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Puffer Appreciation Thread


Chris
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On 10/4/2021 at 1:30 PM, Jennifer V said:

@eatyourpeas oh I know! We tell Jack he's a cool dude sometimes but I think it makes him a little rowdy with some of the girls. 😆 

Do you know how long it takes for the puffs to reach maturity? I'm not sure how old they are but we got them as tiny babies and it's been about eight months. 

I think after 7 months or so. I saw Nicodemus reach full size and colors at about that time. Miss Ethel was still little but I knew she was definitely a girl. E-schi is not telling me yet, but I am suspecting he may be a boy.

You may start seeing some courting behaviour. 😉

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On 10/4/2021 at 2:38 PM, eatyourpeas said:

I think after 7 months or so. I saw Nicodemus reach full size and colors at about that time. Miss Ethel was still little but I knew she was definitely a girl. E-schi is not telling me yet, but I am suspecting he may be a boy.

You may start seeing some courting behaviour. 😉

I have! Jack has a crush on the largest girl -- Munster (all named after cheese). But I'm not counting on any babies since I know that's pretty tough to accomplish and I don't think I can handle caring for babies yet. 

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On 10/4/2021 at 1:24 PM, eatyourpeas said:

The king of his tank, H.R.H. Nicodemus, showing his breakfast belly, of course!

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The 1.5" killing machine is off to find more food (as if he needs it!).PXL_20211004_171547826.jpg.fd9abe2a25a8701feba3db9477015146.jpg

 

That is a very colorful DP! Love the algae/moss on the driftwood, as well. I love to see all the little epiphytes and such that tend to pop up in these tanks.

I fed the Green Spotted Puffer and the Figure 8 some dried mealworms today. I do this every week or two for variation in their diet, and also because the worms have a crazy hard shell that I'd like to think helps keep their beaks ground down.

If you turn the volume up, you can hear the crunch in this one!

Notice how much more shy the Figure 8 is than the Green Spotted. I swear, I've seen molly fry chase the F8 off from food before. Such a gentle little blob.

Edited by Chris
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Just got new pics of Bad Pea Daddy today.

He’s such a chonky boy!  Second pic he’s partially behind the tube on an ACO nano for a size comparison.  You can’t see his tail but around 3/8” is covered.  He’s at least 1.5-2 years old and has to be at least double the weight of my other peas that are roughly 7-8 months old and not quite double the length of the next biggest.  He is close to 1.75”, certainly over 1.5”.

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On 10/4/2021 at 2:03 PM, Chris said:

That is a very colorful DP! Love the algae/moss on the driftwood, as well. I love to see all the little epiphytes and such that tend to pop up in these tanks.

I fed the Green Spotted Puffer and the Figure 8 some dried mealworms today. I do this every week or two for variation in their diet, and also because the worms have a crazy hard shell that I'd like to think helps keep their beaks ground down.

If you turn the volume up, you can hear the crunch in this one!

Notice how much more shy the Figure 8 is than the Green Spotted. I swear, I've seen molly fry chase the F8 off from food before. Such a gentle little blob.

They are so fun! I am jealous that yours eat dry foods. Mine won’t acknowledge anything that is not live, and if they do is just to give me attitude.

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On 10/4/2021 at 8:26 PM, eatyourpeas said:

They are so fun! I am jealous that yours eat dry foods. Mine won’t acknowledge anything that is not live, and if they do is just to give me attitude.

Eh, I'm sure they'd give me quite the tongue-lashing (fin-lashing? Laser eyes? 🤔) if I gave them dried foods often! They just get the dried mealworms every now and then - the only puffer I have that'll take flake and pellets is actually the Figure 8. He'll inhale little bits whenever I feed the other fish dried stuff.

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On 10/6/2021 at 3:22 PM, Chris said:

Thought this was kind of cool - you can see my F8's snaggletooth in this pic!

That is a great picture!

I was finally able to spot the dark belly line in E-schi so it is official: he is a boy! He does not like for me to look at his underbelly for some reason... 🙄

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On 5/25/2022 at 11:44 AM, bcflowerlady said:

So day before yesterday I couldn't find one of my dwarf peas in their 10G. I found it in the tank next to it with the platies and the guppies. It had to have  jumped over 2". O_O Who knew that could jump? The lid is firmly on the tank now.

Notorious jumpers!  They need a tight fitting lid.  Ask me how I know.  😢 

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On 10/3/2021 at 9:03 AM, Chris said:

 

....

Share your pics and videos of your puffers here!

Late to the party but happy to have found this thread. Ive had a few species I suppose. I went into the wayback machine for a few of these and added a few notes I couldnt help myself. 

I do plan on red eyes eventually and possibly a 2nd try with another group of hairys if I find 6+ to grow out together. One short white worm feeding included from my youtube channel. I dont post too often but i try to add any noteworthy fishroom events there. 

Not pictured are my inital puffer a 4" wild caught hairy puffer purchased in 2017 that died suddenly in late 2018. Also not pictured my  group of 6 pea puffers that were in the fishroom for a bit before moving on. 

*** The puffer beginnings ***

Tetraodon schoutedeni (Spotted Congo Puffer)

A few years back (August 2018 arrival) single puffer. Slight mishap with a surface skimmer in 2019 was a tough lesson for me. Excellent species I enjoyed this one so much I tried some other species and colonys of ambush puffer species. 

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Tetraodon lineatus (Nile Puffer /Fahaka Puffer) 

Single Fahaka arrived April 2020 raised to 6" and sent to a permanent home following the tour of my fishroom done by weldon tanks. A little too flighty for me up here on the mountain. This tank became the Pao cf. palustris breeding colony. 

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**** Current projects *****

Pao baileyi (Hairy Puffer) colony

Hairy puffers are really the colony that started it all. These three were wild caught arrived  2019. 3 distinct peraonalities, 3 different food color preferences, 3 hunting strategies. Yet to breed but lots of spawning behaviors. I'd have gone with 6 and let them decide on their trio if i could do over. 

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Display in front of puffer in pipe

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followed by two of 3 in a pipe wiggling and rubbing. no eggs yet but possibly someday. 

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Pao cf Palustris (Mekong River Puffer) colony

I started with 6 wild caught adults in my 75 gallon. I thought the patterns were great and was pretty sure if I figjred these out it sould help me with the hairys. They self selected down to trio within 30 days of arrival.  All the male palustris photos are of my one adult male despite the wide range of color and patterns shown. 

He has some personality saying hi to me and humbly requesting his meal of 50 or so gut loaded nightcrawlers. The blemishes are some spawning nicks on his body. 

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Male in standard coloration but bristled up and looking for more food from me "the food guy".(nightcrawler food below him)

 

 

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One of the 2 female pao cf palustris  (standard coloration)

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Male courtship colors displaying for the 2 adult females. The dsrk green is about half way between normal and spawning dress color. 

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Male spawning dance. The male inflates to about the size of a softball, reverses his colors to this nearly black dark green base with light green spots. Normal color is lighter green base with dark markings

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Spawning colors. Male right  female left both reverse to light spots on a darker base color

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Spawn in cave male attending and guarding

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When he is on this color he will not allow anything within eyesight of his eggs but me. 

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I pull up to 80% of the spawn once eyed up and ready to hatch. I use a coop airline tube as a slow flow siphon by having the end flow into a specimen containef. He attacks the airline a bit and has even "sat" on it with his body to stop spawn removal. If I took them all he would have all that aggression to defend them and no use for it. That can causs him to go on a scorched earth rampage throught the tank. (I learned that one the hard way early on) 

Pao cf palustris Day 0 in a ziss breeder box very zoomed in on the cell phone camera.

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day 1 fry 

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Pao cf palustris Fry first batch around week 2

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Moved to a growout with her 12 siblings day 25 ish . My short of the first whiteworm feeding.

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Same batch same growout month 3 or so. 5 cooperatively feeding on nightcrawlers. Though friendly fire does occasionally happen mostly just a group of puffers. 

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1 bag of 2nd batch of palustris fry on way to new home. 100% survival for the trip. Subwassertang in the bag for cover and polyfilter cubes for a little filtration helped 

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Tetraodon miurus (Congo Puffer) colony

5 wild caught adolescents growing out. Change colors from light brown to black eaxh of the colors shown here can be exhibited by all 5 puffers shown. Not very aggressive towards eachother currently. I expect around 3 or 4 " there will be a pair or trio formed and the others will move out to new tanks or another keeper. Close up shows the freckling pattern on congos. 

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Blackworms in substrate didnt last long. Snails also disnt last long. These do bury themselves a bit in the blasting media substrate. 

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Edited by mountaintoppufferkeeper
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