Unfortunately, there will always be someone that recommends feeder fish as the ideal diet for a green spotted puffer, which is why I’d like to take the time to point out the dangers of doing so. In fact, you may even see pet stores tossing in goldfish with their puffers, too. Tetraodon nigroviridis does eat a very meaty diet; however, that meat is not derived from a piscivorous source. Their natural diet includes a variety of shelled creatures, including shrimp, crabs and mollusks.

What are feeder fish?

A feeder is any fish that has been bred specifically to feed another carnivorous fish. Some people do it the right way, and treat their feeders like they would any other fish – which includes giving them enough room to swim, keeping their water pristine and providing them with a healthy diet. However, the majority of feeders that are bred on a large scale are not kept in the abovementioned conditions. Instead, they are kept in filthy, disease ridden tanks that are so overcrowded that handfuls of fish die every day.

Types of Feeder Fish

Here are a few of the most common types of fish that you’ll see offered as feeders:

• Live bearers, like mollies, guppies and platys
• Comet goldfish and rosy red minnows
• Excess fry, like baby convict cichlids

Reasons Why Feeder Fish are an Extremely Poor Choice for a Green Spotted Puffer

1. They’re unhealthy and transmit disease and parasites. The number one reason why feeder fish will eventually kill your green spotted puffer is because they are potential carriers for some nasty parasites and disease that can overtake your puffer tank. Very few people take the time to quarantine their live feeder fish, which is equivalent to playing with fire. Although your puffer may be fine the first several times, or even for a couple years, you will eventually put a sick feeder fish in their tank that wreaks havoc on their health. Or accidently spill contaminated bag water into your main tank, which is a great way to introduce fish ick, anchorworms and other parasites to your otherwise healthy puffer.

2. Feeder fish make an inadequate diet. Again, feeder goldfish and other types of fish specifically sold as prey for other fish are not part of a green spotted puffer’s natural diet. Although they may snag the occasional fish in the wild, their primary diet consists of mollusks and crustaceans – which is a pretty far cry from the fatty, soft meal that a feeder fish offers. Some may argue that their puffer enjoys eating feeder goldfish; however, that’s just as bad as justifying eating a diet of junk food with the rationale that it tastes good.

3. Feeders won’t help keep your puffer’s teeth worn down. Along the same lines of a soft meal, a feeder fish won’t prevent your green spotted puffer’s teeth from growing too long. If you allow your puffer’s teeth to grow long enough that it can’t close its mouth anymore, then you will have to trim them down or risk losing your puffer to starvation. Unfortunately, you could also lose your puffer during the process of trimming their teeth, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing – which is why prevention is a much better route to take.

Final Thoughts on Feeding Green Spotted Puffers Feeder Fish

Although it may be “cool” to watch your puffer eat other fish, there are plenty of other ways to get that same thrill without putting your puffer’s life at risk. For instance, live feeder worms, like night crawlers and red wigglers, are nutritious snacks that most green spotted puffers will attack ferociously. Additionally, it’s a lot of fun to watch your puffer stalk live ghost shrimp, as well as various types of aquatic snails, like Ramshorns – both of which should always be quarantined before they’re offered to your puffer as food, because they can transmit parasites and disease, too.

Do you disagree with me on the topic of feeder fish? Let me know about it by leaving a comment!

When taken care of correctly, green spotted puffers make captivating

Don't forget, even live food needs to be quarantined!

aquarium pets. They’re very intelligent, full of personality and they mature into nicely sized fish. However, finding one to buy can get frustrating pretty quickly if you don’t know where to look.

Here are a few suggestions that may help you find your next puffer:

1. Local pet stores. The best place to start looking for green spotted puffers is at a local pet store. Many stores don’t stock freshwater and brackish water puffers on a regular basis, so you may have to ask them to order one in for you. This allows you to see the fish you’re purchasing beforehand, which means you’re more likely to bring home a healthy specimen. However, it’s very important to make sure that the pet store is already properly caring for the puffer in question, and that it isn’t being kept in a small tank crammed with other puffers. Additionally, if the pet store is feeding its puffers feeder goldfish, then you should highly consider looking for another place to get your fish from.

2. Online pet stores. If there aren’t any local pet stores in your area, then an online pet store can work, as well. However, it’s important to remember that shipping is very stressful on a fish, so make sure you’re home to receive the package and properly drip acclimate it to its new quarantine tank. If you’ve never heard of the store, consider looking for reviews on their customer service and the health of their livestock before placing an order.

3. Forums. Another great way to find green spotted puffers for sale is to look on related forums for any members that are looking to rehome their fish. However, don’t forget that you should always do your own due diligence before making an online transaction, especially with someone that you just met on a forum. It’s a good idea to see if they’re well respected members in the community before making a commitment.

4. Online classified sites and auctions. Sometimes, people post their puffers for sale on classified sites, like Craigslist. Just remember that safety always comes first, and you should always take the time to get a few photos of the fish that you’re trying to buy beforehand so you can make sure you’re getting the right type of puffer. Additionally, Aquabid also has puffers up for auction sometimes, too, so don’t forget to check there.

Before you start looking for green spotted puffers to buy, make sure you’ve done your research. Puffers don’t make a good pet for the novice aquarist because of their specialized diet and care. It’s much easier to wait until you’re ready for a puffer, than to bring one home as an impulse buy only to realize that you’re in way over your head. And don’t forget, all new fish should always be quarantined, even if they’re going to be the only fish in the tank. Treating a sick puffer in an empty quarantine tank is much easier than doing a complete overhaul of your main tank that already has sand, plants and decorations – not to mention a healthy colony of bacteria.

Keeping a spotted puffer is a lot of fun once you get past the mentality of

You can't keep a F8 puffer with a GSP

keeping a community fish tank. In order for your puffer to thrive and show its full personality, you should ideally keep them alone in their own fish tank with plenty of filtration and decorations – especially when you factor in the copious amounts of waste that a single puffer produces!  Unfortunately, it can be hard to accept that you can only put one fish in your aquarium.

Here are some of the top reasons why you should not keep other fish with your spotted puffer:

1. They’re a brackish water puffer. The majority of tankmates that people want to keep with their spotted puffers are freshwater fish. Even if your puffer doesn’t turn out to be as territorial as most, the difference in salinity requirements creates an issue of compatibility that you can’t fix. For example, plecos cannot be kept with a green spotted puffer, no matter how bad the algae gets – they do not tolerate salt in their water, and it will eventually kill them.

2. They’ll eat their tankmates. The spotted puffer is a very territorial fish when it reaches maturity, and their teeth can cut through bones, shells and skin very easily. For this reason, you would either need to find equally territorial brackish water fish that can hold their own, or continually keep replacing your puffer’s roommates. Neither one of those options creates an environment that your puffer will thrive in, which is why it’s best to keep them as solitary pets in their own tank. Remember, all it takes is one bite from your puffer in the right spot for dispute to become fatal.

3. Their tankmates will injure them. On the flip side, puffers can easily be injured by other fish in the tank, as well. Their fins are very delicate, which means that it doesn’t take very much to shred them, and they lack scales on their body. Since they are a scaleless fish, they don’t have the same amount of protection that other scaled fish do, and that puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to territorial disputes.

Don’t forget that spotted puffers need at least 30 gallons to themselves. As an adult, Tetraodon nigroviridis will approximately reach about six inches. If you’re having trouble visualizing that, think about an avocado with fins and teeth! Although some specimens stay smaller, whether it’s due to genetics or poor diet, they still require quite a bit of space for their waste to properly be diluted. Additionally, green spotted puffers are also very active fish – you will rarely see them sit still for very long. Plan on at least giving your puffer an entire 30 gallon fish tank to himself; however, the larger you can go, the better. In reality, when you factor in their activity level, size and waste output, a 55 gallon fish tank is a much better home.

Maintaining a healthy diet for your green spotted puffer(Tetraodon

You may need to cut worms up for your GSP

nigroviridis) is one of the most important aspects of care. After all, without access to plenty of hard, shelled foods, your puffer’s teeth will quickly grow out of control. In fact, if a green spotted puffer is kept on an inadequate, soft diet, their teeth will eventually become so long that it won’t be able to eat anymore. Eventually, the teeth will have to be trimmed, or the puffer will slowly starve to death.

Here are a few different foods that you can feed your spotted puffer to keep its diet as diverse as possible – please note that not all of them are considered hard foods:

1. Aquatic Snails. These are one of the easiest hard foods to feed your puffer. In addition to being super easy to breed, most prolific species of aquatic snails are also the perfect size for your puffer to munch on. The best way to ensure your green spotted puffer is receiving an adequate diet of hard foods is to breed your own supply of feeder snails. To do this, you will need a container, sponge filter and some vegetable-based food, like spirulina flakes or shelled peas. Oh, and a starter culture of Ramshorn snails or common pond snails! However, it’s very important to remember that all live food has to be quarantined before it is offered to your puffer – even snails can transmit disease to your puffer tank.

2. Whole pieces of shellfish. Another great way to make sure your puffer’s teeth are staying in check is to regularly offer it small pieces of shellfish, like shrimp, lobster, crayfish and crab. Some species of crab and shrimp will be small enough for an adult green spotted puffer to eat whole; however, you’re probably going to have to cut the shellfish up so that it isn’t too big for your puffer. Additionally, make sure you’re getting whole shellfish that still have the shell on otherwise it will no longer be a hard food that can help wear down your puffer’s teeth.

3. Appropriately sized worms. Although worms aren’t a hard food, they do make a great puffer snack! Red wigglers are almost always a hit, and so are pieces of night crawlers that have been cut up to bite-sized chunks. If you’re having a difficult time getting your new puffer to eat, then you should definitely try out a live worm or two. Most bait shops have containers of both types of worms for sale, and so do many pet stores – never collect worms from your backyard, or anywhere else that pesticides may be present.

4. Frozen fish food. To further vary your green spotted puffer’s diet, consider adding in the occasional meal of blood worms or frozen brine shrimp. Just remember to thoroughly wash off the blood worms after you thaw them out before you offer them to your puffer. If you don’t, the water will get really messy.

In addition to eating the foods listed above, Tetraodon nigroviridis will also occasionally take bites out of aquatic plants if you have any that can withstand brackish water, like Java fern.  For the sake of your puffer’s health, please remember that feeder goldfish are not a suitable food item under any circumstances. Although there are plenty of videos on the Internet that suggest otherwise, and the occasional pet store employee, too, feeder goldfish are usually ridden with disease because of the unsanitary conditions they are kept in. Aside from being a fatty food that would not naturally be a part of your spotted puffer’s diet, they can transmit parasites and other diseases to your puffer – which is a pretty big price to pay just to watch a fish eat another fish.

Picking out a healthy green spotted puffer fishis vital to your success at

There are too many GSP in this tank...

keeping a puffer tank, especially if you don’t have experience rehabilitating sick or injured puffers. Although it’s impossible to know if a puffer is completely healthy and free of internal parasites (IP’s), you can get a pretty good idea of its overall health by looking at the type of environment it’s being kept in and the condition of its body, fins and waste.

Here’s a basic list of guidelines to follow when you’re shopping for your new puffer fish:

1. Look for fins that aren’t ragged. Unfortunately, if the green spotted puffer fish that you want is being kept with other puffers, then it will probably have some rips in its fins due to territorial disputes. However, it’s important to make sure that any rips or tears appear to be healing well, with no signs of redness or infection. Ideally, the fins should be completely smooth and clear in color.

2 No spots, fuzzy growths or red streaks. Make sure you take the time to look the body and fins of the puffer over for any white spots, fuzzy growths or red streaking. Although a spotted puffer should have black markings covering its body, it should not appear as though it has been salted – if there a lot of little white spots present, then it most likely has a case of fish ick and should not be brought home.

3. Teeth shouldn’t be visible. A healthy green spotted puffer fish should not have teeth that protrude from beyond its lips. If the teeth are very visible, then it probably is not getting access to a varied diet of hard-shelled prey items. Although overgrown teeth in a puffer can be corrected, the procedure is both stressful on the puffer and the owner – if you don’t have experience trimming a puffer’s teeth, then you should never attempt the procedure without the help of a vet.

4. Bright neon spot on top of head. A well fed, content spotted puffer will usually exhibit a very bright neon patch of green on the top of its head. If a puffer is not feeling well, or it’s very stressed about something in its current environment, then it will appear very dull in color and it may have a dark black or grey belly.

5. Stomach shouldn’t be lumpy or emaciated. If the stomach of a green spotted puffer fish is lumpy, sunken in, or it immediately appears emaciated after a meal, then it probably has some sort of internal parasite (IP’s). Sometimes, parasites can also be seen protruding from the vent of the puffer; however, this is not always the case. Additionally, a puffer that has stringy, bubbly feces may also have IP’s.

Final Thoughts on Picking out a Healthy Spotted Puffer

Although it’s tempting to purchase a puffer because it’s cheap, make sure you’re taking the quality of the pet store into account before you hand over any cash. If the pet store is keeping the puffer in with other sick fish, or it’s being kept in overly crowded, poor conditions, then the chances of it surviving the stress of transportation and acclimation into a new tank are very slim.