Amazon puffer
Colomesus asellus
FishFreshwater
- Care level
- Moderate
- Temperament
- Semi-aggressive
- Recommended tank
- 100 L
- Maximum size
- 8 cm
- Temperature
- 23–28 °C
- pH
- 6–7.5
- Group size
- ≥ 5
- Diet
- Carnivore
Care at a glance
The Amazon puffer is the exception among puffers: a true freshwater species that lives in groups and leaves most tankmates alone. It swims restlessly along the glass all day and therefore needs more room than its eight centimetres suggest.
Keep a group of five or more in a long, well-filtered tank with some current. Its teeth keep growing and have to be worn down on hard food, so offer snails in their shells, mussels and other shellfish regularly; otherwise they will need trimming sooner or later. It occasionally nips long fins, so combine it with fast, short-finned fish and not with veiltail forms or shrimp.
Good to know
Best not combined with
Related species
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Values are mainstream hobbyist guidance, not gospel — always watch what your own animals need.