YouTube Transcript:
How To Keep Green Spotted Puffer Fish [Care Guide]

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