Little fatty!!

[CrazyBirdLady]

Well I gotta warn you, despite their cute innocent faces, do not be surprised to wake up some morning to find an extra-fat puff and a missing Mono!

[BlackLava]

lets hope that doesnt happen! i guess it depends on the individual puffer and the set up that they are in. we have a local fish shop that has a huge tank with one of these adult green spotteds, anda few monos and they do well together, but there are tons of people who have told me also that their puffers kill evreything. i think tank size and crowded-ness have alot to do with how aggressive fish are

[Aaron-Insular]

glad he's doing better... sorry if this was all ready said as i did not read the entire thread, but I don't think there is a such thing as a true freshwater puffer, though they should be able to be kept in quite lightly salted brackish...

[BlackLava]

supposedly the dwarf puffers are FW only, but i believe that they do better with a little bit of seasalt, they never seem to live long when you dont have any salt

[Jt.]

I've never kept fish but I love Puffers.

He's adorable.

[CrazyBirdLady]

There are quite a few true freshwater puffs! It's much harder to find a true brackish puff. Figure-8s are the only ones that do well in brackish for their full lifetime, as long as you use a marine salt mix (not rock salt or sea salt). GSPs and Ceylons need increasing salinity (again, use a marine mix) until they reach adulthood, at which point they should be in full marine.

Freshwater puffers, including dwarfs, SHOULD NOT have marine salt added. Dwarf puffs are river fish who need very clean 6.5-7.2 pH water. Salt will only hurt unless you are trying to get rid of ich or some similar problem. Many people add salt because it is just one of those things that has become a panacea. Salt is useful only in certain very specific circumstances. The rest of the time, your best friend is the weekly 50% water change. Really 50%. Puffers are dirty and very sensitive to their own byproducts, so you gotta keep 'em clean and test that water every week and the instant you see a problem.


True freshwater puffs:
Auriglobus modestus (bronze puffer)
Auriglobus silus (golden puffer)
Carinotetraodon irrubesco (redeye)
Carinotetraodon lorteti (redeye)
Carinotetraodon salivator (redeye)
Carinotetraodon travancoricus (dwarf puffer)
Monotrete abei (Abei Puffer)
Monotrete baileyi (hairy puffer)
Monotrete Cambodgiensis
Monotrete Cochinchinensis (Fang's puffer)
Monotrete Palembangensis (Palembang Puffer)
Monotrete suvattii (Arrowhead Puffer)
Monotrete Turgidus (Brown Puffer)
Tetraodon cutcutia (Common Puffer)
Tetraodon duboisi (Dubois' Freshwater Puffer)
Tetraodon lineatus (Fahaka puffer)
Tetraodon mbu (Mbu Puffer--say "ehm-boo")
Tetraodon miurus (Congo Puffer)
Tetraodon pustulatus (Cross River Puffer)

Brackish:
Colomesus psittacus (Banded Puffer, high-end brackish to marine)
Tetraodon biocellatus (Figure-8, low-end brackish)
Tetraodon erythrotaenia (Red-striped Toadfish, very low brackish or alkaline fresh)
Tetraodon fluviatilis (Ceylon Puffer, high-end brackish to full marine)
Tetraodon nigroviridis (Green Spotted Puffer, high-end brackish to full marine)
Tetraodon sabahensis (Giant Spotted Puffer, variable salinity alkaline water)

The full marine puffers are too numerous to list. Read all about these and other puffs at the PufferPedia, The Puffer Forum • The PufferPedia

I have personally kept Tetraodon nigroviridis, Tetraodon biocellatus, Carinotetraodon irrubesco, and Carinotetraodon travancoricus, as well as a marine Spotted Sharpnose, Canthigaster solandri. They really are the coolest fish ever, and very smart too. My GSP used to do tricks.