Animal-World > Aquarium Tropical Fish > Puffers - Pufferfish > Fahaka Puffer

Fahaka Puffer

Globe Fish ~ Striped Puffer ~ Nile Puffer ~ Band Puffer

Family: TetraodontidaeTetraodon lineatusPhoto © Animal-World: Courtesy Ken Childs

  With its yellow stripes and bright red/orange eye, the Fahaka Puffer can be a beautiful pet fish!

   The Fahaka Puffer is also known by quite a few other common names, including Globe Fish, Striped Puffer, Nile Puffer, and Band Puffer. It is a large freshwater puffer that can become a very beautiful and friendly pet. It has a robust comical appearance, an intelligent and curious nature, and a very hearty appetite.

   Though they are quite striking in appearance, the Fahaka Puffer or Globe Fish can be incredibly aggressive. They will most likely damage or kill any other fish that is kept with them. All puffers have a sharp beak in their mouths and the Fahaka Puffer will use it to remove pieces from just about any living thing that is in the tank with them.

   If you want a wonderful single specimen aquarium, don't let the aggressive nature of the Fahaka Puffer dissuade you from keeping one. If kept by themselves, they really can be a wonderful pet and can be easily trained to take food from your hand.

For more Information on keeping this fish see:
Guide to a Happy, Healthy Freshwater Aquarium

Distribution:    The Fahaka Puffers or Globe Fish are found in the Nile, Chad basin, Niger, Volta, Gambia, Geba and Senegal Rivers in Africa. They inhabit large rivers and open water, as well as weed beds and vegetated areas.

Status:    These fish are not endangered.

Description:    The Fahaka Puffer or Globe Fish is a stocky elongated fish covered with short prickles and has bright orange/red eyes. It's body is brownish-gray on the back, gradually becoming lighter towards the under parts, ending with a whitish belly. There are a series of light, often golden colored, horizontal stripes running from the pectoral fins back across the tail. Like many of the pufferfish, the coloring of the Fahaka Puffer or Globe Fish can vary with age, disposition, and environment. While a juvenile may have a more mottled appearance, the adult will become more intensified, with the dark areas taking on a deep red coloring.
   Pufferfish have the ability to 'puff' themselves up with water or air if threatened. When they inflate, their spines protrude outward and this apparently helps keep them from being eaten. Another defense of many puffer species, including this one, is to produce toxic substances in their flesh that is poisonous if eaten. The Pufferfish can be quite long lived in the aquarium, many living for 10 or more years.

Size - Weight:    These fish can grow to a maximum size of about 17 inches (43 cm).

Care and feeding:    The Fahaka Puffer or Globe Fish are carnivores. Their natural diet consists of insects, mollusks, and crustaceans; so snails, crabs, crayfish and shrimp would be good choices as food. In an aquarium they will also eat small fish and can sometimes be trained to eat freeze dried krill. This puffer should be fed every other day while small, decreasing this to just two or three times per week as an adult.
   Puffers have strong teeth that grow throughout their lives. They need to be offered hard shelled live food often to keep their teeth worn down. Acceptable foods include shellfish, crustaceans and hard shelled foods such as snails will help wear down the teeth. If the teeth get too long, they will be unable to eat, requiring the owner to clip the teeth.
   Since puffers do not have gill covers or scales, they are thought to be more susceptible to diseases, nitrite, nitrate and ammonia levels. Consequently they are not a good fish to cycle an aquarium with. Also because they usually don't eat all of their food (messy eaters!), these fish will usually put more load on the aquarium filtration requiring more frequent water changes and better maintenance in general. A generous weekly water change of 30% to 50% is the standard recommendation for a puffer aquarium.
   They are not particularly fast growing so smaller specimens can be kept for some time in a relatively small tank. Eventually you'll need a minimum of a 30 to 40 gallon tank to house an adult, but preferably a 100+ gallon to give your pet the best. This pufferfish is predominantly a freshwater species, though it can be kept in lightly brackish conditions.

Water Region: Top, Middle, Bottom:    The Fahaka Puffer or Globe Fish will swim in most parts of the tank.

Acceptable Water Conditions:    Temp: 75° - 82° F (24 - 29°C)
   pH: of around 7.0
   Hardness: 10 -12 dH

Social Behaviors:    This pufferfish can be very aggressive towards all fish including other Fahaka Puffers.

Sexual Differences:    Sexual differences are unknown though females may be  distinguished when spawning as their bellies get rounder while males will remain more slender.

Breeding/Reproduction:    Has not been bred commercially in captivity, but there are reports of successful breeding by hobbyists.

Availability:    The Fahaka Puffer or Globe Fish are commonly available, but due to their aggressive nature you may have a hard time finding them in most retail stores.

Author: Ken Childs
Additional Information: Clarice Brough CFFS

• Tetraodon lineatus : $59.99

Tetraodon Lineatus Fahaka Puffer Large Offered By: That Pet Place Price: $59.99

Lastest Comments on Fahaka Puffer View all 13 comments on Fahaka Puffer Add Your Comment

Fahaka Puffer Rule! - 2011-10-05 My Fahaka is still growing he is only 6 inches right now, but he is in the middle of a growth spurt. He grows an inch about every month! He gets fed shrimp, snails, worms, crabs, crabs, and more crabs. I swear every time I feed him a crab he grows the next day. Hes got a comfy 200 gallon ready for him in a couple months. I would have never known he needed all this stuff if I didn't stumble on freshwaterpufferfish.org lots of great info on puffers! Click For Replies (1) Charlie Roche - 2011-10-05 Amazing Reply

Josh - 2009-09-03 I have a 55 gallon and the fahaka puffer will be the only one in the tank besides his food, and I am going to put some small plants and hides for him. He is about an inch and half long right now and the 55 gallon will be a temp tank till I get a new bigger one. He is in a 360 gallon right now and picking on everyone in the tank, that is why I am getting him. And he is so cool and I have been doing my research, and I can't find a cooler fish then the fahaka puffer. Click For Replies (2) eric hall - 2010-10-18 I agree, I too have a fahaka puffer who is about 9 inches now and very beautiful. He is in a 55 gallon tank along with a catfish from the same lake in Africa that he came from lake tanzaniyia. He has great personality and coloration. Mine likes muscle cubes the best. When I fed the feeder fish, he got a sickness from them. Make sure your feeders are from a clean place. He is also in with an algae eater that is 9 inches. They compete for each others food believe it or not, it's true. They both eat each others food, just for pure spite. They are very messy though, I have to stay up on the cleaning and water changing. Good luck with your puffer. Jon - 2011-04-21 I have a 10 inch fahaka puffer named "Precious." She is the most beautiful freshwater fish I have ever seen also one of the most aggressive fish I have ever seen. It is to the point she almost killed my twelve inch pleco so she now lives alone but she has a great personality. She will interact with my wife and I even eating out of our hands. Use caution when sticking your hands in the tank they have been known to bite Reply

katty - 2009-04-27 I have to say that I disagree with the "coolest comments." A Fahaka needs much more space than a 10 gallon tank can provide. Essentially, a minimum tank size of 125 gallons is required. At 9 months, a healthy Fahaka should be around 7 to 10 inches, depending on the size it was when you first purchased it. They should grow approximately 1 inch per month. At this point, it is likely that the fish is stunted which will later on lead to health problems and a shortened life. Do your fish a favor and get it a bigger tank. Keeping it in a 10 gallon tank is just cruel. Click For Replies (1) Chelsea Dawn Woltring - 2011-04-10 For a fahaka. that is way cruel. 10 gallons ! omg. I put my spotted puffer in a ten gallon tank when I first got him but that only lasted a week. I went and bought ANOTHER tank for him. I could tell he was not happy at all. I have a Fahaka now I just got him yesterday and so far he is awesome. No tank mates though, he is pretty aggresive and stalks his prey. I will wait till I can see he has calmed down some. But ten gal. is WAY WAY WAY too small, even for a spotted puffer, and those dont get very big at all puffers get huge. Ten gal. is animal cruelty dude.. Reply

Steve Bussard - 2007-02-14 I've had my fahaka puffer for about 9 months. Currently he is approximatly 3" and for the time being he is being kept in a 10 gallon. I knew these guys were VERY agressive when I bought him, but since I got him I've had to either hold his food for him or "knock" them unconcious for him to eat anything besides snails or crayfish. I actually had a feeder in the tank with him for more than 6 weeks, without so much as a lunge toward it. So I decided a couple days ago to introduce him to my 90 gallon. I have several fish in there mostly 3" or less, consisting of cichlids, spotted puffers, and angel fish, along with a 20" pleco. Everything went well with him the first 2 days. He only attempted to eat the pleco, which he basically bit his tail, which did no damage, so I wasn't worried. I decided to get a new little silver shark catfish, and when added to the tank he went right to the fahaka. To my surprise, the fahaka moved out of the way and let him go by without so much as a second look. I thought "this is awesome, I'm going to be the first that I know of with a fahaka in a comunity tank!". I was very wrong. No more than 30 seconds later he bit the 3.5" silver in half, with no warning at all. That was the end of his stay in a community tank. He is one of the most beautiful fish I own, but do yourself a favor if you get one, don't attempt community adaptation, unless you don't mind losing some of, if not all of your other fish. Click For Replies (2) Alex - 2010-12-23 10 gallons is way too small for a fahaka puffer. The fact that he will not eat feeder fish and that you have to knock his prey out for him tells me he will soon refuse all food and waste away. My fahaka Vigourously takes food every day and has been growing on the average 1 inch per month. Also, looks like you helped him by placing him in 90 gallons. That can be seen by the sudden increase in his appetite and interest in eating other fish. This species is being evaluated in 2011 for the new impact of the aquarium trade on it's numbers in the wild. It would be a pity to let yours waste away in a 10 gallon. greg - 2011-03-21 I have a fahaka about 2 and a half inches sooo aggressive, even when he's not hungry. If he's in the tank with any feeders I find them floating at the top of the tank, had him with a spotted puffer terrorized it, bugged my albino pleco a bit but now lives together with just the pleco fine. Reply

Che - 2010-02-09 I've had my Fahaka for about a year now, he's roughly 8" long. He lives with an Albino Blood Oscar, a Jack Dempsey, a peacock ciclid and a pleco. He eats feeder fish by the bag full, apple and assassin snails, along with some crayfish and freeze dried krill. He has a a great personality but as most of his species is super aggressive. His tank mates have been chosen carefully through much trial and error. Reply

Anne - 2009-03-14 I have a striped puffer for about two years, he/she is awsome! Very docile so far, actually I have a hard time keeping things in the tank with him/her, but not because he bothers anyone, it's the other way around! We call him "lil man" he's been so awesome. He stopped eating live food a year ago, I got worried something was wrong as he was keeping a couple guppies as buddies. But I got him eating a variety of frozen foods. He's about 7" long, plump, beautiful blue eyes. He shares his tank with two small clowns, anemone, blue damsel, and an engineer goby that's huge. oh yea, Patrick, the chocolate chip star, he gets hand fed too. They are smart, people tend to think fish don't have much brain other than instinct, but I beg to differ! Reply

Add your comment!

View all 13 comments on Fahaka Puffer

Back to Puffers - Pufferfish