Spiny Box Puffer Fish/ Web Puffer: a complete care guide
- Jan 20, 2021
- Anshika Mishra
- 8993 0 0
Spiny Box Puffer Fish/ Web Puffer is an enormously famous predator fish in the marine fish keeping community. They are super cute as babies and look gorgeous in the tank.
INTRODUCTION
PRICES: Depending upon the color and the size, you can get it for $25-$150.
TANK SIZE: You want an excellent 180-gallon long tank because these puffers are a super active swimmer. They will be swimming up and down all the time. They are also known for producing a lot of waste because they are a messy eater, so having a bigger tank can help.
CARE LEVEL: Moderate, mainly because feeding them is quite challenging, as they are not used to be provided in the wild. So, people can get frustrated by this behavior of theirs. But other than that, they are pretty easy to take care of.
TEMPERAMENT: This is a semi-aggressive fish. They are predators at the end of the day. This puffer will only eat its food only when it wants to, and once it gets used to eating, it will always be at the top of the tank. These fishes are known for picking on other fishes, so while selecting tankmates, you have to go for the one that can stand for itself.
REEF COMPATIBILITY: NO! because they love picking at stuff in the tank. They will decide on your fleshy corals, and it will eat those up. Therefore it is not recommended to keep them in a reef tank as they will also try to harm your invertebrates all the time.
ORIGIN: They come from the Caribbean
WATER PARAMETER
TEMPERATURE: You want to keep it between 72-78 degrees Fahrenheit. It is recommended to keep them stable at a temperature more on the higher side.
dKH: 8-12
pH: 8.1-8.4
SALINITY: 1.020-1.025.
Appearance
MAXIMUM SIZE: These fishes can get about 10-inches. It is a pretty large fish, which is why you want a huge tank to keep it.
COLORS: Normally, they have a kind of brownish-white maze pattern going down their body; it looks super pretty. The more costly one will have some very bright yellow accents on them. Its spines stay out all the time, which gives this fish a cool look.
DIET
These fishes are a hardcore carnivore, so you want to feed them something that they can chew hard, helping their ever-growing teeth in control. You can provide them things like Frozen shrimp, clams, etc.
It is recommended to keep this fish in a fish-only tank with many live-rock tanks, in the predator tanks like Triggerfish and Angelfish. But if you put little things like Gobbies in there, they usually would get bullied all the time.
The myth about spine
The puffer's widespread misconception is that its spines are venomous, but that is not true. So, it is just a toxin released by the skin whenever any predator attacks them. The spikes can still hurt you, definitely be careful whenever handling them.
Don't use a net
It is recommended not to catch these fishes in the net because this is a cause for them to puff-up and induce more stress on the fish. It is best to lead them with a net into a ball or cup.
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