tonkablue
New Member
Ok so this seems to be the way most describe puffers as well as "runs with scissors...er teeth" We are experienced fish keepers of fresh water fish. We bought a few puffers about 3 months ago all are eating well and doing great. We have unfortunately like lots of puffer owners, been taken in by a pet store selling us a fish that they told us are fresh water fish. Upon further research, of course we have found that we need to take our babies into a more salt environment and are researching that and preparing for their big journey. I found accounts of green spotted puffers losing their coloration and darkening due to being kept as fresh water fish. When changed over to a brackish or salt environment their colors come back. we are preparing to do just that although ours have not shown color changes yet. But we want to keep on top of it and have found advice pertaining to the rate at which they should be slowly switched. We are not without a clue here. My question is mainly that 90% of the places that we've visited on line say that puffers cannot live with other fish or that they can when they are young but not as adults. I know, living in New England, that the New England Aquarium keeps adult puffers with other species, many of which are considered highly aggressive. Anybody here have any accounts that they have heard of, of puffers living in community with other fish? Its just that if we are going to provide them with a very large tank we were hoping to be able to make it a more interesting thing for us to look at. I am also very interested in a Snowflake eel. Any thoughts? (I am well aware of how they rip up their food. Also currently they live with a tiretrack eel, who is aggressive enough that they don't mess with him, and 3 common plecos, who are well armored, enough at least for now, while the puffers are young. None of these fish show any nipped fins, nor do the puffers, my feeling here is that for now they all have enough room. Obviously the eel and plecos will be removed when we go brackish on them. I have noticed that size seems to matter. Our much smaller peacock eel was seen as a food item immediately and by the time i grabbed the net in front of me his fins had already been nipped twice. I have given the peacock a calm home with some rare fantail goldfish and he is happy again in this new gentle home.) Please share your thoughts with us, we are trying to compile data from many sources. We also plan to take notes on our experiences over the next several years as we move the puffers over to what they need and hope that it will come to fruition with no deaths and an article on the subject to help others caught, unfortunately like us, as victims of pet stores' quest for the almighty dollar and not the responsible care of the animal. By the way they are still selling the puffers as fresh water fish, despite our complaints, and even recently got in some 3 inchers that are emaciated and dark brown, obviously because they don't have the water conditions that they need. How sad!!! I wish there was an online list where such petshops could be reported. I'm not talking about petstores that have made a mistake and rectify the situation, but those like our petshop that after they know their mistake continue to sell their pets lying to people, in order to make money and keep ordering pets that are better off left to the pros or lets face it in the wild. Perhaps such pets should be more of a special order thing. Oh and by the way our puffers favorite food item is ghost shrimp which they eat in addition to a very varied diet. The only time I have seen the tiretrack eel eat is when ghost shrimp are offered. Please share your thoughts. I hope my few thoughts and observations help someone else too!
