A few important factors must be taken into account before keeping puffers. Puffers are very messy fishes and need a LARGE tank to themselves while most beginners only begin with tanks under 10 gallons only. Puffers will not survive in a fishbowl! Some puffers require brackish waters and only a few species of fishes can tolerate brackish conditions. Aside that puffers also are very aggressive fishes and are fin-nippers and cunning. Puffers also are choosy eaters too. Puffers need a matured tank and do not tolerate ammonia and nitrite well.
Contrary to the popular belief, there are many freshwater and brackish puffers. Most people associate puffers with the marine species like the porcupine puffer (Diodon Hystrix) and fugu, which is a Japanese delicacy. There are a great variety of puffers available, there are puffers ranging from 6 cm to 70 cm. There are also freshwater, brackish and marine puffers, living in rivers, lakes, to estuaries, and swamps, and to the oceans of the world. Puffers can be found in Asia, Africa and South America. They also vary in shape and appearance.
Puffers have a few defence methods that are quite strange but effective. Their ability to puff up, from where they get their name from and puffers do it by swallowing lots of water. Forcing your puffer to puff up by poking it or somehow disturbing it is very stressful to your puffer and may lead to death. In their natural habitat, puffers puff up when they feel threatened by preadators. By doing this, puffers may frighten the attacker and if this still fails to deter them, the attacker may find that the puffer is too big to fit into its mouth. Next, their second line of defence, which their bright colours warn of, tetradotoxin. Tetradotoxin is one of natures most lethal toxins. Tetradotoxin lies in several organs like their livers and skin. After a preadator's first encounter of trying to attack a puffer, if it survives, will never be likely to attack another puffer. I will cover more on tetraodontoxin in another article.
Generally puffers are slow growing fishes and will live well over a decade if they are taken care properly. Puffers can be trained to hand feed and can also be very tame. Truly they are a fish with much character and will provide you with many hours of entertainment with their antics!
If you are still interested in keeping puffers, please read the other articles on puffers available at this site.
