Spiny Box Puffer

Oh boy a puffer question. 

Here comes a novel....  I love talking about them. 

 

Yes they are awesome.  Yes they are hard to keep IME.

I have had two.  Both did ok at first.  One got ich, but got through it. 

They are very slow swimmers and some of them are picky eaters, so getting food to them w/o them getting scared by the other fish is part of the challenge.  Then they sometimes just stop eating. 

I tried everything I could think of to get him to eat.  I finally decided that maybe live food would work.  I have a water dragon, so I have mealworms all the time.  I figured, why not?  To my surprise he actually nibbled it.  It was cool to watch.  Mealworms have a kinda "shell covering" on them, and the puffer would take part of the end of the worm, chew on it, then spit it out leaving the outer part.  He did this a bunch of times till he ate most of the worm.  Unfortunately it must have been a passing fancy, I tried again and nothing.  It's really hard to watch them and not be able to convince them to do what they need to.

 

Overall they are great fish and I want to try again, but you have to go into it knowing that it is a risk. 

If you do decide to get one make sure to feed with garlic for the first week at least.

 

Read below for tips ... if you are notlooking to get one it may just bore you. 

Make sure you see him eat. 

Even if he is eating check for any signs of illness or damage. 

Slowly acclimate as to limit stress.  Turn the tank lights out.  If you acclimate with the bag in the tank, keep room lights low.  I recommend acclimating in a bucket or styro w/ a lid to keep the light out. This way they can't see into the tank.  Depending on the difference between the tankwater and the water the puffer is in, you may need to adjust.  You can take this opportunity to do a water change.   If you are using a 5g bucket you can just fill it the rest of the way with tank water or take out some of the water then refill with tankwater.  Let the new guy adjust to the new temp for a couple minutes.  Then put him in the tank.  Be careful of the spines, they can get caught on nets.  I like the bucket to bucket method (not that it is official or anything) pour most of the water from the bucket the puffer is in into another bucket.  (don't lose the little guy in the process)  Leave him with just enough water that he is just barely covered.  Slowly pour him in the tank.  Puffers should ideally never be out of water.  It stresses them and can make them puff, but since there is no water to suck in, they suck air.  They are then too boyant to do anything about it.  If this does happen I've heard that you can try to gently cup or hold (with fingertips) the puffer with his mouth facing up, this should make the air go out his mouth. 

 

Hope this helps. 

That was like babysitting kids.    Kids that could bite each others noses off if they go for the food at the same time.  (but then the rest of the fish with my single porcupine puffer run the same risk)

 

If/when I get another one I will probably use a "feeding box" basicly a way to keep the spiny box seperate from the other fish while he eats.  I didn't get to make/use one as I only found out about it when my spiny box stopped eating.  Supposedly if you train them from the beginning to go to a spot to get fed (the front left corner of the tank for example) and after they know where to go, put in divider to keep the other fish from getting in and you can let them eat at their own pace.  I'd have to look up the details again, but you get the idea.