In some cases, enthusiastic buyers plunge them into community tanks where they immediately race over to say 'hello' to the resident Siamese fighter in the same way my Scottish terrier tries to say 'hello' to squirrels. That’s not to say they’ve been problem free. The Dwarf Indian puffers, also known as Pygmy puffers and Malabar puffers, Carinotetraodon travancoricus, were a revelation for the everyday aquarist, being small, entirely freshwater and not quite the relentless psychopaths that we naturally expect of any of their relatives. This all changed when the world’s tiniest bundle of adorable appeared in the hobby. This means that almost everything that has been housed alongside traditional pufferfish has ended up either shredded or decapitated, resulting in lightly stocked tanks and heavy disappointments. It’s as though they explore the world with their teeth as a primary sense organ, such is their propensity to chomp. Pufferfish are well armed, with slicing ‘beaks’ and a tenacious lust to bite absolutely anything that can be bitten. Salt has been the bane of many puffers, mainly because there seems no 'folk wisdom' consensus on exactly which species require brackish conditions, full-blown marine or fresh.įor years, there has been confusion about exactly how much salt to give a Figure eight or Green spotted puffer, resulting in errors, white spot and death.Īnd lastly, there’s temperament. These bloated jesters, reaching 50–60cm/20-24" or more, are not for the starter aquarist. Huge Dog-face and Porcupine puffers are far and away the most appealing, but also the largest, as though their cuteness is directly correlated with their size. The size issue is mostly a marine problem. Traditionally speaking, the challenges of keeping puffers have been split into three categories: size, salinity and temperament. The most enduring, admired and adored fish in the hobby have to be the many pufferfish varieties.
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