Friend for my puffer
- Thread starter KurtLoach
- Start date
your fish is fine as it is. adding another species of fish in there will not help your fish from feeling 'lonely'. your puffer is not from a species that needs to kept in a large school or anything...your fish is not lonely, or even capable of feeling so
Possibly more decorations/plants/etc to keep her occupied? I always read that puffers are inquisitive and get bored easily if not given enough to investigate...
SAP's are one of the few puffers that do do good in groups. As far as other species to keep with him, you want fast movers without long fins since SAP's are fin nippers.
Just read this as well as one of the LFS just got some in. I also read a thread that someone who had a bare bottom tank and lots of driftwood and plants tied to it was able to easily move everything around giving their fish a new environment everytime they cleaned. Sounds like a great setup for a puffer.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=196978
There's the link to the bare bottom thread I mentioned from another forum.
I change my setups once a month or every two weeks so that my fish don't get too monotonous on me.
Try a ping pong ball (table tennis ball) i think i have seen gold fish playing with them. SAP may think its a snail shell and keep nosing it. Maybe get a 40 gallon breeder tank fill it with wood and caves. Maybe floating plants?
SAP are full fresh water right not brackish?
SAP are full fresh water right not brackish?
Puffers don't get bored, he is probably chasing his reflection because it's the most interesting thing to do in the tank. Add more complexity to the set up, places to explore, hide, ect.
I am no expert in Puffer fish but everything I've read about them says that they're simply not community fish and will nip and bite and be aggressive. Being your tank is only 20 gallons, I would wager there's just not enough space for another fish or school of fish to co-exist peacefully.
Don't SAP do best in schools of 5+? Sounds like you need at least 75g or more for a proper SAP set up.
I am no expert in Puffer fish but everything I've read about them says that they're simply not community fish and will nip and bite and be aggressive. Being your tank is only 20 gallons, I would wager there's just not enough space for another fish or school of fish to co-exist peacefully.
Don't SAP do best in schools of 5+? Sounds like you need at least 75g or more for a proper SAP set up.
Puffers do get bored. They are rather intelligent as far as fish go and prone to glass surfing when they run out of things to keep them occupied. With SAP's it isn't so much that they are one of the few to do good in groups. GSP's, F8's, Dwarfs, etc. all do perfectly well in groups, assuming the tank is large enough. SAP's are one of the few to actually prefer groups. 3+ should work fine. For that size tank, probably 3.
One of the problems with fish is that species substitution is not all that common when it comes to groupings. You'll sometimes see it, but usually not enough to rely on it for substituting for a lack of the right species. Unfortunately it is going to be even less likely with a SAP, since you aren't going to find another species with similar looks and behavior.
If you haven't already, see if you LFS can special order them. They may not carry them but they may still be able to order them in. Otherwise another LFS or online will be the only other options.
If it were an F8 or GSP I'd say throw a bunch of feeder guppies in to keep it busy, but SAP's are often too nice for that. If possible though you could try that, to give it something to do and chase (if it even cares about other fish). The other method often used is the "throw in a ton of snails to keep it occupied on hunting"-method. Unfortunately SAP's decimate snails faster then the other puffers so that may not be realistic.
One of the problems with fish is that species substitution is not all that common when it comes to groupings. You'll sometimes see it, but usually not enough to rely on it for substituting for a lack of the right species. Unfortunately it is going to be even less likely with a SAP, since you aren't going to find another species with similar looks and behavior.
If you haven't already, see if you LFS can special order them. They may not carry them but they may still be able to order them in. Otherwise another LFS or online will be the only other options.
If it were an F8 or GSP I'd say throw a bunch of feeder guppies in to keep it busy, but SAP's are often too nice for that. If possible though you could try that, to give it something to do and chase (if it even cares about other fish). The other method often used is the "throw in a ton of snails to keep it occupied on hunting"-method. Unfortunately SAP's decimate snails faster then the other puffers so that may not be realistic.