The Puffer Forum

SO I have been lurking this forum for a long time and finally decided to actually make an account.

I am the proud owner of this guy (Currently 3")


He is the 3rd congo puffer I have had. (The first one got sick, and the second one I had to give away)

I have also had dwarf puffers and green spotted puffers in the past. I have had my congo for about 1 1/2 years. He was just barely over 1" when I got him. He lives in a 40b with 2 nerite snails. He has a steady diet of home bred minnows and guppies. My 2 previous congos were actually kept in community tanks with angels, a tire track eel, a featherfin catfish, and some other miscellaneous fish. No, I never had an issue with the congos eating their tank mates. I kept a steady supply of feeders in the tank, and those are the only fish that ever went missing. Now since my main tank is planted with amazonia as substrate, I decided it would be better to give this puffer their own tank.

Oh, and something odd to note about my congo: He is rarely ever burrowed into the sand. Generally he burrows into the sand around 10pm, and gets up around 6am. Otherwise he is about as active as my angelfish in my main tank. He loves to run up and down the glass or go and roam the rest of the tank. In the past seeing a congo out and swimming around was a rare treat.

Great shot & fantastic color on your puffer!

Just adorable

Great color! A very good-looking fish. You have the magic touch - few of us see that much of Congos. If you have any way of boosting the current a bit parallel with the front glass, you might see more conventional swimming behavior.

Feeders are not generally recommended for puffers, but home-reared ones should be much healthier than LFS-purchased ones. I do maintain a strain of common guppies to use as feeders myself, but I know mine are healthy as I've had them for many years (well over 30 years). I used to have a similar strain of rosey reds as well, but I gave them up some time ago as I no longer keep many piscivores.