The Puffer Forum

Anyways about half a year ago i went into a LFS and saw this puffer that i have never seen before. So i asked the person working there what it was, he simply told me it was a Takifugu Puffer. I replied "Ain't that Marine?" he then looked at me weirdly and said "NO, it freshwater". Anyways i went home done some research on it and knew i was right, but i thought i leave it and some poor fella would buy it. I just revisited the store and it still there! in the same tank in the same conditions and stressed. As each time i put my hand near the tank it would thrash about. Anyways my question is has anyone kept this puffer before? what are they like? What could i do to help inform this store what they are doing is in FACT wrong?

I've actually seen one of these at the Birch Aquarium in San Diego... I think. It has been six months. I'm pretty sure this is one of the ones that gets made into sushi (I won't get started on that...) and the fishbase picture looks about right. They had one on display and it was very pretty and looked healthy.

According to fishbase: "Said to be commercially cultured in Japan at present." and "Found in inlet waters, occasionally entering brackish waters. Move offshore with growth."

I'll bet it does much better in marine water (with very slow acclimation) than freshwater. It may have arrived in freshwater (and some store owners don't want to take the time to adjust a fish like this). I wonder what they feed it...

It also gets big... 80 cm TL (31 inches)!

Oh yeah... I didn't answer your real question. You could point them to the fishbase entry. Anyone else have any other good sources for marine puffs?

I saw one of those in my LFS they had it in total freshwater and they called it a takifugu puffer also

Interesting. The Maidenhead Aquatics in Wembley has one of these two (I think) labelled as a takifugu puffer. It's in fresh (not even brackish!) water. Grey, silvery beast with black markings. They want £85 for it.

Are these any easier to keep than the green/orange kind?

Cheers,

Neale

Much easier, no problems, as long as they get into the proper water conditions.

Yeah that's where i had seen it. I think the price has gone down, last time i saw it about a week ago. Did you see how stressed it was? I was very surprised it was still there and alive. Well, unless they get them in often and place it in the same tank. This store is also the place where they misidentified some T.fluviatilis as T.Biocellatus.

The puffer was in a top, corner tank at the far end of the shop. Didn't look happy, but otherwise seemed in good shape. It's odd they don't have it in brackish, since they do have a brackish section. With some Monodactylus kottelati, I believe, among other things.

Cheers,

Neale