The Puffer Forum

Hello all,

I am relatively new to the puffer fish-keeping hobby but have always loved to look at all the kinds of freshwater puffers, especially the lurker puffers because they're very cute. I set up a 36 gallon tank with dual filtration, lots of hiding spots, two caves, driftwood, some rocks, and live Anubias plants. I let the tank cycle for about a month and performed my water tests to see that it was fully cycled. The only reason I am saying all this is to show that I'm not a newbie lol. After that, I was really interested in purchasing a pao baileyi or pao suvatti for my tank but couldn't find any for sale. I found a pao palembangensis on wet spot, did a lot of research and purchased the fish with overnight shipping. He (or she) has been happy in the tank for about a month and a half now and has just recently started to be really active swimming around his tank while watching tv with me. He gets excited and comes to see me when I walk in the room also, which I didn't think he would do because I read that he was one of the lurker types. He is abour 5" long so he gets fed every other day. Right now I'm just concerned with if the tank is going to be too small, as I read conflicting articles saying the fish would need 30 gallons minimum, while others said 40 gallons minimum. Also, am I feeding him too often for his size? He eats freeze-dried krill, clams on the half shell, and frozen crayfish. I really love this guy, hes so cool that I'm going to have to end up buying another puffer and tank haha.

Thanks in advance,

If he's that active, I'd be looking into a 55g for him.
A fish that size should probably be eating every other day. Try earthworms, too. I get them at Walmart.
What TV shows does he like?

Alright, thank you I will be looking into a bigger tank. The first day I had him I put an earthworm in there and it lived for about two days before I couldn't find it anymore so I think he ate it. I will have to try earthworms again haha, there is a bait shop near me. Whenever I turn on the TV he has to come over and check it out for a while lol. It kind of looked like he was in awe when I was watching sports or movies. He seems to really like anything on Animal Planet lol.