south american puffers

[waterspirit]

I am looking into getting a few south american puffers (I can't remember the scientific name off the top of my head). What I've heard is they are smaller than most of the other varieties available ie figure eight, leopard and that they do not require brackish water. Has anybody had any experience with them? If so, I'd really like to know more about them.

 

[shmeeb001]

colomesus asellus, not as pugnacious as most. they do like some salt in their water, but can get along without it. eat live and frozen stuff (frozen brine shrimp is what i used). i didn't end up keeping mine, because he wasn't aggressive enough for my cichlid tank, and a bit too fond of fin nipping for my community tank. sorry to see him go though, a nice fish in a clumsy sort of way. not sure what you'd keep one with. spieces only would obviously work, but he probably wouldn't bother cats and the like. any thoughts anyone?

 

[Cichlid Woman]

These guys do not like members of their own species in the tank, from what I read in a mag article. Shmee, did you have more than one in a tank? How did they do?

-- Pat

 

[shmeeb001]

no, just the one, although supposedly this particular spieces of puffer is more tolerant of others of its kind than most.

 

[RTR]

I disagree on the salt.

Co-existence with conspefic tankmates is part individual personality, part visual complexity of the setup, and in large part the size of the tank. Small fish kept together in large visually complex tanks have the best chance of getting along long-term, but it is still unpredictable. Other than the dwarf puffers, these are the most likely to co-exist IME, but I still would not place bets.

For more info, check:

http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/sapuffer.shtml