The Puffer Forum

Hi there! New to the world of pufferfish and just got a hairy puffer. I’ve read that they change colours based on their mood, and just watched my hairy turn from a dark muddy brown to a pale pink before my very eyes.

I was wondering if then turning lighter is a sign of stress or being in a good mood?

Also I know they are pretty sensitive to water parameters. At the moment Ammonia and Nitrate are undetectable but Nitrates are up between 40-80ppm (using API). it’s quite hard to tell the difference between the 2 reds, but all I know is that it showed red. It spiked up pretty fast even though I just did a water change 3 days ago, and prior to that once a week. Anyway, this seems pretty high and just wondering what the cause might be.

Any help is appreciated!

This species is one of the most adept at camouflage & will change shades of color & pattern at will. Please post tank size, water change schedule & how exactly the tank was cycled.

Hi Pufferpunk!

Thanks for the reply Tank size 60 gallons (upgrading to a bigger one once I move house), and I regularly do water changes once a week.

Cycled with a raw shrimp as I couldn’t find any pure ammonia, and didn’t have an existing filter to put in either. Have been testing the water daily since I got my hairy a week ago just to monitor the parameters. Once it spiked I did a 20% water change to try and manage it, but hope I didn’t stress the fish out! This water change was done just 3 days after a regular weekly one.

60g is certainly large enough for this species. Are you thoroughly stirring the substrate before each WC?

Took awhile to check back because was swamped with work! I did manage to go out and buy some water lettuce, hoping that they'll soak up the nitrates in the water.

What's the nitrate level of your tap water?