The Puffer Forum

For those who keep A. modestus, A. silus or A. nefastus, what is it you like about them?

My favorite lfs always has one of them (I don't know which) in stock, but I generally pass them up because... well, they just don't strike me visually. Okay, they're ugly to me. That's more direct.

I guess my problem is that, to me, they look the least puffer-y of the puffers I've seen. But I also realize that this is a silly reason to pass up what might become one of my favorite fish, since I never know what that might be. So I'm wondering what, other than looks, make them stand out to those of you who keep them.

Mine always greeted me at the glass. Good eater, doesn't play well with others, although I kept a Royal pleco with him for many years. Supposedly, if you buy them as juvies you can keep a few together, if you give them 20g ea. They need teeth trimming about 2x/year. I loved the fact they looked different than my other puffers.

You know, maybe I just need to put their looks into perspective. Yours is a much better one, I have to admit.

As far as keeping some together from juvenile stage, are you referring to modestus only? Am I incorrect in my impression that they're the "nicest" of the three species? If it's possible to keep more than one nefastus together, they'd probably need more than 20 gallons each, right?

Which brings me to another question: though they're currently out of stock, thatpetplace.com lists nefastus under their puffers section. Does anyone know if that's really what they have?

My 1st guess is silus, 2nd modestus. I've never seen a nefastus, nor would I ever trust an online store's ID of a puffer.

My SW friends all think he looks like a FW filefish.

Did a Google image search for filefish and couldn't see the resemblance, but I did find out that searching "a nefastus" gets you images of a black metal band.