My 1st Puffer!
 

My very first Dog-Faced puffer moved into his new home today, what a great fish! Who out there has had experience with these guys?

Lets see a pic of the little guy! :)
Aaron

There great fish for sure. I love em.

What kind of dogface puffer did you get? What are its colors?

Of course they are called puffers for a reason but did you know they to can actually puff? I got video of when mine did that.

Also I at one time had a bunch of tanks going and thought...Wonder what my dogface would do in my reef tank. Yup, I did the try see. Well... He LOVED IT! In less than 5 mins he had taken a piece outta every coral I owned. NoOoOOo! Yup, loved mushrooms, stonies, went after the shrimps. It was a party for him. I was racing like crazy with the net to get him out. He sure didn't wanta come out I tell ya cause I caught him in the net and PUFF! Yup, it puffed alright! Puffed so bad I couldn't get him outta the net, had to cut the net to get him free! After he puffed down, sampled some more of my corals, I got a big container to get him out this time... He puffed again! Yup, just so I wouldn't get him again. Smart guy! Anyway moral of the story.... Dogface puffer MUST NOT got into a reef tank under any conditions. *chuckle* LOL

Another great word of advice for any puffers. **DO NOT expose them to AIR! They can take in air that may not be able to be released later creating serious boyoncy problems, where you have to manually help them. Also...NO NETS PLEASE with puffers. I find because its not good to expose them to air, the nets are really harsh, perhaps scratching there eye OR if they puff will in the net you wont have to cut them out.

That's my words of advice for these guys. Hope it helps. These guys are definitely cool for sure.


Lee

correct me if I am wrong but the puffer fish ussually puffs when stressed.I thought this was a bad thing to do if they keep puffing that they can die.Yes...No...??

george

Yes, it is extremely stressful on the fish, hence the PUFF reaction. But all reasons I gave above are why "NO NETS PLEASE" with these creature and "DON'T EXPOSE THEM TO AIR" are good tips. Any encounter I have had with puffers they only puffed when frightened or scared by netting or capture. Again why I mentioned tips above to prevent the stress. I have never heard of a puffer dying from puffing up. Although if they were exposed to air, air can get trapped, making it hard for them to puff down, causing serious buoyancy problems then resulting in death. Regardless it would be very mean to try to make your puffer frightened just so you could see it puff. I was surprised when it happened to me.

Recap of tips... "DON'T EXPOSE PUFFERS TO AIR" & "NO NETS PLEASE"

I actually purchased a porcupine puffer on the weekend...adorable little guy. I asked the LFS if they can NOT use a net but a container to catch him and NOT to expose him to ANY air. The guy looked at me like I was crazy at first but did it. It took the guy little time to catch the porcupine puffer but by coaching it with a net into to the container. Once the puffer was in the bag it didn't freak out like it would have if it was netted & exposed to air. It didn't try to bite the bag to get out. Instead the travel was darkened to ease stress & before the new puffy new it, he was acclimated and in his new home. :o


I hope this info helps when purchasing & catching your puffy.

I think you could very well use your two important pieces of advice to ANY fish, and not just puffers. The net rule at least :mrgreen:

YEsss! EXACTLY! I try to preach "NO NETS" if all possible. I just dont want to sound to pushy. Hehe But for puffers I think "NO NETS", "NO AIR", its a MUST. Since puffers have the ability to inflate their stomachs which is not limited to water, when raised into the air, you run the risk of the puffer inflating himself with a stomach full of air. Which is not a good thing, many puffer have difficulties expelling trapped air.

I HATE nets though. Sometimes you just gotta use a net, but I just transfer the fish from the net to the container under water. Then I lift them up with water in the container. That way they dont get any air. I really do find it helps the fish in transfer. Less panic and stress.

Besides...I look at it this way on the topic of exposing fish to air... What if someone chased you & then pushed you under water, you would panic & wouldn't be able to breath. So I consider this the same for the fish being lifted into the exposed air. They can't breath! NOoOOo! Poor fishy!


:o

Like most blanket statements or rules you hear there is more to it. Yes, the "puffing up" action is a defense mechanism possesed by these fish, however many simply puff up briefly & continue on their merry way. The trick as aquarists is to carefully observe you fish's behavior to determine if there are stresssors that require your attention or are these simply benign behaviors. If the puffer in question is spending a prolonged period of time inflated, there is something going on & requires your intervention for sure. Puffers are intelligent & extremely inquisitive fish which is what makes them so much fun to own.

Speaking of nets. I netted my bi-colour angelfish and it got caught in the mesh. It's teeth got caught on one on the holes and it appeared to have spikes on its gills that were also caught. It took me some time but I got him unhooked. He died about a week later from starvation. I think I may have damaged his mouth and he was unable or unwilling to eat.

I agree about not letting your puffer take in air.

Read this thread about what happened to my Fahaka.
http://www.cichlidforums.com/showthr...ghlight=fahaka

Here is my Porcupine Puffer: Buddy... a cute little guy... :biggrin:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...Nov25-2005.jpg

Cute porkie puff. How long have you had him for? Do you notice that he has a shiny finish to him? Do you find his fins with spots or clear?

Got any other pictures you can show us?

I've got shrooms, some zoos, snails, and an urchin in with my 6" porky. It doesn't show any interest in them. Might try putting some better light on the tank and adding a few more frags. My hogfish will probably eat everything once it gets bigger thou.

I had this porc puffer (his name is Buddy) for about 4 months now. Shiny finish? No.. He looks kind of rubbery :wink:

His fins are clear (with no spots). I think his latin species name is Diodon Holacanthus. It can grow to 12 to 20 inches in home aquariums.

If you see a porc puffer that has spots on its fins, that is a Diodon Hystrix... it can grow to like 20 feet or something humongous like that... it should not be kept in home aquariums...

Here're two more pics to share with you:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...Jan29-2006.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...Nov24-2005.jpg

These ones were taken a while ago... now, Buddy has grown longer and wider... eats like a wolf/pig.. :twised:

:cry: Same here... I've many different snails and hermit crabs in the tank, but Buddy doesn't eat them at all. I guess he can't chew the shells open... he tried to pick at them at times...even put one small shell in its mouth... chewed and thought that it's a rock... spitted the little critter back out. There's only one or two times he succeeded. One time I was dropping some hermit crabs that I got from the LFS into the tank. Buddy zoomed over and caught one hermit crab... sucked the poor thing out and ate it. Otherwise, he knows that he can't break open those shells to eat the inhabitants...:mrgreen:

I used to have a strawberry conch in my tank. Buddy picked at it and caused the conch to lose its hard bottom flap... so, the poor conch died... not because Buddy actually ate it... just because it couldn't survive the attack... :sad:

what I mean by spots on his fins are not meaning the breed type, but actually asking if you see cloudiness through the fins.

Also the reason I ask about the fins is because in the pictures your puffer shows a shiny finish that COULD be first signs of a nasty parasite infection that porcupines are so common to get, which is velvet. They take on a shiny yellow finish. Another common sign of infection is the gills being red and opened, since the parasite seems to attact the gillls first, which also shows in one of your pictures. But camera's do have a funny way of changing colors & adding light. So if I'm mistaken, sorry for the observation.

If you find you have fish loss or that your fish flash, breathe heavily, or puffer lays at the bottom of tank or even hides. Please PM me and I will be happy to give you advice.


Hope this helps,

my 11 inch dog face puffer...Kirby

Picked up a porcupine puffer on boxing day. He has been very shy and only comes out when the lights are out. Apperently this is normal but it kinda sucks! Here is some good reading about Porc. puffers. http://www.porcupinepuffer.com/puffers/

Remember to feed your Dog Face some Snails with shell or fiddle crabs
 

Dog face easily get their buck tooth overgrowth.. then U need some dentistry work for that poor fish. Always feed them some freshwater snails or some shellfish thing so they can work on their buck tooth...