Green Puffer

The Green Spotted Puffer is hardy and easy to keep and are very effective snail destroyers, so a tank with a pufferfish in it is a tank without snails. In short, puffers are cute, hardy, and useful fish for the home aquarium.  An aggressive fish, that should be kept in brackish water with a minimum tank size of 100 litres, 200 recommended.

The Green Spotted Puffer (Tetraodon nigroviridis) is found across South and Southeast Asia in coastal freshwater and brackish water habitats. One of the most known and most studied characteristic about these fishes is their very deadly neurotoxin, known as tetrodotoxin. This is a defense mechanism to protect them in the wild. Luckily not all puffers are poisonous. These fish do not produce the toxin directly, but instead they gather bacteria that create the tetrodotoxin for them. They gather this bacteria from their diet that they eat in the wild, so no worries, your fish will be toxin free because they won’t be eating this in the aquarium.

They have 4 large teeth fused on their jaw which is often covered by lips. Their lips are quite full, and puffers use them to test the texture of potential food and decide if it is worth eating.  With no scales, their skin is covered with spikes. Depending on the species, spikes can be very visible or very thin and invisible (until the puffer inflates).

Click for all Puffer fish at Rebel Pets.

Behaviour

They are famous for their ability to ‘puff up’ themselves with air or water if they see some signs of danger. When the fish inflates its spines come outwards and this way tetraodon protects itself from being eaten.

Even though they are very cute, they can be extremely aggressive. They are best kept in a single specimen tank due to their specific feeding times, care needs and aggression.

Another peculiar behavior observed among many species is their ability to spit or blow water over the substrate to uncover hidden prey. They have been known to spit water at you from the surface to ask for more food.

Tank Conditions

Green spotted puffers kept in aquariums require brackish water through most of their lives. In wild conditions, they start in freshwater and migrate to brackish or marine conditions as adults. As far as you are concerned, this means you are likely going to have to increase the salinity of your tank water as your puffer ages.

Although they only grow to around 15 cm in length as adults, the minimum tank size for a single puffer is 100 litres. However, 200 litres is preferred and will allow your fish optimal room for swimming and exploring.

Compatibility

In most cases, tank mates are not advisable when keeping a Green spotted puffer, as it is a highly aggressive fish that may attack and kill any other fish or critters in the tank. Many puffer keepers feel they should not be kept with any other fish species or even other puffers.

Some possible companions are: mollies, scats, monos, archerfish, bumblebee gobies, and other Puffers.

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Most puffers are known for their fin-nipping.

Feeding

You will need to feed meaty, frozen foods such as blood worms and krill. Thaw the food in tank water before offering it, and make sure you only add as much as you puffer will eat in a few minutes. Also carnivore foods work well. Green spotted puffers are notorious hunters, and feeding food such as live ghost shrimp will give your fish some stimulation it can’t get from frozen foods.  Pond/aquarium snails are a favorite food. They don’t have teeth, but they do have a bony plate in their mouth that grows continuously. Wild, adult puffers eat crustaceans, and foods with hard shells (mysis) and they are an important part of their diets. Without hard foods to wear the plate down puffers may eventually become incapacitated to the point that they can no longer eat.

Care

They should be kept in brackish water to remain healthy.  Use 1 cup of aquarium salt per 30 litres of aquarium salt. Avoid household table salt because of the excess silicates and iodide

Puffer fish are generally very sensitive to deteriorating water conditions and very susceptible to levels of nitrate, nitrite and ammonia in the water. They also produce a lot of waste and so a good filter is mandatory with a suggested 50% water change weekly.

When green spotted puffers get extremely stressed out, their bellies turn black.

See Fish Disease Diagnosis and Treatment at Rebel Pets for help with diagnosing and treating diseases.