How to Take Care of a Puffer Fish

Puffer fish can be an incredible addition to your home aquarium. They have those puppy dog eyes and cute faces, but they also are not meant for the casual aquarium owner. Puffer fish have very strict requirements to be able to survive in a home aquarium environment.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Puffer fish
• Aquarium

1. Choose a healthy puffer. When buying a puffer, look for fish that do not have graying or ragged edges. These can be signs of tail rot. Also look for an active fish. A healthy puffer is a curious puffer. They should be moving around the aquarium, not just sitting on the bottom of the tank. A non-active puffer is a good sign of an unhealthy puffer. Also look for puffers with bright and vivid colors, which is another sign of a healthy fish.
2. Create a healthy tank environment for your puffer. Puffer fish stress out very easily, so it's important to create an environment where the puffer can be both mentally and physically healthy. Keep a close eye on your tanks temperature and pH levels as the tank could quickly become toxic to your fish. Make sure there are plenty of places to hide and preferably sand on the bottom of the tank for them to search through.
3. Adding other fish to your tank. You are going to want to find fish that are not overly aggressive, but not anything like a goldfish or a guppy as they tend to be breeders of disease. Your puffer fish may still eat other fish that you put in the tank, so don't put any other prize fish in with your puffer. Overly aggressive fish may try to pick on your puffer so do not put put it with any type of cichlid or other aggressive fish. They will most likely not kill your puffer, more likely your puffer will kill them, but they could still cause wounds to your puffer and stress it out.
4. Feeding your puffer. Puffers do not like anything that is in flake or even freeze dried form. You will need to feed your puffer a mixture of frozen and live products like bloodworms, earthworms and squid. Be sure that your puffer is able to get its food. You may need to use fish tank tongs to get the food close to your puffer to prevent other fish from getting it first. Crab and mussels in their shells are also good since all puffers have teeth that need to be trimmed down. This is naturally done by them chewing on the shell.