The Puffer Forum

Hello!

I am from Sweden and I bought a Fahaka Puffer last week. The fish is over 2 years old, probably 3 years. But its tiny, only 5-6 cm long. The woman that owned it before me fed it snails (both land and waterliving) and bloodworms, it had not grown anything in her care and whe it started attacking her other fish she took it to a petshop. It was skinny when I took it from the petshop, but now it looks much more healty and is superactive.

I understand that something is totaly wrong with this fish, and I want to give it the best care now.

I keep it i hard water at 26 degrees celsius with hidingspots and a lot of plants, and the filtration is extremely good, I have an extern filter. I keep it in a small aquarium for now, to make feeding easy. The fish eats waterliving snails, earthworms, mysis, krill and live shrimp. I give it fishvitamins every day. The appetite is huge, and the teeth looks good. If it starts to grow I have bigger aquariums for it to live in, upp to 500-700 liters.

Can I expect that the growth has stopped? And It will keep its miniature size? I have read about a subspecies of Fahaka that is much smaller, could this fish be one of them?

Thanks in advance!

My guess is either is is severely stunted from being in too small a tank or it has IPs.
I highly suggest you treat for this: library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/

How large is his tank how?

Pufferpunk wrote:
My guess is either is is severely stunted from being in too small a tank or it has IPs.
I highly suggest you treat for this: library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/

How large is his tank how?

Probably its stunted, I dont know how the former owner kept it, but she said it lived in a 200 liter aquarium. I keep it in a small (50 liters) tank for now, just to make sure I could overlook the eating. I could move it to a bigger tank, what size of tank should I use? In the store it lived in a 5 liter (!) aquarium.

In Sweden its not easy to get medicine for fish, often you have to buy it from a vet. Is there any medication that is preffered for treating Ip:s?

120usg minimum for this fish alone. He is severely stunted from innapropriate housing. My fahaka hit 13" in his first year with me.

bertie 83 wrote:120usg minimum for this fish alone. He is severely stunted from innapropriate housing. My fahaka hit 13" in his first year with me.

I guess that means that even if I put it in a big tank (120g) it would not grow much more, being as old as it is? He has been this size now for over two years according to the former owner.

You need to resolve the prior issues with tank size first, give a sensible tank with good to perfect water parameters. This way he will still live a long life and hopefully remain healthy

Also if he is looking skinny treat for ip's following pps link above

I understand he needs i bigger tank to live in, but can I expect him to grow more? What would be a sensible tanksize for a fish thats 5-6 cm long, and perhaps also stays that really tiny size?

He does not look skinny now, rounded belly after each feeding ,I feed small portions 3-4 times per day since he was so skinny when he arrived. He always have snails in the tank, and live feedershrimp. Waterparameters are perfect, zero nitrit.

It is very likely, with the proper housing & feeding, he will grow.

+ 1 he will grow

Good, thats want I wanted to hear. Then I will buy a suitable aquarium for him so he hopefully can have many good years to come.

Good on you. Aim for a 150usg or so, he will fill it with personality alone

He is a huge personality alredy, and I would love to see him bulking up and getting some size in a bigger aquaria.

Soak his food in vitamins, feed live shrimp which have eaten lots of veggies etc. I always fed mine peas soaked with his food, if he refuses add a little garlic to the mix

No offense.. But sure it's a fahaka?