The Puffer Forum

I've been thinking and watching over my salivator pair...
The male doesn't hurt her but he cases her a lot! If he kills her it does not surprises me...
To make things work I'm almost 100% sure that 2 more females would do!

I have had C.irrubesco for a year now (one male and 3 females)...
When I got them I had them in a very small tank (because I didn't knew what I had bought) And they had that tank a little to long :S
But the male didn't hurt them at all and none of the females were stressed.

I'm gonna call the store that I bought the salivator pair from and ask if they can get me 2 more females...
I have another tank (120l) so maybe I have to put her there until I get more females

I don't recommend having only a pair of salivator!
It's stressful for the female and the male is probably gonna kill her...

well more females to males work with other fish like gouramis mollies andguppies as the agression is diffused. However what if the females you get are also aggressive?

Fella has already tried 3 females to 1 male in his 40 gallon and all the females were still harrassed a lot. he had to introduce fast moving dither fish to distract the male to make him forget who he was chasing.

Me and him have discussed this a lot and believe the way to go with the Salivator is a lot in one tank, very similar to overstocking cichlids to reduce aggression.

I'm not afraid of aggressive females... I don't think that will be a problem...

I'm gonna try more females... But what you Hilly are saying make sense.

I think the females can hold their own with a male, it seems to be the constant harrassment that wears them down to the point where they dont hold their own and thats when fatalities happen. If they were cheaper I would try an overstocked tank but at the price they are, I would be looking at close to £200 so it's not worth the risk at the moment.

I hope the addition of more females to the tank distributes the aggression.

Good luck Taly.

They are expensive! lol... We only got two pair of salivator to Norway and I got one of the pair
I'm waiting for my birthday
It's hard to get them to Norway! And hard to get them to my place
But I'm hoping for the best

If irrubesco tells the Carinotetraodon story right:

I had a very arressive male who killed, chased and harassed.
He eventually chilled out in a 90 gallon heavily decorated community tank together with 3 females.
Other tankmates was butterfly-chiclides, ancistrus, platys, neons etc.
He (and probably the females) fed on the occational neon, but left other fishes alone.
The females was nearly as territorial as the male, attacking other females when opportunity presented itself.
This leads me to conclude that space & decoration is the main issue.

If I read puffers correctly; I would have to guess that most species do not "couple" as such. And; aggression is probably a vital part of courtship.
This is not a big issue in the wild where the weaker part can control the situation through escape, but in a tank there is bound to be trouble.

These fishes are loners by nature.
Sex has little to do with it.

My two cents...

Hilly wrote:Fella has already tried 3 females to 1 male in his 40 gallon and all the females were still harrassed a lot. he had to introduce fast moving dither fish to distract the male to make him forget who he was chasing.

Me and him have discussed this a lot and believe the way to go with the Salivator is a lot in one tank, very similar to overstocking cichlids to reduce aggression.

Did fella get the other females from BAS?
Did they sell them seperately?
How many has he now?
Does the dither fish work with the puffers?

I believe he was using 2 Irrubesco females to even up the numbers. I'm sure he will chime in with more details.

Before I lost my female I did notice that the male was only hell bent on killing the female of the same species. Any other fish was ignored but the female was recentlessly sought and killed.

the way i got my salivator to get on is thus

- I added 6 hatchet fish to the tank. now when the female is chased, the male's attention is drawn to the hatchet fish, which he does not chase, but they catch his eye. I'll try and get a video of this if I can some time.

- The tank is heavily planted

- It's 40g.

- It also contains a pair of bristlenose plecs (who remain undisturbed)

It contains 1 M salivator and 2 F ( 1 x irrubesco 1 x salivator). Both females are pestered equally, but the irrubesco is far more shy than the female salivator.


The way to get it to work i think is by treating these fish as though they were Mbuna cichlids or such. Overstock the tank (which is a risk with puffers anyway, and I wouldn't encourage it to people new to puffer keeping), provide 3 f (must be in perfect health, Im sure any sign of illness or weakness and they'd be chased to death) at least to every 1 male and give them space. I think something along the lines of 6 F to 1 M in the tank I have would work far better, but the issue with that is that A) It will cost a whole load of money and B) there is no way I could guarantee it would work out, but I think aggression spread across the fish might be the only way to keep these wth any intention of breeding them.

Also, something that has been overlooked with both these puffers, and C. borneensis is that I think they aren't tropical, but in fact subtropical. If you take a look at other fishes from Sarawak (Flying foxes, Hillstream loaches) they are in fast flowing highly oxygenated waters, and perhaps raising the temperature encourages agrressive behaviour, similar to the breeding season with other fish.

However, with my fish at the moment, I have had to seperate the tank temporarily. The Male has been giving the female too much attention. Once I have grown more plants in the tank, only then will I consider removing the divider. I'm also on the lookout for cheap females (story of my life?).

I don't think that these fish should be sold in pairs if I'm truly honest though.

Much to learn
Before I got the salivator pair I was thinking of putting some off my irrubesco females in with them if the male's attention was drawn to much to the salivator female...
But when I got them I was a little bit shocked! They were so much bigger than I thought... So my plan with the irrubesco females was canceled

He cases her a lot now!
I think it's time to move her :/
I've been thinking about moving her to the irrubesco but I'm not sure I want to take the risk...

Has she received any visible damage yet to the body or fins. I think you are right to be thinking about moving her. Perhaps putting her own for a few days to recover from all the chasing and then maybe try her with the irrubeso.

No damage at all... But she's stressed!
She doesn't swim around like she used to... Now she's just to tired after the casing...
I have to fix a table for the 120l first Then she can relax