salivator puffer

[poffer]

hi i have 5 salivators, and was looking for some other sources of information on them apart from this website pedia thing. There seems to be very little on them around the net. Id like to know about their breeding in the wild and what kind of environment they come from. mine dont seem to use their caves at all and prefer wedging themselves in plants.
thanks

[Rocker]

One piece of good advice would be to get a very big tank for that many and heavily decorate it. What size are they in at the moment?

[poffer]

One piece of good advice would be to get a very big tank for that many and heavily decorate it. What size are they in at the moment?

It is a custom made tank. 35 gallons. lots of plants. I recognise that these are aggresive fish however believe that with a lot of females there seems to be less aggresion. one of the females seems to have eggs and i dont know how breeding works with salivators

[Hilly]

Do you have 1 male to 4 females then, how long have they been together like this. The hareem theory has been thrown around by me and Fella as the best way to go with this species. Would like to hear more about your setup and your observations etc...

[Rocker]

I would advise a bigger tank to avoid any issues.

[poffer]

Do you have 1 male to 4 females then, how long have they been together like this. The hareem theory has been thrown around by me and Fella as the best way to go with this species. Would like to hear more about your setup and your observations etc...

well i bought them as one male and four females but there colouration in the shop was weak and i do now think that i may have 2 males. One of the "females" has seemingly coloured up a little and is showing stripes and colours of a male. my intention would be to swap that male in the near future. The tank has been set up for just over two months so there is still a lot of time before i shall be comfortable with this set up. There are a lot of plants as the caves seemed unused and they mainly wedged themselves in the plants. females are submissive and there is a dominant male. The female with a large stomach seems happy to be resting currently not spending a lot of time swimming. Do you own these and if so what experienced have you had with them?

I would advise a bigger tank to avoid any issues.

Currently I am satisfied with the size of this tank. If what I suspect is true and I have an extra male. I shall observe the behaviour aand probably isolate him if he displays a lot of aggression until I can get another female in his place.




btw id also like to add that ure pufferpedia says that these are inactive during the day and active at night and I have observed the opposite.

[Rocker]

The people that have kept them and similar species have had significant aggression problems even with bigger tanks. Keeping that many together is not recommended however it is your choice. A few members have lost their females to the male. The pufferpedia recomends a min of 20g.
Mine were active to start with during the day but has now become more settle. He has his own 'cave' hiding place and rests most of the day.

[Hilly]

I bought a pair when they first arrived here last year, all started off fine , the female was active and the male less so, after 10 days the male became relentless chasing her and wore her down until she could not hold her own with her, she was gone the next day.

I have found they like to lurk under the leaf cover, they are as active during the day as in the evening and mine will go to sleep around 9-10 by lodging in bogwood crevices or under leaves. This has been mentioned before but the PufferPedia has yet to be updated with this revised information.

Also for the last 2 months I have dropped the temperature in the tank, it was at 76 and is now around 71 degrees and there is no change in activity levels or sign of any harm he eats as well as he always did There is a theory that these puffers are sub-tropical which would make sense as the area they are native to is fast flowing well oxygenated cool water.

It is my intention to hopefully at some point get 6 females to 1 male as after the female died the male became more reclusive. I believe large groups of several female to 1 male ratio to be the best way to successfully keep this species in an aquarium. It's all theory at the moment though until I have tried it out and it's not exactly cheap if it goes wrong.

[poffer]

The people that have kept them and similar species have had significant aggression problems even with bigger tanks. Keeping that many together is not recommended however it is your choice. A few members have lost their females to the male. The pufferpedia recomends a min of 20g.
Mine were active to start with during the day but has now become more settle. He has his own 'cave' hiding place and rests most of the day.

I have found very little information on care for these puffers and believe that it is important to find our feet with them by testing the boundaries a little. by keeping them with these females I can ascertain over a period of time the behaviour of these fish and whether keeping them in a harem type situation diffuses aggresion. Currently as the water seems to be free of ammonia nitrites and almost free of nitrates ( my area seems to have nitrate levels in the water of about 20) i think that currently the set up is working. however I am aware that there may be difficulties in the future and will change the set up accordingly. Thanks for the heads-up tho! Its good to find people with experience and knowledge on this puffer.

I bought a pair when they first arrived here last year, all started off fine , the female was active and the male less so, after 10 days the male became relentless chasing her and wore her down until she could not hold her own with her, she was gone the next day.

I have found they like to lurk under the leaf cover, they are as active during the day as in the evening and mine will go to sleep around 9-10 by lodging in bogwood crevices or under leaves. This has been mentioned before but the PufferPedia has yet to be updated with this revised information.

Also for the last 2 months I have dropped the temperature in the tank, it was at 76 and is now around 71 degrees and there is no change in activity levels or sign of any harm he eats as well as he always did There is a theory that these puffers are sub-tropical which would make sense as the area they are native to is fast flowing well oxygenated cool water.

It is my intention to hopefully at some point get 6 females to 1 male as after the female died the male became more reclusive. I believe large groups of several female to 1 male ratio to be the best way to successfully keep this species in an aquarium. It's all theory at the moment though until I have tried it out and it's not exactly cheap if it goes wrong.

Thanks for the information. I shall also see if there is a different in the behaviour with a change in temperature. My tank is currently at 76. Has your male's appearance changed since the female died?

i agree they are very expensive but I was lucky enough to get a substantial discount on mine. I would still have paid full price for them because I think they are the most interesting of all the freshwater and brackish puffers.

[Hilly]

I would be interested to hear if aggression levels drop in line with a temperature drop. My males appearance hasn't really changed, the red belly stripe is a prominent as ever, sometimes the marking vary depending on mood, he can lighten up or darken himself. In the early mornings he is black.

I have to say though that one male Salivator on his own is a very boring puffer, regardless of how striking they look.

[taly]

I know now when I have the male for himself, that if I drop the temperature he will get less active and that will probably mean that his aggression will drop a little...

Poffer I would strongly recommend having them in a much larger tank!!
I have a 85l and I wouldn't putt them in there because of they're size and aggression... ( And that was only a male and female!) So I putt them in my 240l...

[Hilly]

If I was to try multiple females I would be doing it in my males current tank of 18g. The whole point is to make sure the male is not permanently focused on one female. Too large a tank and the other females could disappear into one and the male would not have the distraction allowing a female to be singled out.

Providing water quality is maintained this is how I would do it.

[Rocker]

I can understand your theory but I would have to disagree. Puffers such as these need to establish territories and patches of their own. The female more so. Putting them in undersized conditions is not best practice IMHO.
We would never recommend that for dwarf puffers so why a salivator. Like all the Carinotetraodons thet are extrememly aggressive whether they are the male or female of the species. Good idea with adding many females but to confine them to very small spaces will bring out aggression in the females as well. To me there is no substitute for space. 5 in a 35g is not such a good idea whatever the sex are.

[poffer]

I know now when I have the male for himself, that if I drop the temperature he will get less active and that will probably mean that his aggression will drop a little...

Poffer I would strongly recommend having them in a much larger tank!!
I have a 85l and I wouldn't putt them in there because of they're size and aggression... ( And that was only a male and female!) So I putt them in my 240l...

Thank you for your advice. I shall definitely drop the temperature. and see the affects. Although I would not want the puffers to become too inactive. To have a larger tank would defeat the purpose of what I am trying to find out. If having multiple females with a male will result in some kind of harmony. I do agree with Hilly that it would defeat the object of it. I personally could keep two of them in a 60 gallon because that would not be practical, and the fish would get lost!! One of my females is very fat. have you had the same experience? I have a feeling she has eggs.

[poffer]

I can understand your theory but I would have to disagree. Puffers such as these need to establish territories and patches of their own. The female more so. Putting them in undersized conditions is not best practice IMHO.
We would never recommend that for dwarf puffers so why a salivator. Like all the Carinotetraodons thet are extrememly aggressive whether they are the male or female of the species. Good idea with adding many females but to confine them to very small spaces will bring out aggression in the females as well. To me there is no substitute for space. 5 in a 35g is not such a good idea whatever the sex are.

I have a group of irrubescos which i have kept for two years, 3 females with one male and there were no deaths and very little aggression. there are also a pair of dwarf puffers in the tank with them. although i do not know their sex. they were in a tank that was between 25 and 30 gallons. the water quality did not suffer. I wouldnt say carintetraodons are extremeley aggresive when talking about irrubescos. although I am sure there are exceptions. I think that the salivator may benefit from being in an overstocked tank. They certainly are not cramped in there imo. a 35 gallon tank is not a very small space. You may not recommend it for dwarfs but they are a different puffer. And i expect that there isnt enough information on these fish to decide what is best practice.. yet. Who knows, it could go wrong. When or if it does then at least I know and can change the situation.