Raising Spotted Green Puffers

It all started in July 2008, staring longingly into the brackish water tank, I had an epiphany "Why not start my own tank?" With over 500 volunteer hours at the local aquarium, my knowledge of the spotted green puffer fish was still limited. My naivety of the caring of the fish world astounds me now, but at the time my mother agreed to allow me to have a tank. My younger siblings and myself proceeded to the store and purchased the appropriate materials for a fresh water tank.

Now in high school, Biology AP explained the Nitrogen cycle: fish eat food, fish poop, poop becomes waste, waste produces ammonia, ammonia with the help of bacteria becomes nitrates then nitrites, which plants eat, but is also why aquariums require water changes. So being aware that the tank had to build the appropriate bacteria, we started with 4 mollies and a sword plant. Surprisingly, none of the mollies died in the beginning.

In my excitement, the next week we went and picked out two puffers: Green Fire and Sparkles. Now being the oldest, I allowed the younger siblings to name them, but the fish have since been renamed. Unfortunately, not doing the proper research for the fish, we lost one after a month. Thus the quest for knowledge began and Sparkles II was purchased. The spotted green puffer requires a salt water to brackish water tank. Brackish water is the water that is the mixture of salt and fresh, if kept in fresh water they are more susceptible to fungus and other diseases. The tank salinity was adjusted the next water change, not realizing that this would shock the fish. They did recover.

I moved out in November 2009 and transported the fish in cups, after catching them by hand. After the hour drive to my boyfriend's apartment, I eventually got around to setting up the puffer tank about 2 days later. I kept them in fish bowls in the meantime. About 3 months, the puffers behavior changed drastically. The sweet faced, well behaved fish became aggressive and the slaughter began. The fish tank had expanded to wider variety of fish. The puffers began with the ghost shrimp, they followed with the mollies, the archer fish, and last to go was the upside down catfish. They also ate all of the snails, which were in there for them to eat, to help trim their beak, but usually they ate 3 or 4 at a time. Since then they have eaten anything that resides in the tank with them.

July 2010 is the month we moved into our house, being prepared this time, we received bags from the local pet store. Mostly for the salt water tank, however the first day we moved all of the fish stuff and set up the tanks. I quickly learned that the puffer fish lacking scales find copper to be poisonous, as do crabs. So the water filter was quickly added and the 2 puffers survived. The puffers were sick for about month: cloudy, swollen eyes, disoriented, lack of typical behavior, etc. A few water changes with the filter and they were back to normal.

The puffers behavior is typically begging for food, by swimming up and down the glass. In the wild this is done to rocks in the search for food, mostly clams and oysters for them to crush with their teeth. Knowing that I feed them, they follow me from room to room straining to see what I am doing. They are also trained to swim to the top of the tank, when I tap the lid twice. The puffers tank lacks real plants, because they shred the real plants and it clogs the filter. About a year ago I risked adding a new addition and now have Nibbler, another puffer. This year I tried adding a figure 8 puffer, but unfortunately the lack of aggressive behavior and interest in food made me return him shortly after. The figure 8 was not quarantined and the puffers received a parasite, but after 2 treatment cycles of Maracyn-Two they are now mostly better.

The only benefit of the parasite was Nibbler puffed! In my travels with the puffer fish, none of them have ever puffed before. Of course it was after he had ran into the tank's wall while being disoriented, but it answered my question of their ability to puff. The Spotted Green Puffers are the most difficult animal I own. For instance it is hard to get the water levels correct for the puffers, they require an abundance of snails, they're destroyers of tanks, they bite your hand while cleaning the tank, they go through fazes of nipping one another, but then they're intriguing behavior, charm, and just overall adorableness is what makes them worth having. They are the best fish I have ever owned, although they're the messiest and despite the difficulties, it makes my day coming home to see they're odd faces peering at me through the glass.

The puffers: Nibbler, Chomper (Sparkles II), and Sir Munch-a-lot (Green Fire) are now all about 3.5in to 4in. and will be requiring a bigger tank shortly. The recommended size for puffers is 30 gallons for a puffer and once maturity occurs males are often territorial. Maturity does not occur until after the puffers are 5 years old and it is not possible to distinguish males from females. Their diet varies, but typically is shrimp, clams, snails, feeder fish, or crickets that's what I feed them. The tank has a large decorative plastic tree stump, plastic plants and real shells to help with phosphates and to give them something to chew on. The water change occurs once to twice weekly and salinity is maintained at 1.015, however recently I have considered changing to full salt. They consistently change colors to display their moods and are typically a light green to bright green except when upset to which they vary individually from a light grey, which is all Nibbler can manage, to completely black, which is Sir Munch-a-lot.

The puffers teeth have always not been a problem, but it can be a problem. The puffers teeth constantly grow and without constantly being provided snails and shells to chew on, they will reach point where their beak prevents them from eating. To trim their teeth you take two containers and fill them with 3 cups of water each, and put 3 drops of clove oil in only 1 container. You then proceed to stick the puffer in the water, with the clove oil and it will stop moving. Then you clip it's teeth with nail clippers and stick it in the other container until it starts moving again.