Tetraodon cutcutia

[bibbles]

Anyone ever kept these? Says they can be aggressive against each other, but I was toying with the idea of having two of them in a tank.

[pufferpuggirl]

Yep, I just happen to have 2 of these puffers myself. And up until a few weeks ago, I had them in separate tanks due to aggression between them. Now I have them in a 3-foot tank, which used to house my Rainbow Land crabs, so it's got a partial glass divider in it, and that helps sometimes to keep them apart, even though it only goes halfway up and they can swim over it. If you are going to keep them together, I would not put them in anything smaller than a 3-foot, so they have plenty of room to be away from each other. You also need to have ALOT of plants! They like to hide amongst the plants. I've got a couple of half coconuts in there, as caves, but they don't use them, they prefer to hide behind a potted plant in the corner. Mine do spar every once in a while, but I don't see any bite marks or tatty fins, so thankfully it's not too bad.

Last year I bought 4 of them from an LFS that was keeping them in less than ideal conditions, and out of those 4 only 1 lived, and I still have that one. I bought another a couple of months back, and when I first tried to put them together, the older one attacked the newer one badly, so then I separated them. And I've only put them back together because I figure there's enough space in this 3-foot tank to give them their own areas, so they are not right near each other.

They are a very pretty puffer, lovely pattern and one of mine is happy to come out and say hello to me. The other seems to hide alot. Actually, as I said though, unless you've got a big tank, I wouldn't really recommend putting two together.

[rachy]

ive been looking for 1 of these aswell, never seen them for sale anywhere

[bibbles]

Yep, I just happen to have 2 of these puffers myself. And up until a few weeks ago, I had them in separate tanks due to aggression between them. Now I have them in a 3-foot tank, which used to house my Rainbow Land crabs, so it's got a partial glass divider in it, and that helps sometimes to keep them apart, even though it only goes halfway up and they can swim over it. If you are going to keep them together, I would not put them in anything smaller than a 3-foot, so they have plenty of room to be away from each other. You also need to have ALOT of plants! They like to hide amongst the plants. I've got a couple of half coconuts in there, as caves, but they don't use them, they prefer to hide behind a potted plant in the corner. Mine do spar every once in a while, but I don't see any bite marks or tatty fins, so thankfully it's not too bad.

Last year I bought 4 of them from an LFS that was keeping them in less than ideal conditions, and out of those 4 only 1 lived, and I still have that one. I bought another a couple of months back, and when I first tried to put them together, the older one attacked the newer one badly, so then I separated them. And I've only put them back together because I figure there's enough space in this 3-foot tank to give them their own areas, so they are not right near each other.

They are a very pretty puffer, lovely pattern and one of mine is happy to come out and say hello to me. The other seems to hide alot. Actually, as I said though, unless you've got a big tank, I wouldn't really recommend putting two together.

I havent bought a tank for them yet, actually, I'm planning a new terrestrial aquascape and wanted to get a male and female as I figured they would get along better than two males, and it'd be cute. I was thinking a 30 gallon tank with just them and a few shrimp to clean up after them till they turn into snacks. Do you think that would work?

I was also thinking about two Tetraodon cutcutia or Monotrete Cochinchinensis... maybe just one larger puffer, but I like the Idea of small ones with what I have planned, and the sexual dimorphism is nice...

[pufferpuggirl]

I think with both the cutcutia and the cochinchinensis you're going to have problems with aggression, and I don't believe either can be reliably sexed. it also remains to be seen if the cutcutia will allow the shrimp to live with them and not become snacks. I've just put some shrimp in with my cutcutia and it's still too early to tell if they've eaten any or not. I'm still seeing shrimp, so just not sure.

However, I'm thinking if you'd like to have a couple of puffers, and have the two different sexes, then why not get something like irrubesco, lorteti or Bornean puffers, or even salivators? Those are all redeye puffers. I currently have irrubesco, both male and female, and I also have one Bornean male, and one salivator male. I used to have lorteti, male and female, but no longer have them. Redeyes are nice puffers to have, and the males of all those species are very attractive, with their red bellies, colour changes and the "keeling" behaviour -- very interesting puffers to keep. Redeyes will always be amongst my favourites in the smaller puffers. I absolutely adore my salivator, he's so beautiful.

Anyway, you might want to think along those lines because, although there is some aggression with the redeyes, in my experience I've not had any deaths, or any disfigurement (some people have had some very bad experiences with some redeyes though with males killing females and vice versa, I have not).

[bibbles]

I think with both the cutcutia and the cochinchinensis you're going to have problems with aggression, and I don't believe either can be reliably sexed. it also remains to be seen if the cutcutia will allow the shrimp to live with them and not become snacks. I've just put some shrimp in with my cutcutia and it's still too early to tell if they've eaten any or not. I'm still seeing shrimp, so just not sure.

However, I'm thinking if you'd like to have a couple of puffers, and have the two different sexes, then why not get something like irrubesco, lorteti or Bornean puffers, or even salivators? Those are all redeye puffers. I currently have irrubesco, both male and female, and I also have one Bornean male, and one salivator male. I used to have lorteti, male and female, but no longer have them. Redeyes are nice puffers to have, and the males of all those species are very attractive, with their red bellies, colour changes and the "keeling" behaviour -- very interesting puffers to keep. Redeyes will always be amongst my favourites in the smaller puffers. I absolutely adore my salivator, he's so beautiful.

Anyway, you might want to think along those lines because, although there is some aggression with the redeyes, in my experience I've not had any deaths, or any disfigurement (some people have had some very bad experiences with some redeyes though with males killing females and vice versa, I have not).

Indeed, I also like all of those, I did more looking around at pictures elsewhere after posting this and started to lean in the direction of those red eyed puffers in general. :X

I'm still not sure what's available around me, I know WalMart has GSP, this little local store has DPs and um... some other puffer about 10+" long they want $350 or something for. But that said, I live in LA, so I'm sure there's just about every kind of fish I could dream of within a 30 minute drive. *lucky~*

[Pufferpunk]

There was a fellow here quite some time ago who had a pair. They bred often but one day he found the female had killed the male. I highly suggest against keeping them other than as singletons.

[bibbles]

There was a fellow here quite some time ago who had a pair. They bred often but one day he found the female had killed the male. I highly suggest against keeping them other than as singletons.

I think I saw pictures of them on PufferPedia! The fry were so cute!