Puffers of most sorts are endlessly interesting fish that are intelligent and hardy. Checkered Puffers (Sphoeroides testudineus) are no exception. They quickly learn to associate their people as feeders (and sometimes sources of affection!) For lack of a better term, they have “fishality.” Like personality, but for fish. They'll greet you with excited wiggles when you approach the tank, expecting munchies. We've even seen some of them spit water out the top of uncovered tanks as a greeting for aquarists. The internet abounds with videos of Pufferfish swimming around their owner's hands to get scratched and rubbed. While this is fun to watch, we do NOT recommend it. Puffers have seriously strong jaws and sharp teeth and can do serious damage to you if they decide to have a nibble.
Checkered Puffers are part of the family of fish known as Tetraodontidae, which means “four teeth.” Like all the fish in this family, they have four tooth plates, two up, two down, which makes for their distinctive “beak” which they use for breaking into the crabs, snails and bivalves that make up the bulk of their wild meals as adults. They can even break barnacles off boats and piers and eat them! When feeding Checkered Puffers in captivity, it is vitally important to continue to give them shelled meals, as these tooth plates will continue to grow and need to be worn down by use. In house we feed them a meaty mix of thawed foods from GAMMA, this mix changes over time, including things like Krill Superba and Pacifica, Chopped Mussel and Prawn, Mysis etc. We also feed them GAMMA Cockle in Shell regularly which offers them a shell to break into and some enrichment as they work to extract their dinner from its protection. Puffers will also learn to take a large sinking shot like Nutramar Complete in the 12mm size. Just don't forget to get them some shelled food too. You won't have to feed them more than once a day, and fully adult specimens can go a couple days between feedings as long as the meals are big. Click here to learn more
Checkered Puffers are part of the family of fish known as Tetraodontidae, which means “four teeth.” Like all the fish in this family, they have four tooth plates, two up, two down, which makes for their distinctive “beak” which they use for breaking into the crabs, snails and bivalves that make up the bulk of their wild meals as adults. They can even break barnacles off boats and piers and eat them! When feeding Checkered Puffers in captivity, it is vitally important to continue to give them shelled meals, as these tooth plates will continue to grow and need to be worn down by use. In house we feed them a meaty mix of thawed foods from GAMMA, this mix changes over time, including things like Krill Superba and Pacifica, Chopped Mussel and Prawn, Mysis etc. We also feed them GAMMA Cockle in Shell regularly which offers them a shell to break into and some enrichment as they work to extract their dinner from its protection. Puffers will also learn to take a large sinking shot like Nutramar Complete in the 12mm size. Just don't forget to get them some shelled food too. You won't have to feed them more than once a day, and fully adult specimens can go a couple days between feedings as long as the meals are big. Click here to learn more
