Mbu puffer

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a huge, messy fish that needs an enormous tank: an adult around 67 cm requires at least 1500 litres with very strong filtration. Keep it at 24 to 28 C and pH 7.0 to 8.0. It is usually kept alone, as it may nip or eat tankmates, though some keepers manage large, fast companions. Feed a varied hard-shelled diet of snails, mussel, prawn and crab to keep the beak worn down.

In the wild

The mbu puffer is the giant of freshwater puffers, a round-bodied fish with a maze-like green and yellow pattern and expressive eyes. It cruises open water and crushes snails, crabs and mussels with a powerful beak. It is intelligent and interactive but produces a very heavy waste load.

Good to know

Tetraodon mbu belongs to the family Tetraodontidae and reaches up to around 67 cm, the largest of the freshwater puffers. Like other puffers it can inflate with water and its tissues can carry the toxin tetrodotoxin. The four fused teeth form a beak that grows continuously and is worn down by hard-shelled prey.

Did you know

An mbu puffer's beak never stops growing, so a steady diet of snails and shellfish is what keeps it from overgrowing and starving the fish.

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