My 75 Gallon Tetraodon Schoutedeni tank journal

[Sean W.]

Hey guys,

I grabbed a Tetraodon Schoutedeni " Spotted Congo Puffer " from Wes a couple months ago. He has been in my 20 gallon long office tank since I got him while I got my 75 gallon setup. Today I really made a lot of progress with the 75 Gallon and decided enough progress has been made to start a thread on it!

Anyway, here is the 20 that he has been in for the last few months, its really empty in this picture compared to how it has been since I took a lot of the plants out of it to put in the 75. After I move the puffer from the 20 to the 75, all the plants will be going in the 75 and the 20 is being taken down.

here is the 75 gallon. The hardscape is done and the plants came from the 20 gallon. Expect a LOT more plants to be added

And here is the puffer that is going in the 75

 

[Hendre]

Looks lovely!

Is that flowering buce?
Some more anubias and crypts wouldn't hurt

 

[Sean W.]

Ya! that is a flowering buce!
Lots and lots more plants are going to be added to this tank! right now I am just focusing on getting everything from the 20 to the 75 and tearing down the 20.

Here is another pic of the 75 now that the air bubbles have dissipated and things have cleared up

 

[Hendre]

Lovely! Greenery is awesome

 

[Sean W.]

Gonna test the water and probably move the puffer over today.

 

[Hendre]

Awesome. Looking forward to pics

Would love one but it costs more than all my fish combined
Plus availability issues. I wish you best of luck with yours

 

[Sean W.]

Well I moved him over to the 75! It went very smoothly had I would even go as far to say that he had zero stress from the move. I put him in the 75 and within 15 minutes of putting him in I dropped a blood worm cube in and he happily devoured it. So hes in the 75 and eating! all is well!

He seems to be really enjoying all the extra space and all the different size and shapes of driftwood has really made quite the extensive tunnel system. He will dip out of sight then appear on the other side of the tank.

For posterity I want to say that a 75 gallon is WAY WAY too big for a single spotted congo puffer, he is maybe 3" from nose to tail. I would say if you took a ping pong ball and elongated it, that would be about the size of his body. The only reason I have him in a 75 is because its the tank that I already had and I enjoy the larger water volume.

 

[lobowind]

I'm guessing that your puffer is really going to enjoy the extra room. You can always add some easy-going fish since these schouti's seem to be pretty good with other species.

 

[Hendre]

Maybe some placid bottom dwellers, African butterfly fish, establish a colony of shrimp even. Lots of options with these it appears

 

[magpie]

I bet he's loving exploring every nook and cranny! The tank looks great, and I look forward to seeing it develop as you add more plants.

What else are you planning on putting in there with him?

A big shoal of cories and a group of tetras or other schoolers would add a lot of activity to the tank.

Shrimp would certainly be picked off over time, but in a tank that big with enough moss and hiding places some adults would probably survive. You'd have to get a large sized group to be sure they made it long enough to start breeding though. I have shrimp with mine but the tank started as a shrimp/micro fish tank, and now since adding the puffer the population is much reduced (as expected). With him in there, the surviving ones don't even stay out in the open very much because they're not dumb... there's a predator in the tank. So I personally would stay away from shrimp.