Amazon Puffer Fish - Advice

[Dlove]

I just got done cycling a 75 gallon tank.  I added White Cloud Mountain minnows to help cycle the tank and so I had something to look at.  I think I have finally decided I want a community tank with Amazon Puffers.  I figure I will either have to move the minnows to their own tank or find a new home for them.  I am also starting a 10 gallon tank for a snail colony to feed the puffers with.   

I am looking for advice about Amazon puffers

• What fish have you found are good tank mates? 
• What disease should I look out for? 
• Besides snails what else are good food? 

THANKS!

[lefty o]

id start here.

[FishyThoughts]

Here’s some additional information as well. 

Amazon Puffer | The Aquarium Guide

WWW.THEAQUARIUMGUIDE.COM

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Today our topic is Amazon Puffer, as you can guess from its name it is native to Amazon River. If you are new in the fish...

 

Colomesus asellus – Amazon Puffer (Cheilichthys asellus, Chelichthys asellus) — Seriously Fish

WWW.SERIOUSLYFISH.COM

I have been considering these myself and doing a bit of research. How many were you planning on getting? I was considering a 125g for them and getting like a group of 10 or so. But I’m not in a rush to get it all done either. 
It’s highly suggested to have the tank setup with a bunch of decor (rocks/caves/bog wood/plants) for them to explore, otherwise they get bored. They apparently like playing and swimming in higher flows as well. 

Tank mates are recommended to be non aggressive, fast swimming and have short fins.

Foods are snails, muscles, invertebrates, worms and I’m sure that there’s a bunch of other more specific things I didn’t call out. The teeth on the Amazon puffer are supposed to be one of fastest growing out of puffers. And could require trimming even with them eating the shelled foods. 

For diseases I’d guess probably all of the same as other fish. 
Sorry, no first hand information. But doing a search will pull up tons of information to look through. 

[shkote]

I'm not sure other people's luck with keeping their beaks short, but mine requires trimming regardless of the amount of snails he chomps down. Some people get lucky and theirs will grind them on rocks, but mine never has. I keep him alone, but would consider keeping him with tankmates in the future. I wanted a few more Amazon puffers but on top of never being able to find them, that's just more teeth I would have to trim so, I'm not sure now. I read something about crushed oyster shells in repashy, so that would be worth a try. 

He eats freeze dried krill out of my hand and loves bloodworms. His favorite snails that he will actually chew on are the mini flat ramshorn snails and smaller regular Ramshorns. He is not a big fan of pond or bladder snails, but will eat very small ones as a last resort. Most important with puffers is deworm, deworm, deworm. If you can get them from someone who has already dewormed and quarantined them, that would be the way to go. 

[FishyThoughts]

How often do you have to trim the teeth? Seems like most of what I came across stated maybe 6 months to a year between trimmings. Depending on how how much grinding or shelled foods they eat. 
Do you raise your own snails to feed? And if so, have you tried increasing calcium in the snails tank to help them build strong shells? 

[Dlove]

I was thinking 3 or 4 puffer fish.  They would be the main fish.   I have a huge driftwood piece, rocks and some plants that hopefully will grow bigger for entertainment.