The Puffer Forum

I am very interested in buying a Hairy Puffer. I was into freshwater for time then went to salt and now I want to try my hand at a Hairy Puffer.

I have looked all over the site and seen some of my answers in lots of places and was hoping for some one stop shopping

So I will start with these questions but if you think there is something else I need to know please fire away......

What is the minimum tank size? I currently have a 29 gallon biocube fully cycled and ready to go..

What do you feed them? Do they need live snails every so often? ghost shrimp?

Can you ever keep any other fish with them? I think the answer is "no" here but just checking.

Do they swim around alot? sometimes? 50-50? I hear people say they lay around all day and some people say they have great personalities? I'm a tad confused here.

How small is safe to get one? how big do they get? There is one that is 4" at the fish store now but that seems big? How long does it take to get from 2" to 4"?

LASTLY - please attach some pictures, videos, and sizes of your Hairy Puffers - I would love to see them.

Merry Christmas and thank you so much for your time. I am just trying to get this right

Sincerely
Stew

So sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you on this! <3 my Hairy puffer!
He lives in a 20g long tank. I think he might be OK in a 15g but he's not full-grown yet. Really only uses one side of the tank. Your 29g should work fine, just make sure he has multiple caves to hang out in. I think that might be the problem with my tank. I just have 1 cave & a very large conch on the other side, so he just lives in the one cave all the time. I have never known the ambush predators to eat snails. They actually can be used to keep the tank clean of excess food. He eats: shrimp, scallops, earthworms, clams, oysters, mussels. I defrost all his food in water with added Vita-Chem. He doesn't swim around AT ALL, although I came home yesterday to him totally puffed! Of course, as I was grabbing my phone, he unpuffed & scooted into his cave. I got mine at 1" about 5 months ago & he's 4" now. He's one of the best eaters in my collection!

Thanks for the info about your Hairy, Pufferpunk.

They are fascinating!