

[Lil' Swimz$]

Please answer the question APOCRAPHYA mentioned.

APOCRAPHYA, do you mean hollow as in a cave hollow? Or the inside the plastic hollow?

[diverchic]

Hi,

Hmmmm, I believe the tank is 150L (as the puffer is about 2/3rds grown the shop said this would be large enough).

The pirate ship is hollow with openings for water to pass through but I will take it out and move it when doing next water change (on Saturday)... I do cleanings, filter changes, water changes, etc weekly.

We have only had the puffer since Friday so don't really know it's personality but I will def go back to the store and get plants for it this weekend!

It's belly is flat... not saggy or indented at all. It doesn't seem to eat a lot in one go but did eat about 2/3rds of the mussel I put in when I fed it. I will bring pics and post online tomorrow so you can see it.

Coloration is a bit dark but goes lighter during the day - was very light with golden/orange spots the first day but now stays more brown with lighter spots while mooching in the corner.

Sorry I don't have pics for you today as I'm sure they would help.

[LilGreenPuffer]

The tank is large enough. Are there any tankmates? How was it cycled? If you don't have a test kit for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, it would be a good idea to get one - they're absolutely essential to keeping puffers.

One way to check for internal parasites is to watch its poo. White, stringy poo means parasites. If parasites are the problem, don't panic - nearly all new fish have them, and it's quite easy to fix.

By the way, the diet is perfect! Great variety!

[Lil' Swimz$]

Okay, your LFS owner was right, 150L is about 20 gallons, right? If so, that's good. I wouldn't remove the ship until APOCRAPHYA gets back to us. You could always just deworm it just case, it won't hurt him if he deoesn't have any.

[LilGreenPuffer]

The ship will be just fine, I think, since it has the holes.

[Lil' Swimz$]

That's a relief.

[LilGreenPuffer]

That's 40g, Lil' Swimz$.

[Lil' Swimz$]

Thanks. Uh, I have no clue about liters to gallons thing.

[diverchic]

Thanks for your quick replies!

I tested the water and took the results in with me to the LFS when getting it as wanted to make sure the water was okay. Had treated the water and then had danios in it and also filled with already cycled water from established tank (with the shubunkins) that we know houses healthy fish. All test levels were okay.

Poop seems okay as well I think but I'll take a better look tonight.

We're already joking that the puffer eats better than us! Uncooked, in shell prawns from the fish counter - we'd never dream of getting those for ourselves but didn't think twice of getting them for the puffer Will also be bringing back extra scallops from diving trips for it... how would you recommend rinsing the scallops before feeding... if at all as they're saltwater.

Thinking of getting a small tank and some shrimps/snails to feed it as well.

No tank mates... we're thinking of putting in some danios to see how they get along but want to wait until the puffer settled a bit more.

Will probably take out the larger pirate ship as it has smaller and fewer holes in it... will replace with a combination of real and fake plants. Do puffers prefer real or fake plants or have any preference in general? I'm just wondering as i've got a black thumb when it comes to plants and every time we've tried to plant our existing tanks the shubunkins have torn it all up and eaten the plants

[Lil' Swimz$]

Puffers have no preference at all. I'm thinking of a feeder tank, too. It'll be a 5 gallon. You can feed your irrubesco bloodworms, live or frozen. The danios will be a problem, though, they'll steal your puffers food, as they're so fast. I'm going to breed ghost shrimp in the 5 gallon for the irrubesco.

[diverchic]

Yeah, I like the idea of breading shrimp for it but know that my partner (and I) will prob start to get attached to the little critters and then feel bad about feeding them to the puffer... at least until we look into it's cute face and chuck food in for it

I'm thinking that fake plants will prob be better then, don't want dead/dying plants to add to the water balance!

Can you reccommend tankmates for it then? We're going to leave it a while to make sure but it's just so cute we can't imagine it actually wants to live on it's own lol

Now to show my completed puffer noob status... irrubesco? I just did a quick looksee online and saw that - looks very cute! Looking online and in the pufferpedia it appears that our is a Tetraodon Abei. Matches the pics in the gallery exactly!

[Pufferpunk]

I'm moving this to the Hospital forum, although I really am not sure the puffer is sick at all, so you can see what Qs you need to answer for us. Look above in red. Post exact water parameters please!

[diverchic]

Thank you Pufferpunk!

I'll do another test tonight and post the results when I'm next online (most likely tomorrow).

Thanks again to everyone for their responses and advice!