The Puffer Forum

Hi - My LFS told me that both are these fishes are Freshwater Orange Saddle puffers. I am sure the front one is, but am not sure what the second one is. It looks like it is mixed? Also, I have been researching to find out how to care for these fishes. And am not able to find much information. Any help would be appreciated.

I was told by the LFS owner that these fishes can live in 80 F water temp, I told him I found several articles that mentioned that it was 65 minimum. The front fish is not eating at all. I have tried frozen krill and bloodworms, including snails.

These are a variant of takifugu. Which are certainly not FW. We have a member that is keeping this successfully. I believe she will chime in soon.

The first guy is a T. Ocellatus and the gray one looks like a T. Rubripes or maybe T.Oblongus, anyway both are marine 1.020-1.024.

PufferPunk had a chance to keep one of them. Low temp. fish and definitely SW.

Sea food diet(pick up some bags of frozen sea food at the grocery store just make sure that it wasn't already cooked and try feeding them that stuff like shrimp) and also hard shelled food to keep their teeth trimmed like clams (I think), and they need sand substrate deep enough that they can bury (4-5 inches) Also they are easily scared so their tank can't be in a heavy traffic area or they will get spooked (and crash into decor) and you'll also need a chiller because they need cold water I don't remember the exact temp.

Very, very, very poor success rate in captivity for the Orange Saddle. A chiller is necessary to keep it cool enough. Not sure about the other one.

I think both are T. ocellatus. The unusual one being the aberrant color morph, which nowadays is not recognized as a separate species (probably true). They sometimes occur in batches of usual T. ocellatus.

Here are examples:
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/6628/fugukj2.jpg
http://www.allfishthailand.com/export/h ... 430dd8.jpg

Please read here for proper care (scroll down for the article):

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=29781

Hi! I've got one of these. Mine's the front one and he's called Mushroom Had him 9 months or so now.

He lives in a 4ft tank with an external filter. The salinity is 1.020, and it's taken nearly all 9 months to get to that. I kept him in 1.015 for a fair time before doing the final raise gradually to 1.020. I'm sticking with 1.020 personally, I emailed PFK magazine and got a reply from neil monks whose recommendation was 1.015-8, so I'm staying somewhere around that since he knows what he's on about when it comes to puffs!

Temperature-wise, everything I've read suggests 15-18 degrees. However, Mushroom has reacted badly to every attempt I've made to drop his temps. I keep him at 20 degrees at the moment. (I live in England, so a chiller isn't needed at all for me, it's always rainy and cold here!! lol) I would drop your guy's temps gradually, and make your mind up based on their behavior what temp to go for. 20 degrees should make a good starting point.

Soft sand, imo, is a must. Mushroom buries himself if he's spooked and always buries after he's eaten. He needs a lot of floor space to do that, so decor is all along the back and side walls of the tank.

I don't use live rock, firstly because I haven't yet worked out how to cure it to the right sg and temps!! lol. Secondly, Mushroom is clumsy and I don't trust him not to try to bury himself IN the rock and injure himself. If you want to use live rock, what I've been thinking about doing is crushing some to put in the filter, so that might be worth looking into.

I have him on cockles as a staple, with bloodworm fairly often too. He goes mad for the tetra fresh delica sachets! Everything he eats is soaked in Waterlife Vitazin vitamin supplement, which imo is a must.

Bit of a wierd one, but Locusts according to everything I've found are very nutritious and would make a good diet, however, feeding a live locust is an experience I don't care to repeat... Do some research if you want to consider it, but it's not pleasant to see!!

Have a read up on thaiminaese (oh someone spell that right for me please!! lol) his foods have to be thaimanese free for the main part. Mussels are good as an odd treat, but very, very rarely. Mushroom hasn't had one for over a month.

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Sorry for the long post! I love these guys They're amazing little fish if you can get their care right, and getting their care right is a work in progress! So defo give it your best shot. No one can really say at the moment what the best long term care is, so it's just people like us experimenting that'll figure that one out. So far so good, my little guy is very healthy, so hopefully I'm getting something right, but time will tell.

Edit: I said I'd had Mushroom 7 months, it's not, it's 9 months, so edited. Doesn't feel that long! Not too sure where I got 7 from...

Thanks Everyone for the responses! They are really helpful & very much appreciated. I will work on slowly transitioning it to SW, and have to find a chiller for them. I hope the conditions for the Orange Saddle would work for the second one too.

Corvus wrote:I think both are T. ocellatus. The unusual one being the aberrant color morph, which nowadays is not recognized as a separate species (probably true). They sometimes occur in batches of usual T. ocellatus.

Interesting, Corvus... T.Ocellatus morph coloration doesn't supposed to be yellow-orange spots over olive green body?
At my view that puffer has black spots over olive yelowish-green body, like this:
http://www.aqnautic.com/uploadfile/prod ... 220353.jpg

BUT we also have the classic saddle spot & dorsal spot form the T. Ocellatus, and the pale coloration is surely caused by quarantine, so i do believe, and support you about it, those two are Takifugu Ocellatus, so no problem at all, caroltan, the care information will work for both.

Christie_ZXR wrote:Edit: I said I'd had Mushroom 7 months, it's not, it's 9 months, so edited. Doesn't feel that long! Not too sure where I got 7 from...

Seems like last month when you posted the same question as caroltan. Time does fly.

RVS wrote:Interesting, Corvus... T.Ocellatus morph coloration doesn't supposed to be yellow-orange spots over olive green body?

I don't know if I understand you correct, but the color morph I'm talking about has the black band and eye spots, while the in part the black color and especially the yellow/golden surroundings (which are not confined to a rim around the black band and eye spots) make irregular ornaments. I think this is what we see on the picture.

RVS wrote:At my view that puffer has black spots over olive yelowish-green body, like this:
http://www.aqnautic.com/uploadfile/prod ... 220353.jpg

That's actually another nice example of the aberrant color morph of T. ocellatus, in my opinion the same as the two I linked to and the puffer in question of the original poster. All aberrantly colored T. ocellatus.

Can we see more pictures?

Terrance wrote: Seems like last month when you posted the same question as caroltan. Time does fly.

You're telling me! It's quite scary. Bless him, I wouldn't be without him now He's such a little sweetie.