0:00 hi everyone I'm zenza with the aquarium
0:01 Co-op and today we're going to cover one
0:03 of my favorite fish the green spotted
0:05 puffer now the green spotted puffer is a
0:07 wonderful fish to keep they're a lot of
0:08 fun they're interactive they're
0:10 beautiful to look at and they're kind of
0:12 in that wet pet category now the green
0:14 spoted puffer originates in Southeast
0:16 Asia and it lives in rivers and
0:18 estuaries kind of near the ocean which
0:20 we'll cover here in a little bit as far
0:22 as their appearance they are a medium
0:25 siiz fish so generally for adults are
0:27 going to be between 4 to 6 in in length
0:30 and quite Stout because they are a
0:32 puffer so think of like a like an egg
0:34 almost so like an extra- large egg kind
0:36 of that shape as far as their body size
0:38 and their body shape um when you find
0:40 them in stores they'll usually be 2 to 3
0:42 in or so in length and just expect them
0:44 to get about double that size when
0:46 they're fully grown now first let's
0:48 start off with tank requirements so what
0:50 size tank do you need what do you need
0:51 to put in the tank all that stuff so for
0:54 a green spoted puffer they are pretty
0:56 active fish they're active swimmers
0:57 they're going to be swimming back and
0:59 forth in that Aquarium and kind of
1:01 moving around and hunting which we'll
1:02 cover here in a moment so you're going
1:04 to want a rather spacious aquarium
1:07 generally speaking you want about a
1:09 minimum of a 30 gallon aquarium but a 40
1:11 gallon breeder would be better or even
1:13 anything larger like a 55 obviously try
1:16 to think about you know making sure that
1:18 you have at least like a 40 gallon tank
1:19 for your green spotter puffer um is
1:21 that's going to give them more space now
1:23 earlier I had mentioned that in the wild
1:25 green spot of puffers are in rivers and
1:27 estuaries near the ocean and that's
1:29 because the adults are brackish brackish
1:31 is a mixture of freshwat and saltwater
1:34 usually in the areas where a river or an
1:36 estuary meets the ocean and you have
1:38 that mixture so a green spoted puffer is
1:40 going to require brackish water because
1:42 they do require that mineral content
1:44 that is found in that Reef environment
1:46 Now setting up a brackish aquarium is
1:48 not difficult at all so I don't want to
1:49 scare away any of you in fact we put
1:52 together an article that's very easy to
1:54 understand that takes you step by step
1:56 through the process and you can find
1:58 that article on the aquarium Co-op
1:59 website which we'll put a link down
2:01 below now as I shared this fish does
2:03 require brackish water so you are going
2:05 to want to make sure that you're able to
2:06 provide for that and learn how to put a
2:08 brackish aquarium together now you
2:10 probably when you buy your Your Greens
2:11 spotted puffer most likely the store
2:13 that has them has kept it in fresh water
2:16 so it probably went from a brackish
2:19 environment where it was caught or
2:20 raised and transported to a wholesaler
2:23 or something like that uh via freshwater
2:27 and then in the store is probably in a
2:29 freshwater uh system as well and they
2:31 can live in freshh water but they don't
2:33 Thrive so you are going to want to re
2:35 acclimate your green spotted puffer back
2:37 to brackish water so this is done over a
2:39 period of weeks and in the article that
2:41 we created on the aquarium Co-op website
2:43 covers all of that now as far as
2:45 substrate you can really use any kind of
2:47 substrate or you can even do a bare
2:48 bottom aquarium um depending on where
2:50 you live and your water parameters we
2:52 would recommend using like a crush Coral
2:54 or a raganit sand as it does have the
2:56 buffering qualities that does keep the
2:58 water parameters right where they should
3:00 be now regarding water parameters it's
3:02 brackish and you're going to want to
3:03 have it somewhere between
3:05 1.004 on a specific gravity range up to
3:09 a full marine environment of 1.022 so
3:12 with brackish water it fluctuates all
3:14 the time you don't have to be exact just
3:16 make sure that you're making a brackish
3:17 tank and that it's somewhere in that
3:19 range they are tropical fish so you will
3:21 need a heater anywhere between 76 de and
3:24 about 82° F would be fine for the fish
3:27 and a pH level somewhere between 7.5 and
3:30 about 8.2 to 8.5 they can survive in all
3:33 those ranges now with your aquarium it
3:35 is important to have good water quality
3:37 so if you're lazy with maintenance if
3:39 you're not good at cleaning up uneaten
3:41 food or fish waste then this might not
3:44 be the fish for you you want to really
3:45 make sure that it has a clean
3:47 environment and that you're testing for
3:49 excess nitrates Etc now you can have
3:51 plants in your brackish tank there are
3:53 not a lot of plants that do well in
3:55 saltwater so I've had success with java
3:57 fern and with mangr and there might be
4:00 some other breish plants that are in
4:01 your area that you have access to that
4:03 might be able to work just know that you
4:05 are going to have to keep up on your
4:06 water changes and won't be able to rely
4:09 on Plants doing a lot of that natural
4:11 filtration for you next let's talk about
4:13 feeding your green spot of puffer now
4:16 like with most puffers it does require a
4:18 little bit more thought process and work
4:20 for the owners with puffers because they
4:22 do have some specific dietary
4:24 requirements now the green spoted puffer
4:26 is a carnivore or a piscor basically it
4:29 needs to eat meaty type food so that can
4:31 be fresh frozen freeze dried um they're
4:35 not really going to take to pellets and
4:37 Flake foods and things like that so you
4:38 are going to need to have uh the ability
4:41 to keep uh Frozen and fresh and even
4:44 freeze-dried foods so things like frozen
4:46 bloodworms will be fine you want to have
4:48 an ample supply of snails they'll eat
4:51 things like freeze-dried shrimp freeze
4:53 dried insects like mealor worms and
4:55 crickets and as well as the live
4:57 versions of those so live meal worms
4:59 obviously live shrimp if you have a
5:01 bunch of shrimp or you have coals or
5:03 whatever that you need to just kind of
5:05 filter through um they will eat those
5:07 small crabs um they can pretty much take
5:10 down anything with a shell that's at
5:12 least like half its size and I've seen
5:14 it do some some pretty spectacular
5:16 things in my care so puffers have a beak
5:18 and those beaks need to continually be
5:20 worn down so you're going to want to
5:22 make sure that a couple of times per
5:23 week when you're feeding your Puffer
5:25 that they are getting some type of hard
5:27 food like a snail shell or the shell on
5:30 the back of a shrimp having a tank that
5:32 might be dedicated to snails so that you
5:34 have a continual Supply or just having a
5:37 tank that has snails in them where they
5:38 kind of do their thing and reproduce
5:40 often and you're able to catch those and
5:42 feed them to your Puffer that would be
5:43 an ideal situation but what about other
5:46 fish in a tank you might be wondering
5:47 what else can I put in a green spotted
5:49 puffer
5:50 aquarium and that's kind of tricky so
5:52 they are aggressive like a lot of
5:54 puffers very feisty and can be pretty
5:57 aggressive towards other fish you are
5:58 going to want to make sure sure that the
6:00 fish that you put in there are large
6:02 enough or fast enough or feisty enough
6:04 on their own to not be bothered by the
6:06 green spotted puffer so that would be
6:08 things like probably large mollies that
6:10 are that obviously can live in brackish
6:12 water night goes monos scats um any kind
6:16 of larger heartier brackish fish would
6:18 be okay now if you want to keep another
6:21 green spotted puffer or another type of
6:23 brackish puffer then you are going to
6:25 need a larger cram than that 40 breeder
6:27 that we talked about probably a minimum
6:29 55 gallons but it would be better if you
6:31 were 75 gallons or larger and if you do
6:34 that you are going to need a lot of
6:35 Decor in that tank to have hiding places
6:39 line of sight break so that the puffer
6:41 here doesn't see the puffer there and
6:43 kind of go after that so uh just know
6:45 that if you are planning on keeping
6:46 multiple of these in one tank you are
6:49 going to need to go larger you are going
6:50 to need to manage the decor of the
6:53 aquarium to break them up a little bit
6:54 and even if you do all that there's no
6:56 guarantee that they're going to live
6:57 together well so just be prepared for
6:59 that now a little bit more about the
7:00 green spotted puffer and their behavior
7:02 they are very intelligent so you might
7:04 not think about like fish as being
7:06 intelligent but in the Fish World
7:08 puffers are pretty intelligent and
7:10 you'll see them being very inquisitive
7:12 kind of looking around analyzing things
7:14 they've got these big eyes obviously so
7:16 their visual Acuity is pretty good and
7:18 they will actually know who is the owner
7:20 and who's not so they'll recognize you
7:23 and they'll learn to like eat out of
7:24 your hand and things like that so as far
7:26 as that wet pet they are fun because you
7:28 can interact with them so overall the
7:30 Green Spot of puffer a very fun fish to
7:32 keep great to look at fun to interact
7:34 with when people come over they will be
7:36 drawn to that fish every time people
7:37 come into this room and they walk around
7:39 they look at all the beautiful cichlids
7:41 and the big Oscars and things like that
7:43 they immediately when they get over
7:44 there they bend down and look at the
7:46 Green Spot of puffer and spend a lot of
7:48 time looking at it because it's a very
7:49 fun fish so if you happen to get one I'm
7:52 sure you will also enjoy it and
7:53 hopefully this video helped you in
7:54 learning more about the fish if you'd
7:56 like to get some more stocking ideas on
7:58 aquariums watch this video video right
7:59 here
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