The Puffer Forum

Just had this little guy for a little over a week, really enjoying him so far, learning a LOT from this board.
Here he is, his name is Biggie, although he also answers to fatass (he was constipated when I bought him, looked like such a little butterball).











And his tank (I reconfigure it regularly since I'm currently low on things that keep him entertained, he's quickly becoming a quick wall surfer)


I have him in a 30 gallon tank, his tank mates are a Raphael catfish (temporarily, holding him while my mom's new tank cycles) and two serpentine loaches that I've never been able to net (I know that they could very well be screwed when the GSP grows up, but I can't catch as they're too fast, too skinny, and they dive in the rocks whenever I try to catch them). The loaches make pretty good mates for him right now, when they're out of the rocks he just tries to follow them around and keep up, but they swim circles around him. There are a few ghost shrimp in the tank as well that he just chases but won't kill. He has a lot of fun with them.

I've been feeding him a cube of frozen brine shrimp every morning (read that I should skip one day/week) and switching it up with algae discs as well. A couple times I've been able to hand feed him the algae discs. Currently getting the stuff to start a shrimp/snail tank, at which point I'll be diversifying his diet. Wondering if he's big enough to handle a crab or a crayfish yet, he's 1 and 3/4 inches.

Any advice on best ways to keep him entertained and healthy/well fed is welcome. I'm thinking about getting a bubbler but read somewhere that the bubbles can get in their gills and kill them, not sure how legitimate that is though.

I doubt the bubble thing. I had a filter that made massive amounts of lil champagne bubble. They definitely hated it but it never killed them. I did have a bubbler too. That wasnt a problem at all thou.

I think your little puffer is cute, although I would definitely start giving him other foods instead of just a cube of brine shrimp. Mine enjoy pieces of jumbo shrimp (with or without shell on), they also love pieces of mussels, the occasional earthworm and of course snails. Not sure I would put a crab in with your guy being as small as he is, you might want to wait on that.

I'd also consider putting him in another tank away from the loaches, so you can get him in brackish water. I have found that GSP's don't live very long in freshwater and I doubt that those loaches will live in a brackish tank, not sure about that catfish, but I am guessing he's not a brackish water fish either. Trust me, they really do better in a brackish tank, you will have him much, much longer. Just remember that you need to raise the salinity very slowly so it doesn't kill your filter. There are articles in the library that can help you with that.

Not in the library, actually - it's a stickied post.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

Here's some articles that should be helpful.
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
library/category/feeding/

Welcome to the forum! If you have any questions, be sure to ask.

Welcome!
I love your puffer's spots!

Is that real bamboo? You'll want to take it out when you start raising the s.g. of the tank, it won't last long once salt is added.

zombiefetus wrote:I love your puffer's spots!

I'm wondering if it is possible this puffer is a Sabahensis?

Pufferpunk wrote:

zombiefetus wrote:I love your puffer's spots!

I'm wondering if it is possible this puffer is a Sabahensis?

PP, why do you think that? I ask because I have two that look exactly like this one..a they do look very different from my other gsps

these are the same two that I had trouble feeding because they had different eating styles..
I never thought they would be a different species......

Well, I wondered if it was a sabahensis too - just didn't like to say!

Ok, after reading and looking, and reading and looking...

when I rescued those puffers a while back...they were in a tank labeled figure 8

Several of them looked like the one posted above...most of those died within a day or two..they were in really bad shape..but all of them were in bad shape..so and physical differences were over shadowed...

All of the "normal" looking GSPs lived..

And now I have two that look like the one above...named coffee and honeydew

Although I would never trust wikipedia as a source...one of the two looks just like this picture... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraodon_sabahensis ..not such a black tail, but identical..

The second one has brighter colors..very similar to my GSPs, but the same protruding eyes and mask and body shape of the one in the wikipedia picture..

These two are growing faster...and unlike my other GSPs they do not get super round and chubby..they look more stream lined like the pic hilly has with that article...

These two also act different than the other GSPs..

I am seriously freaking out! don't these get a lot bigger than GSPs?

Currently I have two in a 55 gallon..honeydew and coffee..

How in the world did I get two different puffers, from two different regions of the world..in a tank labeled figure 8?


to the OP ... Sorry to hijack the thread!!!!!!

What about some pics purplecandle?

I will, my husband has the camera at work..so i will have to wait for him to come home

I wasn't going to say it without more evidence, PP, but something about both the eyes and the spots does seem a little sabahensis-ish...

You know, I do have to ask..

According to the pufferpedia on this site. Arnt the t-nigroviridis and the t-Sabahensis are around the same size?

so why is the Sabahensis called the giant spotted puffer? ...if it's not really that much bigger...

wednesday wrote:You know, I do have to ask..

According to the pufferpedia on this site. Arnt the t-nigroviridis and the t-Sabahensis are around the same size?

so why is the Sabahensis called the giant spotted puffer? ...if it's not really that much bigger...

this is why i am freaking out...do a youtube search for the sabahensis...big as a human hand..