freshwater puffers?

I've seen so many brackish water fish sold as 'fresh water' that it's sickening. They sell a LOT of gobies this way.

Puffers are die hard fin nippers, that really sounds like a figure 8 to me, cute but nippy.

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

only salt water puffers can be in salt water

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I'm not trying to start anything here, but that isn't necessarily right. I have personally kept a figure 8 in full salt (1.024-1.025 sg) for around 2 years. It can and does work. As mentioned earlier, mollies are another example. They can do just fine in fresh or salt or anywhere between. Another case to mention is the bull sharks that swim up into the amazon river. Also salmon hatch in rivers, swim out to sea, then return to the rivers to spawn. The key to making it work is acclimatizing them very slowly. I know that generally we are taught all fish are strictly either fresh, salt, or brackish, but there are exceptions to ever rule.

Jen, if you decide to set him up separately for more controlled salinity, and to avoid fin nipping... they do rather well in a 10 (ish) gallon set up. Or like a 12 gal. Eclipse tank? I'm relitavely sure that the figure 8's don't get as large as some other species. Don't hold me to that, I've got several years of dust on my fish knowledge!:oops:

Brackish water fish are some of the more adaptable aquarium fish around. It doesn't surprise me at all to find a brackish puffer has survived in full strength saltwater for that long, but most brackish water species prefer brackish water. There are a lot of species, including some puffers, that will spend their juvenile life in brackish estuaries, and then migrate out to sea as adults (I don't think figure eights do though). Either way, I agree that any change should be done slowly to lessen the stress on the little guy.

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Originally Posted by piranhaking

...Another case to mention is the bull sharks that swim up into the amazon river.

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Your comment of bull sharks brought back memories of one my favorite discussions back in college, so here's a little side note on the osmoregulation capabilities of elasmobranchs verses marine bony fish (a little of my geek aquarist side coming out :D) - All saltwater bony fish are in a constant battle to get rid of salts entering their body using a variety of means to do so (just as all freshwater bony fish are constantly fighting to get rid of excess water). Elasmobranchs are much closer to the osmolarity of sea water by having increased levels of urea and TMAO (trimethylamine oxide) in their blood (the TMAO also acts to help prevent damage by the high levels of toxic urea in the blood). When bullsharks swim into freshwater, they dump the high levels of TMAO and urea, and so are able to adjust to the huge change in osmotic pressure that much easier. Freshwater rays also lack the normally high levels of TMAO and urea found in their marine relatives.

Sorry for the off topic post, it's just one of those amazing adaptations so common in the animal world.

-Evan

I am keeping him in a 10g tank by himself; did someone mention that it'd be OK or desirable to keep them in pairs/groups? If so, I will go and buy the remaining two at the store.
My friend did warn me that they were aggressive; this one hadn't harmed my tropicals, but I made it a win-win situation by giving the tropicals to my dad who wanted to setup a tank, and keeping the puffer by his lonesome. So now, he is in a brackish 10g setup.. here's a pic.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...minipuffer.jpg

He's a QT!!!! I love their little faces and teeth!!!

yes you can keep small groups together. i would just do a little check on how big it'll get and how big the tank needs to be to house more than one :)

in light,
aleesha

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/puf-nigr.htm

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according to this link... they can get 6" which would mean... only one in a 10 gallon tank. if you upgrade to a 29 gallon tank... you could have 3 together :)

Hm.. I might just keep him solo. I played an awesome joke on Mark, since he didn't know there were brackish/FW puffers; I said "how do you like the new fish?" and showed him the tank; his eyes bugged out and he said "that's SALTwater, isn't it?"
I would love to get a SW puffer.. but of course, that would mean getting a SW tank..

Evan, interesting post on the sharks. I had no idea there are fresh water rays, now im gonna have to go look that up, see what you did :P. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that isn't a figure 8 in the picture. They have much more distinct yellow banding around their spots, and their spots are usually more of an odd shaped blob or "saddle" than a nice round spot.