Minimum requirements for a pufferfish

[KeepingTheBeat]

I was in my lfs earlier today and noticed a tank simply labeled "pufferfish". I fell in love with one of them, but I know/knew absolutely nothing about them. After doing some research, I narrowed the kind down to either Green Puffer or Spotted Green Puffer, both of which grow up to 6", but have different requirements. The lfs couldn't tell me for sure what kind they were. I read how to tell them apart, so hopefully that won't be a problem. What I need to know is what kind of environment they like. Can 1 be happy by itself? If so, could I keep it in a 5 gal tank till I can upgrade to something larger? Will they eat freeze dried food (it is impossible to get live or frozen where I live). Is there anything I need to be aware of before I go buy this fish?

[AggieMarine]

I've never had one eat freeze dried. I've had them eat flake after seeing my other fish eat it, but they can't survive on that. You need at least a 20 gallon, preferably a 29 in my opinion for either of these. If you make your specific gravity about 1.010 1.012, you should do fine with either of these fish. A single puffer would be plenty happy by itself.

[CoNMaN]

You can get live food mail to ya from internet sites.
http://www.livefoodcultures.com/


or harvest your own:
http://www.petfish.net/skeet.htm
http://www.algone.com/livefood.htm

Oh ya dont forget to feed your puffers snails shrimp or some other form of shell fish once a week. Contact Flipper from this site if you need some ghost shrimp.
Freshwater Glass/Grass Shrimp

[beaver8888]

ya aggremarine is right but the salt lvls are abouit 1.008 considering they are born in fresh they like higher lvls as they become older but anyhting over 1.008 would not be good at all

[420Loach]

mine eats freeze dried shrimps on an almost daily basis, along with live food(ghost shrimp, brineys, snails) as i can get it.

must be good eatin compared to whatever he was gettin in the pet store