Red Eye Red Tail Puffer Breeding Journal

[LionheartsGhost]

Update:

No visible fry anywhere in the tank this morning. But the same pair spawned again around noon. Exactly 7 days after first spawn. I’m afraid I do not think my breeder box or micro worm starter will be here in time. So we’ll see if I can keep this batch alive. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@LionheartsGhostgreat stuff in those videos and thanks for your first hand accounts! Puffer fry survival success is very difficult. In talking with Dean at our GSAS club meeting last month he indicated he thinks that the effort required to keep these smaller puffer fry alive burgeons on the impossible unless this is your full time job. He has only been able to keep Congo spotted puffer fry alive for a week or so before losing his batches. This was with infusoria, rotifers, micron foods, golden pearls he listed off a couple other things as well. He thinks maybe if he shut down his whole fish room and focused only on puffer breeding could he pull it off so I think your experience is indicative of most hobbyists and even master breeder level hobbyists. Have fun! 

[LionheartsGhost]

Yeah it’s difficult. Just when I got the hang of it everything went south. My wife had an art show out of town last weekend and a snow storm caused a power outage and my water dropped to a very low temp. I got home and all my fish died from cold temperatures. I had well over 100 fry at two weeks old in a external hang on tank that cycled water through and it cycled the cold water through. My neigbor was feeding them for me but they are older and didn’t know what was going on. So that sucks. Just when I was about to switch from micro worms to brine shrimp. I wish I had been home because I could have run a generator or just kept the room warm enough with the fireplace but it happens. That being said I have signed up for alerts on every site I could find that have had them in stock at some point so I can try again. Especially since in the last week I set up three new tanks just for breeding these fish. I figure they need time to cycle while I wait for more to become available. I am worried though as much as I like irrubesco I think Lorteti will always be my favorite and I waited 8 years for them to become available. I sure I hope I don’t have to wait another 8 years. 

[LionheartsGhost]

If anybody has a homie in Vietnam willing to ship me some wild ones let me know lol

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@LionheartsGhostI am so sorry. I had a horrible event last winter with a stray wild bunny and a power strip. Lost my breeding group of irrubesco and essentially my whole fish room. My sympathies! In these carefully curated environments that we sink so much love and attention on for something without and outside our control like a weather event to take out fish it’s just so difficult. I’ve been through it many times over the years but doesn’t make it any less frustrating. 

[Schuyler]

On 3/17/2023 at 11:58 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I have sad news, due to a bad gfi outlet I lost the trio. I’ll be updating my journal to detail further but it’s been sad times around the fish room. 

Aww man that sucks! Did the GFI randomly trip and turn off the air/heat? 

I just saw some of these at the LFS today so when I saw it in your signature I was excited to see how it went. 

Do you or @mountaintoppufferkeeper know if they're social or can they be kept on their own? 

There definitely seem like cool fish

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

On 4/10/2024 at 10:59 PM, Schuyler said:

Aww man that sucks! Did the GFI randomly trip and turn off the air/heat? 

I just saw some of these at the LFS today so when I saw it in your signature I was excited to see how it went. 

Do you or @mountaintoppufferkeeper know if they're social or can they be kept on their own? 

There definitely seem like cool fish

@Schuyler my full disclaimer is that I keep my puffers as colonys and my opinions are based of my experiences with them all. Others might have had redeyes that were not social.  I personally kept 2 males and 3 females in a well planted 40 breeder here without issue. puffers are very much individual personalities and do have group dynamics when kept as a group.  

Consistent feeding and cover are helpful here to increase my odds of success with colonys here. All puffer species here are social and much more interactive in a group but one caution is that a puffer group could become a solo puffer without much notice; I always have a plan B option if i need to move or seperate individuals.....which has not been needed in red tailed redeye (C.irrubesco) or pea puffers (C. Travancoricus), pao species (P.baileyi, P.palustris, P.turgidus, P.cochinchinesis, or africa puffers( T. Schoutedeni, T. miurus)... to this point.

I wouldnt say rhis is possible with every individual puffer of every puffer species but I have had success with them all givien enough space, territory, cover, and food. 

To reduce the risk of territorial aggression, I probably wouldnt personally try 5 redeyes in less and a 40 breeder footprint up here. I was considering 4 redeyes in a 20 long I expect that is also possible to keep successfully  

This was the group in there 40B: 

2 females and 1 male feeding on whiteworms

Males and on of the females

Females

 

I did trade my redeye colony to a likeminded keeper for "future considerations" last year. They have stayed together at that fishroom and had no aggression issues so far. 

They are a pretty cool species