"PUFFEROTIS TRIGGERITIS"
by Pete Schaumburg
First published in Wet Pet Gazette, Norwalk Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
Howdy, fellow fish-heads! It's Dr. Pete again, this time with a look at a few of my
favorite fish for that "fish only" tank. Nothing real scientific here, my finny
friends, just some observations and a little bit of factual data to help fill in the gaps
and possibly, if you have the means, get you to try keeping these guys for yourself.
O.K., I'll admit it. I've got Pufferotis triggeritis. This rare disease has
strange symptoms, ranging from an odd, overwhelming compulsion to buy or build larger and
larger aquariums, to having an urgent desire to purchase every kind of pufferfish and
triggerfish listed in Burgess' Atlas.
The derivation of Pufferotis triggeritis roots from "Puffer", a big
fish that can self-inflate, and "otis", which doesn't mean anything. And I
believe that "Triggeritis" comes from "triggerfish", a fish that will
eat anything and never likes the way the tank is decorated, and "itis", which in
Greek doesn't mean anything either.
I have several pufferfish, Floyd being the largest. Floyd has been with us for many
years now, I've lost count how many, but I think it's close to five, and has increased in
size to the point that I am currently building a 240 gallon tank for him since he has
outgrown his current 135. Floyd is an Arothron meleagris, and you can see a good
picture of him in Burgess' Atlas, page 646 in the top right corner. He is all black with a
lot of white spots throughout his body (no, it's not ich!) and has large, graceful fins.
He has been a very hardy fish, he is not so much an "active swimmer" as he
doesn't seem to be in any rush to do anything, except for feeding time when he gets rather
demanding. He lazily cruises around most of the time, and will occasionally balance
himself on a rock or even lay down on the bottom of the tank and take a nap (yes, fish DO
sleep). The only time I've ever seen a sign of aggression towards another tank mate was
when I attempted to introduce a Dogface Puffer (Arothron nigropunctatus) into the
same tank. Floyd did not approve of this, and immediately attacked the poor fellow, and
while no damage was done and the new guy (his name is Puff, go figure!) was put in another
tank, it was enough of a demonstration on Floyd's part to make me very wary of placing two
Arothrons in the same tank. An interesting note here is that body coloration and
size were very different between the two. Floyd is now over a foot in length, and Puff is
a tad over seven inches. However, Puff is now (and has been for over two years) in the
company of another puffer, a Diodon holocanthus (spiney puffer, and his name is
Squirt, as he likes to squirt water out the tank at you when you feed him). So, one could
reasonably presume that puffers of different families may be kept together quietly, but
not puffers of the same.
I feed Floyd a varied diet, consisting of cherrystone clams (his favorite), fresh jumbo
shrimp, octopus, squid, cod, swordfish, king crab legs, live local crab (a rare treat for
him, and a rather impressive display of his hunting ability) and smelt. He consumes about
two whole cherrystone clams a day, so this will give you an indication of how much puffers
require for food intake. Quite frankly, he eats better than I do!
Puffer temperament in general is excellent. They don't spook at every little movement,
to the contrary they have the curiosity of a cat. They also recognize people, even if they
don't feed them all the time! I've had to move my tank on occasion (gotta make room for
another tank, you know!) and Floyd now lets either my wife or I pick him up in our hand to
place him in a large barrel. This developed as a result of having a large net, but not
large enough to hold him without curling his tail fin around. If you've ever
"patted" a fish before, it's a unique experience. I expected a fairly rough
surface, but found Floyd to feel like wet, warm, soft velour. He doesn't flop around, and
actually seems to enjoy the attention, even when being moved into and out of the barrel.
We see Floyd, and all our puffers, inflate themselves once in a while, and while it's
known that this is a defense measure, I've come to believe that this is not the only
reason. Observation has shown that if we don't vary the diet, they will sometimes become
constipated, and this form of self-inflation seems to help "get things moving".
They also seem to do it sometimes as a stretching exercise. So, I feel that this unique
ability of the puffer is not just for defense.
The "intelligence" of puffers is high in my opinion, Floyd knows where his
food is kept (freezer). Whenever we open the fridge, he will swim to that end of the tank
(he can see it from the tank's location) hover near the top of the water and splash with
his fins. As you can imagine from his size, he can make a pretty big splash. And if we
close the fridge without bringing him something, he'll follow us back across the tank and
splash until we give in. Note that he doesn't splash all the time, just when the
refrigerator is open!
I highly recommend any puffer, they are hardy, tolerant of water chemistry and very
personable. They do require a lot of food, and flake food or frozen just doesn't cut it
with these guys. If you want to try one out, give me a call and I'll tell you more about
my favorite fish, the Puffer!
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