My 1st Puffer!

[oceanbreeze]

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

[bulletsworld]

Originally Posted by oceanbreeze

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

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?

[meltdownaverted]

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.

[oceanbreeze]

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

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:





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

[oceanbreeze]

Originally Posted by meltdownaverted

I've got shrooms, some zoos, snails, and an urchin in with my 6" porky. It doesn't show any interest in them.

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...

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...

[bulletsworld]

Originally Posted by oceanbreeze

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

If you see a porc puffer that has spots on its fins, that is a Diodon Hystrix

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,

[kat]

my 11 inch dog face puffer...Kirby

[hqgc]

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/

[bubblepuffer]

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...