The Puffer Forum

Hi I am new to this and was looking for some help please.....

I am fairly new to keeping puffers, and stupidly through no research got a Nile puffer however I have had him for about six months now and it starting to be a bit of a nightmare!!!!!! He is in a 35 UK gallon tank the water pH is 8.4 nitrate is 0.1 mg/l and I do a 10% water change every Sunday but I cant find anything to break down his waste....... I am running a eihiem canasta filter and stuff would I be better of with an under gravel filter?????

PLEASE HELP !!!!

How big is the puffer? Are you aware this fish can grow to 18" & will require at least a 120 US gallon tank, possibly w/o any tank mates? 35g won't hold this for for long. Start doing 50% weekly water changes (cleaning gravel as you go) & add a Aquaclear 110 to your filtration.

Thanks he is about e-3-4" at the moment but hasn't really grown much since i got him is this normal?? i feed him 6 times a week on mussels and he loves squid??? random i know but when in Rome!!! what is Aqua clear 110????

Oh yeah he is currently with a comman pleco which strangely enough isn't really bothered about ????

The AquaClear 110 is the largest Aquaclear "hang-on-back" filter, an excellent unit that will help with the bio-load in that tank, in combination with the cannister.

thanks very much you have been a great help!!!!!!!

does any one know of anything that can break down fish waste or will the filter get rid of it????


sorry about asking all these questions its just that the whole family has grown attached to him and i don't want to have to get rid of him!!!

If everyone is attached to him I would seriously think about getting a larger tank very soon. At that age and that size I would say he is undersized and should be growing around about an inch a month.
How old was he befor you got him?

Not quite sure the pet shop didn't say but I would say he has grown about an inch in six months????

Would my tank really be to small it's 1m-40cm-40cm???

These fish grow at an alarming rate. If you have had him 6mths then I would expect him to be around 6"+. Your tank is going to be way too small I'm sorry to say as these fish can have the potential to reach around 18".

thank you every one for your help

I was wondering if anyone would know a UK equivalent to the aquaclear 110. If not would anyone recommend a cheap way of keeping my tank clean???

I do regular water changes but the fish poo just builds up so quickly and its quite difficult to use a conventional stone cleaner as I have some bog wood and plants. Any advice would be appreciated

You will have to do large weekly water changes moving all the decor around to clean under it.

Part of your waste is also coming from the pleco, they are notorious for the amount of waste they produce.

But puffers are messy fish as well, and the Nile is one of the largest ones out there. If you want to keep him, you'll definately need a much larger tank.

The only way to keep the water clean in the mean time is water changes, often. Daily if you have to. Puffers are sensitve to bad conditions and it sounds like he's already stunted, you don't want to put him at any more risk.

As far as a filter removing waste.. filters don't remove waste from the water, they just gather it in one spot so you don't see it in the display tank. The poor fish is still swimming in water that is, when you really think about it, being filtered through a bunch of poo and other rotting things. Just because the wastes are set off to the side in a filter where they can't be seen, doesn't mean the water is "clean" by any means.

I'm also in the UK. The aquaclear HOB filters are not available here. Get a fluval 4+.