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A. modestus or Xenopterus
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 10:01 pm
by age puff
I 've read the posts about this topic already but i'm still not sure about this. The guy at my LFS was selling a "green puffer". He was keeping it in brackish water. I bought it and put it in a 10 gal. tank (it's about 2 inches right now) and added salt. If this fish is really a. modestus, and should be kept in freshwater, what will happen to it? How long will it take to for it to show symptoms? I'm going to try and and get some pics of it with my mom's digital camera.
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 10:36 pm
by Myaj
Look at the pictures at
http://www.pufferlist.com to identify your puffer. Usually the "green puffers" are Green Spotted Puffers, every time I've seen Modestus they've been labeled as "Bronze Puffer".
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 10:46 pm
by age puff
pufferlist dosent show xenopterus
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:03 pm
by age puff
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:04 pm
by age puff
wait, that didnt work
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:15 pm
by age puff
sorry my pic is so big.
Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:27 am
by Phaedrus
It sure looks like a modestus:
http://www.pufferlist.com/puffer/freshpuff.php?puffid=0
What kind of salt did you put in there, and how much?
Is the tank cycled?
Is it the only fish in there?
What kind of filter do you have?
A 10 gallon is a little small, but if it's heavily planted and you have good filtration and are careful about feedings and maintenance it should be alright.
Pay attention to the info on the pufferlist page about proper food. He'll need some snails to keep his teeth from overgrowing.
PS: If you want, you can use this edited picture instead of the huge one. :p
The URL:
http://members.shaw.ca/jasonznack/fish/modestus.jpg
PPS: Nice healthy looking fish BTW
Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:33 am
by Pufferpunk
Definately modestus. FW puffer. Mine lives in a 40g tank & is 4".
Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:29 am
by RTR
And the tooth warning is valid - these fish do have fast growing teeth.
Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 5:31 pm
by age puff
I'm using freshwater aquarium salt and there is a power filter rated for 15 gallons. He is the only fish in there.
Thanks for the edit x0rtrunks
How small do the snails have to be?
Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 6:01 pm
by age puff
never mind the snail size, i put some in his tanks and he tore them up before they hit the bottom.
Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 6:28 pm
by Phaedrus
Since it is a fresh water puff you can stop using the aquarium salt.
Rule of thumb: Snails should be about the size of the puffers eye.
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 8:31 pm
by age puff
the guy at the pet shop said that there are no truly freshwater puffers and that they all edventually go out to sea. Is this true?
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:03 pm
by Pufferpunk
LOL, mine said the same thing. There are probably more FW puffers than SW ones.
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:55 pm
by RTR
In a word, age puff, NO! Your guy at the pet show is proudly broadcasting his ignorance. But that is not rare in LFS employees or even owners, there are a lot of fish in the world and nobody can know them all.
FW puffers are second division fish, meaning that the family arose in salt water and only later some members adapted to FW and gave rise to new species there. Second division fish are as a group more adaptable than primary division fish.
Actually PP, there are not many purely FW species of puffer. The purely SW species far outnumber them. I'd suspect that the BW to SW species may even outnumber the pure FW species. But i would not bet the farm on any of that - it has been a while since I looked up any review articles*.
*Hmm. The next rainy or nasty day after the end of next week I'll try to do a quick scan of what I have in-house.
