The Puffer Forum

So I drove over two hours to "that Fish Place" in Lancaster in search of a Fahaka, or ceylons. (finally convinced hubby we need to expand our collection!) I wanted to check this place out as I heard it was the best store in PA. I wanted to see the condition of their puffs before I decided on whether or not I wanted to pursue the fahaka route, or choose something else. They had two beautiful fahaks about 5 inches with tail. (29.99) Unfortunately, they housed them in Brackish water!!! I told them this was incorrect, and all I got was attitude from everyone on the staff. They claim to have done extensive research on these puffers and they do very well in Brackish water. That is right about when I asked them " since when is the Nile river brackish? " She proceeded to tell me that parts of lake tanginyika are brackish... wtf? I didn't know fahakas came from there! She then let me know that they do not order fahakas often because they usually only have 1-5 live out of a batch of 15-20.
How sad. I suggested that it might be because of the brackish water they are being kept in and she got very curt with me at that point. I really thought this would be worth the drive for me to get healthy fish, but I was very disappointed. They did have beautiful MBU babies, (169 dollars!!) as well as a wide range of brackish fish, monos argentus and sabae, scats red and silver, a variety of gobies, eels, GSPs, figure eights (the tiniest I have ever seen) I ended up coming home with two argentus (5.99) as well as 5 DP babies. (1.99) The seemed to have gotten almost everything right, with the exception of the poor fahakas! Their SG in the brackish section was up around 1.011, so I am sure they were suffering. Such a shame.

Idiots. Did you tell them to check out this website? $169 for baby Mbu too thats way too much, I wouldn't go back there if I were you, any money spent there only feeds the ignorance. I would love to know where this"extensive research" has been done

Not to be too quick to call them idiots, Fahakas are near extinct in the Nile, and their natural distribution includes some brackish rivers.

Ok then, I just go by the pufferpedia having never seen any of the fish I keep in the wild. Is it fair to say though that these may be young specimens taking advantage of the high nutrient levels where the differnt water conditions meet? I'm only guessing though but a lot of young fish are found in brackish waters when young and then move into full marine or FW habitats as they mature. True of the Fahaka I don't know?

1.01 seems way to high for them, they may travel down the rivers but 1.01 is almost half marine aka delta front or estuary.

Mbu are the ones that occur in this lake, not fahaka AFAIK.

manutius wrote:Idiots. Did you tell them to check out this website? $169 for baby Mbu too thats way too much, I wouldn't go back there if I were you, any money spent there only feeds the ignorance. I would love to know where this"extensive research" has been done

I don't think $169 is too much. The cost keeps random people from buying an mbu and putting it in a small tank. I think all big fish should have higher price tags, so there will be less impulse buy on them.

I see what you are trying to say but surely its the LFS who should regulate who buy these fish, If they are in the shop and someone hass money to burn they could still be an impulse buy. Personally I think that they should only be available on order and not stocked in LFS and thats coming from a Mbu owner!! That way only people who have set out to own one and have a suitable set up will be able to buy them. Unfortunately trhere is no way to regulate this. But they do it for arrowana and other fish with CITES certificates so why not other "large" tankbusters?

I think the distribution of the Mbu also means it can sometimes be found in brackish water as well, just like the Fahaka's distribution, however as both do very well in freshwater so while some exposure may be normal in the wild there's now way to mimic that in an aquarium.

As I understand it, The reason for the chipping of Asian Arowana is to protect the remaining wild stocks , all Asian Arowana sold in the world all come from Arowana farms in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia etc.... The only thing I see the CITES ban in the USA doing is to ramp up the price. Sure I suppose this species could be released into the wild and may survive but if you've just dropped several thousand on a fish you should be able to look after it and the last thing on your mind would be dumping it in a river. The highest quality Asian Arowana go mainly to 2 places, Asia where they sell for a lot less than over here and Canada as there is no ban there and they can pretty much charge whatever they like and people will pay ridiculous money for one of these majestic fish.

Can you tell i'm a fan of the Asian Arowana. It will be mine, oh yes it will be mine.

I really hate to give this place any business, but I have been calling fish store from Pittsburgh to Philly to see if any of them would be able to locate a fahaka or ceylons for me, and thus far, no luck! Is it just a bad time of year for these guys or something? I am definitely using my employee discount (Petco... yes I know.) and getting a nice tank soon, but I would really like to try a planted (if he doesn't pull them out) fahaka tank. So I might have to go back to this place and reacclimate one of their fahakas to freshwater, and at least give these guys a better chance to live a happy healthy life. I'm still undecided.

i also agree that their SG was way to high, most fish can stand light brackish, but that is a bit high for this particular fish.

Some fahakas have been known to dip their tails in BW but certainly not live in it extensively.