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Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a puffer at my LFS. I was told days before that it was a dwarf puffer and I set up a tank just for this fish. If you have never had one, I really recommend them!

Anyways, after reading up about other puffers, I now have doubts if this is a dwarf, or a spotted, or a green puffer. The real confusion is between being a green puffer and being a dwarf. It is only about 1 inch in size, so I thought it might be a small green puffer. What I am trying to avoid is having the poor guy suffer due to incorrect water conditions.

Here are some pics of the little guy:
http://iguanascr.com/puffer-1.jpg
http://iguanascr.com/puffer-2.jpg
http://iguanascr.com/puffer-3.jpg

Anyone that can indentify this guy would help me, and him, out tons!

Thanks!

It looks like a Green Spotted Puffer (Tetraodon nigroviridis) to me.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Well, I thought that too until I read this, that is why I kind of ruled out the green spotted puffer. According to this page, he is not round enough to be a spotted.

http://puffernet.tripod.com/confusion.html

But to be honest, I do not have the experience with puffers to really rule anything out. I even tried emailing the page mentioned before but it seems like the address is no longer valid.

I added two more pics that seem a little better. This guy just does not stand still, lol.

http://iguanascr.com/puffer-4.jpg
http://iguanascr.com/puffer-5.jpg

Also, his belly is big because he pigged out on some shrimp. It is normally flat.

Most T. fluviatilis I've seen are more striped than spotted. Try doing a google image search on the name and check out: http://www.pufferlist.com/brackindex.htm. In the last paragraph this article: gsp.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/brackish/gsp.html also talks about fluviatilis being completely different and that negroviridis can come in various shapes. Most sites also say negroviridis is brackish to full marine and people keeping them in full marine conditions have had them live much longer than in freshwater. Both species and their exact salinity requirements seems to be a never ending debate amongst aquarists.

That is a great article. Very interesting! So just so I understood correctly, they recommend that I start this fish in a brackish enviroment, correct? The moving him over slowly has me somewhat worried that I will mess up.

"I suggest keeping GSPs at low-end BW when juvenile <2"

Both my fish and I are thankful for the support!

First of all, while Tetraodon nigroviridis does indeed prefer a brackish environment, the migration can be performed slowly. One way of achieving this is as follows if you've never migrated a fish to brackish water before:

Step 1 : Obtain an empty 2 litre soft drinks bottle. Cut off the bottom. Ensure that you only cut off a small amount of the bottom, so that the bottle can still hold at least 1 litre of fluid.

Step 2 : Drill a hole in the screw-on cap that will take a flexible siphon tube. Use a length of small diameter ultra-flexible semi-opaque silicone air tubing for this as it's MUCH easier to handle than the stiffer, transparent tubing.

Step 3 : Insert the tubing into the hole.

Step 4 : Rig up some means of standing the bottle inverted, so that it's above the level of your aquarium.

Step 5 : Attach a clamp to the tubing to allow you to restrict the flow so that only one drop at a time flows through the tube. Adjust the flow so that the bottle takes at least 1 hour to empty when filled with 1 litre of water, longer if you wish to play safe.

Step 6 : Test the setup over a sink with fresh water to check that everything works and doesn't leak. If needed, you can use some silicone aquarium sealant to make the tube fitting in the cap watertight. I would use the silicone on the inside of the cap, so that you end up with a layer of sealant that is flush with the end of the tube, so that you don't end up with any residual liquid in the bottle once it's in service.

Step 7 : Once the bottle has been tested and everything works, mix up 1 litre of sea water using a good quality marine aquarium salt. Position the bottle beside the aquarium, fix the output end of the tube so that the flow goes into the aquarium (improvise a clamp for the purpose) then add the 1 litre of sea water to the bottle.

In order to bring the salinity up to a known level, you need to know how much water is in the aquarium to begin with. If you know that, for example, your aquarium contains 50 litres of water, then removing 1 litre of fresh aquarium water and adding 1 litre of marine strength salt water will give you a brackish aquarium that is 1/50 the strength of marine water. Removing 2 litres of fresh water and then drip-feeding 2 litres of sea water will bring the aquarium up to 1/25 strength. 1/25 strength will be adequate to begin with. From that point on, you will need to mix up water for water changes that is 1/25 marine strength, until you use the bottle again to increase the salinity to, say, 1/10 marine strength. Then, future water changes need to be mixed to 1/10 marine strength, and so on.

I'm not entirely sure what strength of salinity Tetraodon nigroviridis needs as it ages, but I gather than by the time it's adult, the water should be around 25% to 50% marine strength - anyone with different data, feel free to correct me on this!

Rig up a bottle like that, and you can migrate a fish slowly to brackish water. Or, if you need to for some reason, migrate a fish slowly from brackish to fully fresh, though the reverse procedure isn't called for often.

Incidentally, you can use this technique to migrate Poecilia velifera, the Giant Sailfin Molly, as well. This is a euryhaline fish that in the wild is found in waters ranging from hard, alkaline fresh water to fully marine - specimens have been filmed swimming over coral reefs! So, one way to prepare a cycled marine aquarium for the arrival of more demanding marine fishes is to buy a couple of velifera Sailfin Mollies, migrate them gradually over a period of 4 weeks to fully marine water, then add them to the marine aquarium. Then, once they've helped to 'bed in' the aquarium, more usual marine fishes can be added.

Incidentally, if your current aquarium is planted, you will have to find new homes for the plants at some point, because most higher freshwater plants aren't keen on brackish water. There are some exceptions - Java Fern will tolerate moderately brackish water, but there are limit to its tolerance. Beyond about 10% marine strength, I suspect even Java Ferns will have to be relocated.

Your next problem, by the way, is snails. Tetraodon nigroviridis will need a constant supply of snails for food, so it's time to fire up a 2 gallon aquarium as a snail culturing vessel!

UPDATE : just checked out those links. It seems that Tetraodon nigroviridis needs to be taken beyond 50% marine strength as an adult, possibly all the way to fully marine water. The pufferlist link states that if this fish IS migrated slowly over a period of, say, two to three years to fully marine water, it will last a LOT longer - a 10 year life span is quoted as the kind of longevity that can be expected if the fish is given increasing salinity during its progress to adulthood.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thank you for the detail of the migration process. I think I will be in for a bit more than I had expected with this fish but at least I can do this process slowly! THanks tons for the info!

You'll need a hydrometer or refractometer to measure salt levels. Hydrometers you can get for about $5-$10 but they aren't nearly as accurate and subject to changes in reading at different temperatures. A good refractometer can be had for ~$50 from www.drsfostersmith.com or www.premiumaquatics.com.

I'd probably simplify the process by mixing up a weak solution with marine salt. Maybe 1.002 specific gravity and doing a small 10% water change. That would raise the salt by only a miniscule amount(1.0002). Do that once a day until you reach 1.002 in the tank and then increase the amount in your water change water to 1.005 and do changes with that until you reach 1.005 in the tank. Then after that all water changes will have to contain a salt level of 1.005. Wait a few months and start doing small water changes with water at 1.008 and then 1.010 until the tank reaches that level. Over the course of about a year you want to bring it up to 1.020 or the minimum amount used in most saltwater tanks. 1.000 is fully freshwater and you can test the accuracty of your hydrometer or refractometer by putting distilled or RO water in it and seeing how far off it is from 1.000.

If you spend the money required for a refractometer, these can be calibrated if they deviate from true. Usually they're calibrated at the factory using laboratory standard pure water to set the 1.000 setting, which is one of the features you pay for with these instruments. in any case, they are shipped with comprehensive instruction booklets explaining their use.

It's advisable to clean them with distilled or RO water after each use in a brackish or saltwater setup. Again, the manuals describe the process in full.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002