The Puffer Forum

An exhaustive search on facebook has led me to the puffer forum. I’m happy to be here! I have some questions for those of you that have irrubesco puffers (red eye red tail puffers). How frequently do you feed them? Once daily? Every other? What are your favorite foods to feed them? I have 5, 1 male, and 4 females. They are in a heavily planted 37 gallon tank. So far they have been thriving. I have been going through pond snails like crazy, and they love frozen blood worms, and live brine shrimp. I bought clams today, but I just don’t feel comfortable using them just yet. The puffs are still on the small side and the clams seem big. Please share your experiences with me. I’ll take any advice. I’ve been keeping fish for over 20 years. I have two tanks currently. A 65 g rainbow fish/Cory tank also planted, and my 37 g puffer tank. I love this hobby. I hope I have posted this in the right place. Thank you!

Feed 1x/day, skipping 1 day/week. You have enough fish there for a 55g tank. I do hope you upgrade. Just crack open the clam & let them go at it! Clean up any uneaten pieces, after about 15 minutes.

Thank you for your input. I have a 40 breeder not being used. When I started planning for these months ago, my lfs was suggesting a 20 long for them and personally I thought that was too small. I bought the bowfront especially for them, I had never seen one before and thought it was perfect. If I need to in the future I can separate them. They ate their first clam yesterday, and are all still getting on very well. Each has found their own place to sleep at night. Super entertaining.

On another note, my next endeavor was going to be a cutcutia in the 40. Do you think that is too small of a tank?

All of my tanks have always gotten 2, 25% water changes weekly.

20g would be fine for a cutcutia. Just 1?

I would love to have a pair, but I’m always concerned about aggression. I’m not allowed to have more than 3 tanks. Lol. Do you have any suggestions for places to find different freshwater puffers for sale online besides The Wet Spot , and Aquabid? I’ve gone from a rainbow fish fanatic to a puffer fanatic. Thank you!

Both of those sources are my top 2.