The Green Spotted Puffer Fish
The Green Spotted Puffer (Tetraodon nigoviridis) is a colorful fish native to Southeast Asia. They are recognizable by their yellow-green backs dotted with black or brown leopard-like spots. Green Spotted Puffers have become very popular in home aquariums due to their spunky attitudes and unique behaviors.
The Green Spotted Puffer is unlike any fish you have ever owned, and has very specific needs. Unfortunately, pet stores often sell them to uneducated aquarium owners without providing the correct information.
It’s always important to research a fish species before purchase, and failing to do so in this case will result in a premature death for your Green Spotted Puffer as well as possibly all other fish in your tank.
This guide should serve as a basic primer for getting your Green Spotted Puffer off on the right fin, and avoiding the most common mistakes made by novice puffer keepers.
An Adult Green Spotted Puffer
Green Spotted Puffer Tank Setup
The Green Spotted Puffer is an extremely aggressive fish. There is a very strong possibility it will attack, kill and possibly eat any other fish in the tank. It should not be kept in a tank with any other species, or even its own kind. Some puffer keepers have success with two puffers in a 55-gallon tank or larger, making sure to break up the sight lines in the tank so the puffers do not see each other as often. But you are probably better off safe than sorry, keeping your puffer as a solitary fish.
Adult Green Spotted Puffers reach a maximum length of about six inches, but they are heavy-bodied fish. A single puffer should not be kept in a tank smaller than 30 gallons, though a 55-gallon tank is better. Regular aquarium gravel may be used as a substrate, but many puffer keepers prefer to use crushed coral as it helps to keep the PH level of the water around the desired level.
Green Spotted Puffers do best in brackish water when in captivity. In the wild they move from freshwater as juveniles, often to a full marine environment as adults. You will need a bag of marine salt (aquarium salt used for saltwater tanks, not the type used as an additive to freshwater tanks) and a hydrometer. A hydrometer is a device used to measure the specific gravity (salinity) of water. They are inexpensive and can be purchased in most pet stores that sell aquarium supplies. You will shoot for a specific gravity of about 1.006 for young puffers, increasing it to 1.02 by the time it becomes an adult.
When you first purchase a puffer, the store should be able to tell you what type of water it has been kept in. You need to know this so you can build its new home within the water parameters than will be safe for it. Many stores keep them in freshwater as babies, which is fine. In that case, you can start it off in fresh water and gradually increase the salinity. Be sure to fully cycle the tank before adding a new puffer. If you don’t understand how to do this, please take some time to research the process of cycling a tank before purchasing your puffer. You should never add a puffer, or any fish, to an un-cycled tank. Green Spotted Puffers, especially, are sensitive to water conditions.
Puffers are also very messy eaters, so you’ll need a solid plan for filtration. It’s a good idea to over-filter – to use two filters, or a filter larger than recommended for the tank. You’ll need to perform water changes of about 50% weekly to keep the water clean. Always mix the new brackish water in a bucket. Never add salt directly to the aquarium without allowing it to dissolve and dilute, as it can be harmful to the fish.
You’ll get no help from live plants when it comes to maintaining water parameters. Because puffers live in brackish water, there really are no commonly available aquarium plants than can survive in the tank. You can use plastic plants, but it’s even better to include lots of caves, tunnels and vertical structures for your puffer to swim through and around. Green Spotted Puffers are intelligent fish, so providing a complex environment is a great idea. You might also try moving the decorations around in the tank each time you do a water change, giving your puffer a “new” home each time.
Basic Water Parameters
Temp: 78-82°F
PH: 7.5-8.5
Specify Gravity: 1.004 - 1.022
Weekly water changes to keep water clean
A juvenile Green Spotted Puffer stalking a ghost shrimp. It's hard to see the shrimp so look closely!
Source: Michael J Rapp
Puffer Feeding
Green Spotted Puffers need live or frozen food, not the flake food you might be used to feeding other fish. Frozen blood worms and krill are both great, but be sure to thaw in tank water before feeding. Puffers also like to hunt, so adding some live ghost shrimp to the tank gives it a chance to work for its meal. The most important part of a puffer’s diet is live snails. Green Spotted Puffers have boney plates in their mouths that grow as the fish ages. Without hard foods such as snail shells to wear them down these plates overgrow to the point where the puffer will no longer be able to eat at all.
So what kind of snails, and where do you get them? Common pond snails are fine, and the tanks in aquarium stores are usually overrun with them. They are pests and, in many stores, all you have to do is ask and they’ll give you all you want for free, as long as they are not too busy with customers. But you’re probably going to want to breed your own snails rather than have to go begging for them. A 10-gallon tank with minimum filtration, lighting and substrate does nicely. Breeding snails is easy: throw a few in and a few weeks later you’ll have an outbreak of baby snails. Snails will eat almost anything, but you’ll want to feed them lots of algae wafers and veggies to provide better nutrition for your puffer. Be sure to keep your snail tank clean and well-maintained, performing water chances at least bi-weekly just as you would with fish, as you want to breed the healthiest snails possible. To get your puffer to eat the whole snail you should feed it snails about the size of its eye.
In the wild, adult puffers eat crustaceans, so as your Green Spotted Puffer gets older you may experiment with different foods such as shrimp, crabs and clams. Always be sure to remove any food it doesn’t eat right away, as it will pollute the tank if left in there. Baby puffers can eat every day, but you should eventually move to an alternate day feed/fast schedule.
Your puffer will eat, and eat, and eat, and you’ll see its belly blow up like a balloon. In fact, your puffer can easily overeat if you aren’t careful. Never put too much food in the tank at once, as you can make you puffer sick or even cause its death. Learn to gauge how much it will eat, and give it no more than necessary.
Take the Puffer Quiz!
Additional Green Spotted Puffer Care Considerations
Puffers “puff” by blowing up their bodies with air, but you should never make them do this on purpose. This is an extreme defensive reaction, and not good for the fish. In fact, you should never net your puffer as you would an ordinary fish. In the event you should have to remove your puffer from its tank (which you really should never have to do once it’s in there) herd it into a container and scoop it out rather than netting it.
The Green Spotted Puffer is a unique fish. They take a great deal of care and a good chunk of your time every week. And, they can live for over a decade. Before purchasing a Green Spotted Puffer make sure you have the time and desire to make this type of commitment. If you decide you can, they are very rewarding fish to keep. They will come to the front of the tank when you enter the room and even beg for food. Unlike most fish, they seem worthy of being named, like a dog or a cat. If you learn to properly care for your Green Spotted Puffer it will be a member of your family for a long, long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment