The Puffer Forum

Hi guys,,,im from jakarta, indonesia,,,greetings to all puffer lovers,,,so here's my questions :

1. I read articles about green spotted puffers are actually brackish and eventually will turned out to be full marine,,, what happens if i still keep in freshwater? Can it still be fully grown?
2. One of my puffer's belly turned black,,, i read about it and it says that it probably an indication of the puffer is ill, stressed out or maybe asleep,,,but its definitely not because just asleep,,,its been about 4 days and it wasnt getting whiter like the first days,,,how do i fix this?
3. My 2 puffers is getting tankmates with 3 lobsters,,,is this okay or its going to stressed the puffers?
4. They didnt start to eating hard shelled snails,,,when is the right time to start?
5. When is the right time to move them to brackish water? Is it by the size or what?

I need any other useful informations if u guys got some,,, Thx u very much in advance

I'm going to move this to the Hospital Forum, so you can answer all the questions above, in red.
1 & 2. Keeping a BW/SW fish in FW lowers it's immune system, causing disease & short lifespan. This could be the cause of the black stomach.
3. Absolutely not with the lobsters! Either the puffers will eat them, or they will pick on the puffers while they are sleeping.
4. Rule of thumb is snails as large as the puffer's eyes. Or you'll have to crush them.
5. As soon as the system is stable for 2-4 weeks. 0 ammonia/nitrite, <20 nitrate.

Some reading for you:
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
library/tnk-mgr/newtanksyndroments/
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19348

thx u very much for your guidance pufferpunk

Your very welcome!

is it better to use fish salt or marine salt to make the water salty for puffers? whats the difference anyways?