Puffer Fish ID & Ideas Of A Puffer Aquascape

[FiShrewd]

I Got These Amazing Looking Guys While I Was Traveling 

Note: These Were Kept In A Pretty Bad Condition

I Am Planning To Keep One For Myself And Giving The Other To A Friend

They Are From A Chain Store [Will Not Mention The Name Or Place]

They Have Improved Quite A Load Since I Got Them

I Am Planning To Do & Scape With Houseplants And Rocks Only

But Please ID Them And Suggestions Are Always Welcome

But Know It, Even If Its & Mbu Puffer [thankfully its not]

I Will Keep It

not in the best condition but working on it 

using the methylene blue

and green malachite

[note: i have a borewell in my house so pretty hard water]

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/10/2022 at 3:38 PM, FiShrewd said:

I Got These Amazing Looking Guys While I Was Traveling 

Note: These Were Kept In A Pretty Bad Condition

I Am Planning To Keep One For Myself And Giving The Other To A Friend

They Are From A Chain Store [Will Not Mention The Name Or Place]

They Have Improved Quite A Load Since I Got Them

I Am Planning To Do & Scape With Houseplants And Rocks Only

But Please ID Them And Suggestions Are Always Welcome

But Know It, Even If Its & Mbu Puffer [thankfully its not]

I Will Keep It

not in the best condition but working on it 

using the methylene blue

and green malachite

[note: i have a borewell in my house so pretty hard water]

 

Looks a bit like a schoutedeni puffer to me; maybe @mountaintoppufferkeeper has an idea?

[Biotope Biologist]

They appear to be very stressed figure 8’s.

 

If they are, marine salt will be necessary for happy healthy lives. Fun puffer species I hope to devote a tank to one day. Puffers need mental stimulation, all of them whether that’s toys or a nicely scaped tank. You should also try to interact with them ☺️

[Colu]

I think @Patrick_Ghas figure 8 puffer so maybe he will be able to help with an ID 

[Patrick_G]

I actually have a Green spotted puffer, and I think those are Figure 8 puffers. Like @Biotope Biologist pointed out they’re brackish fish so you’ll need to get some marine salt and start acclimating them to brackish. They do look stressed but the nice round bellies are a good sign. 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Thanks @TheSwissAquarist. My guess is figure 8 knowing the type of store carrying them, the shape and colors. I have no experience with them personally and defer to the experts to confirm

 

Correction not a figure 8..... it looks like the Dichotomyctere cf. fluviatilis "Bengal" to me now which are also brackish

https://www.aqualog.de/en/lexikon/dichotomyctere-fluviatilis-bengal-tetraodon-f-2/

@FiShrewd my pao species really enjoy sight breaks and occasional adjustments to their tank and the surrounding room. I normally leave any sponge filter futuer forward to allow them to "hide" from me when they choose. Puffers, for me, really enjoy interesting tanks and the occasional change to keep them entertained. 

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by mountaintoppufferkeeper

[FiShrewd]

thank you so much everyone

i will settle in for the dichotomyctere fluviatilis

[it is the most similar looking fish]

i have borewell water which is very hard  and will be adding rocks to harden it even more

my grandfathers quite old but is a professor of zoology specializing in ichthyology

he said that he has kept one of those long long ago

and he agrees that live and frozen foods do quite well

he used to feed them earthworms mixed in with dried duckweed

so i hope this one is fine with it

to replicate somewhat brackish style tank i will be using a filter with 10x turnover

with slightly distributed flow

am using a planted tank led cause thats what i have on my hand

doing a terrestrial plants aquascape

with a hardscape only tank

any suggestions are welcome

[Biotope Biologist]

I agree with @mountaintoppufferkeeper on further inspection, thanks for the I.D!

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

On 11/11/2022 at 4:30 AM, FiShrewd said:

thank you so much everyone

i will settle in for the dichotomyctere fluviatilis

[it is the most similar looking fish]

i have borewell water which is very hard  and will be adding rocks to harden it even more

my grandfathers quite old but is a professor of zoology specializing in ichthyology

he said that he has kept one of those long long ago

and he agrees that live and frozen foods do quite well

he used to feed them earthworms mixed in with dried duckweed

so i hope this one is fine with it

to replicate somewhat brackish style tank i will be using a filter with 10x turnover

with slightly distributed flow

am using a planted tank led cause thats what i have on my hand

doing a terrestrial plants aquascape

with a hardscape only tank

any suggestions are welcome

Im going to have to try that dried duckweed deal with the worm cultures. I wonder if i dry it and mix with nutritional yeast etc if that would make the worms more nutritionally dense

On 11/11/2022 at 8:32 AM, Biotope Biologist said:

I agree with @mountaintoppufferkeeper on further inspection, thanks for the I.D!

That was an intriguing tasket there. I couldnt help going all in on that search 😁

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

You could try some macro algae in their tank but don’t be surprised if they eat chomp or rearrange it. Driftwood from the ocean would be good as well. Best of luck.

[Patrick_G]

On 11/11/2022 at 3:30 AM, FiShrewd said:

and he agrees that live and frozen foods do quite well

he used to feed them earthworms mixed in with dried duckweed

They will need lots of “crunchy” foods to keep their beaks trimmed. I feed snails that grow naturally in my other tanks. My grape sized Green spotted puffer gets about 8-10 snails per week and frozen blood worms and brine shrimp. 

[FiShrewd]

On 11/11/2022 at 9:42 PM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said:

Im going to have to try that dried duckweed deal with the worm cultures. I wonder if i dry it and mix with nutritional yeast etc if that would make the worms more nutritionally dense

That was an intriguing tasket there. I couldnt help going all in on that search 😁

@mountaintoppufferkeeperit works well with dried spirulina for some reason [imo it shouldnt, but my grandpa insists it based on just the personal preference of fish, he says it works with carinotetraodon irrubesco, never kept those but i think it would work for you]

that is an interesting idea

i am going to try it out rn [for real]

are there any suggestions for tank mates [dither fish or something else in general]

i am also going to acclimate them for freshwater

a lot of ichthyologist i know agree that it will work for me as i have super hard water and even suggest that i can keep stigmatogobius sadanundio or try dadio

i would like your take on this [i have really hard water but its still fresh]