The Puffer Forum

Some pictures of the Flatfish or Sole that resides in my brackish community aquarium.

I think it's great that you are able to keep this fish living in your tank. I have seen them in the shops, and I do think they are cool.

Thanks pufferpuggirl! Sand is definitely key, I've seen them in LFS being kept on gravel, "so they can be seen", and they look miserable. I also try to keep the decor, pots and the like, as vertical as possible so the fish has plenty of space for traveling about the tank.

Not easy to photograph, good job!

Fascinating critters, but pretty reclusive. If you can find a dark red "moonlight" you will see more of it, but most shops around here only offer blue or white and they seem to see those colors.

Very nice Fish!

Hi omplmpa3,

Well done, I've heard many times these are not easy to keep and have rarely even seen one. What do you feed it on?

Thank you all!

RTR wrote:Not easy to photograph, good job!

Fascinating critters, but pretty reclusive. If you can find a dark red "moonlight" you will see more of it, but most shops around here only offer blue or white and they seem to see those colors.

They are very tricky to photograph! Even when I do catch it on the move, it's usually covered with a layer of sand.

I have a red LED light that I use for night time viewing. It's made by Marina, you can suction cup it to the inside of the tank and adjust the angle of lighting. It spends a surprising amount of time fluttering across the aquarium glass, looking for algae perhaps. It will be positioned so it is looking up towards the surface but then it will horizontally across the glass, if that makes sense. And it really does swim a lot like a ray would, with the undulating sides.

soggydrysuit wrote:Hi omplmpa3,

Well done, I've heard many times these are not easy to keep and have rarely even seen one. What do you feed it on?

Hello! It seems to like bits of shrimp and plankton, but it really loves live blackworms. I used to target feed it a lot, to be sure it got enough food. However, I've noticed that in the evening it has begun to position itself in strategic locations before feeding time. The current in the tank pretty much delivers the worms right to it and the amount of hunting it has to do is minimal.

It amuses me when folks say that fish can't learn and remember - they have not kept many have they?

Thanks for the tip - I'll have to see if I can get some. All i have were made up by an on-line acquaintance.

My feeding was pretty much the same unit they got to 3-4", then just California Blackworms with the occasional earthworm or white mealworm. I traded them off at ~6", they really needed re-homing and I did not have and/or was unwilling to give them a large tank. Someone I knew casually was fascinated by them, so offered them to him and he took them - for an idle 75! That could out-do me for a tank of invisible fish.

I have no idea how long they live. Has anybody seen any numbers?

Drs. Foster and Smith sell the Marina LED lights. They are called mini or micro LEDs, they come in green, blue, white and red. I actually got mine at Petsmart. I use to keep the light in a 20long; I placed it on the front of the aquarium, in the middle, just under the water's surface and it did a good job of illuminating almost all of the tank. Obviously, the light diminished somewhat as it radiated outward, but the overall illumination was much better than I had anticipated. I think they are a little expensive (hence I only have one), but I'm sure you know a lot more about lighting, so if you ever get one let me know if you think price is warranted.

How many did you have and in what size tank? Did they interact with each other? That would be very interesting to see and I'm sure breeding would be something else!

I only had two, at first in a 10 for QT (they were usual small ones seen at LFS around here), while their 20-long was set with the sugar sand. I used very light BW (1.002-1.003) because I already had some adapted Val (from playing with Chromides!) to use across the back. I brought the fish up to the light BW in QT and then moved them over. They lived there probably just over a year and were upgraded to a 30-long, same sand, etc. I never took them up higher, but they made ~6" within maybe 2 - 2 1/2 years and obviously needed more room. They did not interact much if at all., but sometimes one would move if the outer buried itself too near. At that size, they could really move the sand when they settled down to lurk. Pre-filters on the filter intakes are a must when they grow.

I actually expected them to be more territorial.

Could they be more territorial in their natural habitat? Mine appears to be extremely passive. I cannot count the number of times the bumblebee gobies have perched on the sand above and it remained motionless underneath. A worm will often have to drift in front of it to elicit a of response, then it will position itself on TOP of the worm and THEN it will eat the worm. When hunting, there is nothing stealth about its movements, it more or less shuffles through the sand until it is on top of the worm. There is no rising up out of the sand to hurl itself upon its prey. Of course, this quirky behavior is exactly why I like these fish so much.

LOL! Quirky is the right term for these fish. Mine did explode out of the sand when food was nearby, but they always seemed hungry - rather like puffers. They could detect food in the water by taste as much a sight I suspect. They did grow faster than I expected from what I had seen reported on-line, but they should have had enough room - and the did not squabble with each other, but kept some spacing. Searching movements were not subtle for mine either - "shuffle" is a good description!

RTR wrote:I have no idea how long they live. Has anybody seen any numbers?

Depends on the species, I guess. For some European flatfishes ages of 60 years were shown by examinations of their otoliths. For the American Microstomus pacificus the maximum age is around 45 years.

How about the hogchokers from the Chesapeake Bay, Trinectes maculatus? This is the fish we see on the US East Coast in LFS as a "freshwater flounder".

I came across an article from Texas State University that estimated the lifespan of the Atlantic hogchoker to be 6-12 years. I don't know how accurate the article is, but the referenced sources appear legitimate. Here is a link to the entire article.

http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~tbonner/txf ... ciatus.htm

I'm wondering how the lateral line works on this fish. From what I understand, its hearing isn't very acute because of the distance between the otolith and the swim bladder. Is the ability of the lateral line compromised at all because this is a burrowing fish or is it not even an issue because they do not bury themselves very deep? I confess, I do not know much about sound and vibrations traveling through water. To what degree is sound able to travel through a fine, lightweight substrate like sand?