The Puffer Forum

Can f8s live in full marine?

No, they are best kept at a SG of 1.003-5: library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/

Please don't.

We do not have very good life-in-the-wild data on the puffers we call brackish water fish. Tank data on these fish is all we have yo go by. F-8s seem to live longest in captivity in pretty light BW (specific gravity 1.003-1.005). Life in captivity is quite unlike life in the wild for these fish. In captivity they are not subject to tidal changes in water density twice daily as they may be in the wild, and we really have poor data from the wild on the time they spend in various water densities at various stages of their lives. Specimen fish, kept in captivity in stable and primarily species tanks, can live far longer and healthier lives than their wild cousins. So we end up beinh pragmatic about these fish.

If we ever learn to breed more puffers in captivity, the odds are good that the optimum breeding conditions may or may not be the same as tank conditions favoring the longest lives. Breeder fish in captivity generally do not live as long as solitary or single-sex fish.