AMAZON PUFFER (Colomesus asellus) *Great community Puffers! D2409C

The Amazon puffer is prized for being "friendly" and is commonly referred to as the "community puffer". While it is true that the Amazon puffer is, by far, one of the friendliest species of freshwater pufferfish, they are not perfectly peaceful and we will discuss this further within the section on tank mates in the care sheet (below).

Amazon puffers are intelligent fish who need lots of stimulation and social interaction with their own kind.

Amazon puffers appreciate highly oxygenated water with a medium to strong flow, which they enjoy swimming against. The strength of the flow in the aquarium is usually achieved with spray bars from canister filters, angled towards the top of the water. Keeping a slightly dropped water level so that the returning water from the filter splashes down onto the surface creating agitation and facilitating a gas exchange for high levels of oxygenation.

Powerheads with narrow gaps in the grill may be used to create additional flow. We would advise that cages or guards (such as anemone guards) are used on powerheads to prevent injury to the fish if they become trapped.

Breeding this species in captivity is unfortunately very labour and resource-intensive, which would make captive-bred examples very expensive compared to wild-caught specimens.

Therefore, any commercial breeding attempt would likely be economically unviable.