Tetradon palembangensis

Common name: Humpback Puffer / Dragon Puffer

This Asian freshwater puffer is well described as the Humpback Puffer as the spine curves upwards in the form of a hump, there is no other puffer quite like it.

Its colouration is a light to mid-green on its back, although specimens can sometimes be found with darker colouration depending on its surroundings. The belly is usually white with a mottled grey / green patterning. It can attain a size of 20cm (8") although tank specimens are usually smaller.

Even though it is a fairly peaceful species it should not really be kept as part of a community set up, as it will eat any fish small enough to fit in its mouth. A better option is to set up a species only tank.

I keep two 3" Palembangensis puffers together with a 3" Cutcutia puffer in a 30" tank, it has a sand substrate and has several Nymphaea Stellata plants which are a tropical lily grown from a bulb so they can just be scattered on the bottom and left to grow. By using this plant or something of a similar nature, it saves having to keep replanting rooted plants as these puffers do move the sand around, although they are not puffers that will bury themselves completely. The alternative is to use gravel, and then the choice of plants is better as long as they have a long root system.

This is a very inactive species, and they will usually be found lying motionless amongst the plants, only moving at feeding times. The Palembangensis is basically an ambush predator and will generally only accept live foods, once settled specimens can be trained to accept cockle and mussel. To do this I found it was necessary to stop feeding them for 2/3 days and then drop the food close to them, they now generally grab it before it reaches the substrate. I feed mine with a varied diet including the above plus river shrimp and earthworms.

The Palambangensis is seldom seen in shops, and when they are they rarely appear in good condition. In my experience this is due to the fact that I have seen shops keeping them in brackish conditions which is incorrect as they are a freshwater species.

Also they will generally only start to feed when they are settled in aquaria and can be found to have severely sunken stomachs.

If however time and effort is made in providing the correct tank conditions the above problems can usually be overcome.

© Graeme Franz. 2006. This fact sheet may not be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author