The Puffer Forum

Hello! I have some questions about the Zebra Puffer(?)/Striped Redeye Puffer/Carinotetraodon Salivator.

I will be setting up a puff tank in the future and thought it'd be best if I started gathering information on the specie that I want, and puffers in general. Sorry if the Qs are a bit all over place!

Incase anyone feels the need to know before answering my questions, it will be just 1 puff & in a 10g.

1) What diet would it benefit from?
I have read the food article on this site but not sure if things such as crab legs come in such a small size that they could be fed to this type of puff, nor am I sure about the other foods as I havn't really eaten them myself!
I'd also appreciate knowing where ya'll get the foods you feed them. Such as walmart or if I need to go somewhere more specific.

2) Also wondering if they mainly need veggies or protein, or both? Can just snails provide this for them? Will they eat other foods such as sinking pellets?

3) Is there a rough guesstimate on the amount of snails I'll need to feed?

4) Am I right that I'd want to feed 2 days, skip, 2 days, skip? I read this on another topic but it wasn't about this specific puff so want to see if that still applies.

5) What are the supplies I'd need to breed my own snails? I assume a filter and heater would be needed, or just a filter?

6) Can I have snails already in the tank it's going into, or will it gorge itself and get sick?

7) Is it likely that I will need to trim it's teeth, or can I get around this by offering plenty of shelled foods?
I am not entirely comfortable with the idea of trimming the teeth, I don't want to hurt my little puff

8] What's a good temperature range for them? The pufferpedia says 74-80, so perhaps 77?

9) How about current in the tank? I have heard low flow but want to make sure.
If anyone has direct experience with puffs and the Aqueon Quietflow brand I'd like to hear if it needed baffling or not.

10) Do lights bother them?

11) Is there certain plants that are preferred? Possibly broader leaved ones?
Here are the plants I plan on having in the tank: Anubias nana, pygmy chainsword, vesuvius sword, crypt lucens, crypt petchii.

12) Can wood or decorations be dangerous if slightly pointy? I'd try not to introduce anything sharp but something that may seem smooth to me could possibly hurt them?
Any specific types of wood to recommend? I love love love manzanita. Any sites to recommend selling small pieces of that would be greatly appreciated.

13) Can substrate affect their coloration? On my other thread the answer seems to be yes but I like getting as many opinions as possible.
I was told light sand would bring out the best coloration. I prefer black sand but want my puff to look it's best.

14) Can the background affect their coloration? Any background recommendations? I like natural themed and solid color ones.

15) Am I likely to get bit when doing tank maintenance? If so, should I wear some sort of glove so that it doesn't get sick from biting me?

16) What is the personality of this particular puff like? Will it make a good addition on my desk? I don't mean this as in a decoration, but as in interaction and will it be bothered by my hand movements on my mouse and keyboard and such.

17) What is the normal price range for this puff?

18) What are some tips on picking a healthy puff when going to buy?

19) Recommended W/C schedule? My tanks get minimum 25% weekly, though ones of smaller size usually get 40-50%. Is this enough?

I think that's about it for my questions..imagine I will come up with some more later Sorry for the lengthiness!

Thank you to anyone who responds. It's really appreciated.

Wow that is lengthy lol. I have no first hand experience with this puffer but will answer some of the questions. Feeding is all about variety, you can break up larger shell foods to meal size portions and the puffer will scrape its teeth. You can use any uncooked sea foods (people food) so long as you freeze it first to get rid of potential parasites. I like to add a good amount of snails to a puffer tank before the puffer, they have to hunt for hidden food then, any surviving snails will help clean puffer scraps. I have not had problems with slightly sharp decor, but extremes are always worth avoiding. 50% weekly water changes minimum on puffer tanks. Always spend a while watching puffers prior to purchase, look for an active puffer who feeds well and has a nicely rounded tummy. Also worth getting internal parasite treatment ( mess suitable for soaking foods) and treat as a precaution

We do have an article on snail breeding in our Library. For my smaller puffer species, I stick with live/frozen black/blood worms, FD plankton & small snails.

I'm sorry! If I don't ask I usually lay awake wondering about the questions. I want to be able to take care of my little fellow.

I don't know why I didn't think about just breaking up the foods..duh!

Glad to know having snails in beforehand is fine. There are plenty in there right now.

Will do 50% changes then, no problem! We have a python that attaches to the faucet so it's quick and easy.

I'll look for one with a rounded belly.

Thank you so much Bertie!

Oops, sorry Pufferpunk, another 'duh!' from me. I will look at that article.
I can definitely do bloodworms, will keep an eye out for black worms & the FD plankton. Thank you!

Hope it's okay to bump this since it's been over a week?

I do have Red Tail Red Eyed Puffer Carinotetraodon irrubesco. I think their behavior is similar so I think I can tell you some of thing for this.

1. I always feed them with Frozen Bloodworm, sometimes snails. They also can eat some shrimp as long you cut it to pieces and yeah, froze them first.
2. No, they do not eat pellets cause they are Carnivorous. They eat Protein.
3. I don't know cause I never feed them more than 2 or 3 snails. That is if I got snails left.
4. I once forgot to feed for 1 weeks and they are fine. Still kicking till now.
5 and 6 I'll pass cause I got the snails of from the filter ;D
7. Because they are so small, you mustn't trim their teeth. You can however feed them with snails as it will help them to trim their teeth naturally. Though mine is kinda special cause I once not giving them snails for 1 month and for some reason, my Puffers are still healthy and their teeth is still perfect (meaning they can still eating). My cousin said that the puffer always trim their teeth naturally by biting the rock or the sands rock (Because he and I using Malang sand so it's kinda rocky) but I still not convice eventhough I always see them biting the sands. Dunno why.
8. around that.
9. Hanging filter? I don't know cause I use Power Head for Undergravel Filter and I think they still fine cause they always hiding on the wood block and plants.
10. Not the strong one. I put my Aquarium on window to get a direct morning sunlight for my plants in exchange of lamp.
11. I do use crypt petchii, crypt lucens, and some other plants that I forgot.As long it was heavy planted, your puffer will be fine.
12. If you want to carefully, you might want a wood without pointy thingy.
13. I dunno about that cause I'm using Malang Sand and it's black. It will hard to see them but I think they are more happy than ever.
14. Never used it so I don't know sorry.
15. Because they are small, they won't bite you.
16. Never do that either. Sorry.
17. Cause I living in Idonesia so I don't know. Sorry.
18. Their color and their behavior I think. When I bought it, I always look at that 2 point. Eventhough for MSP, I kinda help her by ignore that 2 point.
19. I had a schedule for doing that for every Aquarium I got in the house. But for my Red Eye, I just do 30% water change once a month. Why? Because my Aquarium is already heavy planted so I don't worry about amonia and the others as the plants already made them a lunch. Don't worry, I already had this Puffers for 1,5 years and they are fine. Although you need to do a Fish Salt. I always do that.

Here's My Aquarium I'm talking about:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44359757@N02/12793841223/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44359757@N02/12793711005/

And here's one of my puffers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44359757@N02/12794142694/

I have a female irrubesco too, and gave her a similar environment as dimas, so I agree to what he said.
I have her only since 4 month but seems very healthy and is eating (too) well....
In addition to frozen bloodworms, I give her small pieces of squid (the mantle), and she catch the occasional snail, shrimp and guppy fry in my tank...
My tank is also heavily planted (no substrate visible from above) with a lot of surface plants (walstad method+external filter)...so although it is overstocked (guppies are good at multiplying), I do not have to do frequent waterchange, maybe 10-20% every week...it is more to avoid mineral concentration/depletion (evaporation and plants absorption) than dealing with nitrates...all nitrogen waste (nh4,no2,no3) is normally absorbed by growing plants and get out of the tank as plant trimming...
Strong lights are ok BUT keep a lot of hiding places and shadowy regions if you want your puffer to be active....they become shy under light, and are much more comfy in the shadows...or at night
Once they feel confident they are quite interactive, meaning they will recognise the food provider and always ask for more snacks but if they get annoyed (tank maintenance for example), they get shy quicly and hide for a time....
Getting more active again when lights are off....that's why imho it's important to provide a lot of low light places for red eyes,
It seems they venture into high light only when feeling really confident...
Good luck finding a Salivator, it seems the less common of the red eyes puffer, si I guess the price may be steep (mine was 5 Euro in Belgium)
Lol, dimas, in Indonesia you can get your puffer directly from the local river/ponds, you are lucky

@dimas0302 Thank you so much for answering my questions! I feel more at ease now. Your tank is lovely and your puff looks so cute

I also have an irrubesco (female) and agree with dimas, maybe I make some additional remarks:
Lights: she definitely prefer shadow and is more active in twilight (just after the lights are off, or in the morning before lights are on but with some room lights). She is not completely avoiding strong lights, but need to be comfy to venture in the spotlights I would say...
So imho it is important to provide a lot of shadowy spots and dark hiding places. Your puffer will be more at ease, more active and probably shows more...Also when they get stressed (tank maintenance for example, or cleaning the glass with a magnet) she really appreciate a dark hiding places or two...Not incompatible with strong lighting but with some floating plants for example...

More details after, as they come

@gkai Thank you so much! The lighting shouldn't be too big of an issue as we have LEDs that can be dimmed. I will need to find the right balance between this, the puff's comfort, and the plants needs though.
I really hope my puff begs for food like yours..or maybe not as imagine it'll be hard to resist with how often I'm at my desk

gkai wrote:Lol, dimas, in Indonesia you can get your puffer directly from the local river/ponds, you are lucky

Well, the Red Eye Puffer habitat is in Sumatra and Borneo and I'm in Jakarta so to get the puffer directly I have to fly over there but no thank you, too much money to spend eventhough it's in part of Indonesia XD. But in the middle year (Which about summer) I always see Red Eye Puffers in some store which is so many of it I don't know if I want to take them all home or not XD.

Elaori wrote:@dimas0302 Thank you so much for answering my questions! I feel more at ease now. Your tank is lovely and your puff looks so cute

No Problem, happy to help!

First sorry for the double post, I am new here and need to get used to moderation, I though my first post was lost...
For lighting I think the trick is to choose the plants wisely:
Broad leaf with long stems, or floating, or mosses on top of driftwood, all will catch the strong lights
and grow a lot while filtering/denitrifying the water very efficiently (depending on your soil, your fish load and
plant growth you can even reduce water change, or even get rid of it...) while still providing a lot of shadow,
So the red eyes will scout under the drifwood or broad leafed plants.
I have this sort of environment, dimas too, and the shop where I found my puffer kept the group in a quite shallow tank completely covered with duckweed, giving a sort of green twilight lighting...
Only problem with that is carpeting plants...So the "ada" look would be difficult to achieve I think...
Also the color of your puffer may bee less visible, but if u have a few bright spots
He/she will venture there too, once comfy...
Btw they change color, not as chameleon/shellfish but still a lot and it's quick: going from a pale green with dorsal markings barely visible and belly almost white, to dark back with strong markings and white belly with black lines, in less than 1min...I expect the zebra red eyes to do the same, with different motifs/colors of course...
Temperature I am at 23.5-24 Celsius (Europe here, can't use Fahrenheit ). I had a problem with my heater once, and stayed around 21 for a few days without real problems, but she (and other inhabitants) seems more active above 23.
Do u plan to get a male or female? The male get significantly bigger and have a very different look, colorless but also the shape, less round, more boxy...it's almost like two different species. If I do a bigger tank I really want to have both, one male and a few females, but with my small community tank
The male was really intimidating, so I picked a female

It's fine I figured something like that happened

As said I plan on Anubias nana, pygmy chainsword, vesuvius sword, crypt lucens, crypt petchii..am not sure what else to add. Dwarf water lettuce for floating plant maybe?
The tank will still likely get 50% W/C weekly regardless of planting..just how I do. I have a python so it is really quick and easy.

That's really cool that they change color, I look forward to witnessing this hopefully!
I will probably keep it around 24-25C. Am glad your fish were okay when the heater was having problems!

I don't know what gender to get, I think the males look really neat but I like both. I likely won't get to choose gender unless it's a very obvious difference when I go to pick one up.

Trust me, except if they are juveniles, the sex is very obvious for all red eyes species...
It's "why two sort of puffers in the same tank with a single price" difference
Your tank is quite small, this would plead for a female, but otoh the male is spectacular for your chosen specie, it's him who got zebra stripes...difficult choice
The temperature drop got me real worried too, it was hidden cause my thermometer was malfunctioning...
But thinking of it, I suspect most tropical fish to tolerate lower temperature than what is shown on their fiches. I know the region well (in fact I'm in Thailand right now, where lortetis come from) and in the night, during cold season, the temperature will often drop to 20, especially in small pond or shallow slow moving river sides that do not have so much inertia...(even below that, this year was "cold" here, 15 Celsius...Thais thought it was Armageddon ). They get inactive and would not thrive at constant 20, but I think overheating with a stuck thermostat is far more dangerous than the opposite...all the reports I have read about dead fishes due to heating problem where those, never death by cold...something to remember for my next tank, double security against overheating

I've got TONS of anubias for sale, if you can wait until it's warm enough to ship.