The Puffer Forum

Hi, my first post!

So I have been doing alot of research, looking to get a puffer/puffers that I can have long term. They can be long lived in perfect conditions, so I'd like to do that.

It's hard to decide between a single gsp, figure 8's or some Saps!

I think freshwater is what I'm going for. For plants. I already have a male and female dwarf puffer. Those guys basically made me love the puffer family.

Anyway Im really concerned about saps ability to grow huge teeth as I do not want to have to clove oil and snip them. So can a south American puffer be kept completely in check with a diet of snails and shrimp with rock and bog wood for knawing? I would like to know this is possible over years!

Secondly, 5 seems a good number. What size tank would you recommend? 125 litres?


Also anyone ever had fry?

Thanks guys

Have you read this?
library/puffers-in-focus/sap/


We don't recommend clove oil anymore, it causes brain damage from lack of O2. We use MS-222 (Finquel) now. Unless you can get a good breeding stock with enough snails for 90% of their diet, you're going to have to trim those teeth.

If purchasing saps expect to do a little dentistry at some point. Gsp are better at marine conditions. F8 are brackish fish. 125l is far too small for 5 saps, they will pace constantly from lack of swimming room. How about dwarf puffers?

If you feed SAPs a diet almost entirely of home-raised common pond and ramshorn snails (~95% or more of their diet) you will only rather rarely need to trim their incisor plates. That does mean more tanks just to support their food supply. They also need decant current - along the front glass is good. In the wild they are main channel fish other than for their breeding season during the annual flooding of the plains. So far as I know, they have not been bred in captivity. They likely need a drop in the GH (calcium and magnesium hardness) of the water for spawning, to model the rainy season. There may be other spawning triggers or requirements as well. I have never seen fish showing egg development or dropping.

I would only keep 5 SAPs in a planted 75 US gallon tank, and that would bee the SAPs only, no other fish.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm basically back to the drawing board again.

RTR - it's interesting you suggest 75 USG, I have read a bit and it quotes in the pfk magazine that 130L / 35USG is adequate for 4 or 5. That's why I ask, from the guys who actually kept them!

Also for a gsp - 180l
Fig8's at 70l then another 30l for each additional specimen.

I like planted tanks hence why I was looking at saps but I just don't think it's right for me now.

Bertie, I have been thinking dwarf puffers now, I already have two in a small tank and perhaps I should give them proper space and add a few more. What do you recommend?

My dwarfs are in 19L, still very small with a 3 day 80% + water changes

In a 30g you could have upto 6 dps. I would go for 4, 1 male and 3 females. Perhaps a bottom feeder thrown in to clean up puffer scraps. As for our size recommendations, there are so many factors but we believe in keeping fish in suitable sized tanks not cramming them in because in theory they can fit. Once you get more into puffers you will understand this, they are messy buggers and can fill massive tanks with personality.

Historically, DPs were first kept in quite small tanks. They were new in the hobby not so long ago - multiple folks here remember their introduction to hobby quite well. They were first reorted captive bred in 5 gallon tanks, which now we don't suggest for anything other than a singleton. Generally we have found that puffers have higher waste loads than many fish - comparable to the chunky Cichlids. Now we know that more water, and better upkeep greatly extends their lifespans, even for breders. So we do not suggest small tanks for long-term care. Tanks at and below 10 US gallons are quite care-intensive. The safety margins are tiny. Bigger is easier because the margins are better.

SAPs are not tight-schooling fish other than when swimming in relatively strong currents. When searching for food, they are individuals, but IME need/want/"like" having sight of con-specifics in the same of clean-glass adjacent tanks. Puffers are not Barbs or Rasboras. They may someday be captive bred if we can differentiate the males and females. DP fry are relativbely easy to rear in larger tanks. I had troubles at first until I added passive-return overflows from densely plante veggie filters which provided much live infusoria to the male plus 3 females breeding tanks. As with many/most Rainbowfish, access to infusoria is likely the key. Most hobbyists don't devote the water volumes/tanks needed for this. The Carinotetraodon species are the only reliably bred fish in the group of true puffers, but SAPs should be next easiest. Some of the lurkers have been captive bred, but require mucj largertanks to work with, as they are larger fish.