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Encyclopedia / Puffers / Amazon puffer
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Variations

1 kinds · tap one for a closer look

Amazon puffer

Sphoeroides asellus · Colomesus asellus, South american puffer, Asellus

Fin nipper but social; keep in a group of 3-5 with plenty of hiding places and snails.

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12.8 cmBody length, without tail ✓
20–26 °CTemperature ✓
7–8pH ✓
108 LSmallest tank ✓
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Tank mates
Check your own mix →
Not recommended
  • Amazon puffer nips fins, and Congo tetra has long fins.
Not recommended
  • Amazon puffer eats animals up to about 2 cm. Ember tetra only grows to 2 cm.
  • Only a narrow pH range suits both: exactly 7.
Not recommended
  • Amazon puffer eats animals up to about 2 cm. Chili rasbora only grows to 2 cm.
  • Only a narrow pH range suits both: exactly 7.
With conditions
  • Only a narrow pH range suits both: exactly 7.
With conditions
  • Only a narrow pH range suits both: exactly 7.
Compatible
Compatible
Compatible
Compatible
Compatible

326 species in our list are a good match.

Facts checked against sources on 16 Oct 2026. ✓ means a source backs it; ? means no reliable source yet. See sources

Care and water

Hardness ✓2–15 dGH
Group size ✓6 or more
Temperament ✓Semi-aggressive
Swims at ?Middle
Care level ✓Moderate
Diet Carnivore
Lifespan ?Unknown
Size in shops 3–4 cm
Growth Medium

Behavior

Fin nipper but social; keep in a group of 3-5 with plenty of hiding places and snails.

Handle with care. Carries paralytic shellfish toxins (saxitoxin and gonyautoxins 2 and 3), not tetrodotoxin; never eat it. Keeping it is not a risk.

  • sand

Food

Snails, bloodworms, small shrimp.

Tap a food to see what it is.

Male or female

No confirmed external differences between the sexes.

Health

Common problems. Tap one to see the signs. This is a guide, not a diagnosis.

Breeding

Not bred in home aquaria ·

Not recorded breeding in aquaria. In the wild it spawns like marine puffers: many small eggs, no parental care, in river channels or at the mouths of floodplain lakes during high water.

Pairing

Pairs cannot be identified reliably, and pairs are hard to identify and spawn only under special conditions.

Setup

Needs a very large tank or pond, which is out of reach for most hobbyists.

What starts it

Not reliably triggered in captivity.

Eggs

No aquarium spawning recorded. Wild fish lay many small eggs; the larvae drift in open water into floodplain-lake nurseries and return to the river as the floods recede.

Raising the fry

No hobby-scale fry-rearing method is established.

Common mistakes
  • Expecting a pair to spawn in a normal tank
  • Buying wild fish to breed them without the space for it
Full breeding guide, day-by-day plan and simulator →

Where it lives in the wild

RegionSouth America – Amazon, Orinoco and Essequibo basins
Rivers and lakesAmazon, Orinoco and Essequibo rivers
HabitatLarge rivers and floodplain lakes
Native rangeAbout 3,000 km across
See it on the world map

The story of the amazon puffer

A South American freshwater puffer, golden-yellow above with five dark bands across the back; unlike most freshwater puffers it lives in loose groups and is nervous alone, so keep six or more. It is told from its relatives by a row of skin flaps across the chin.

Müller and Troschel described this puffer in 1849 as Tetrodon asellus. It is one of the few puffers that lives its whole life in fresh water. Unlike most puffers, it is a sociable fish that lives in groups.

First described by Johannes Müller & Franz H. Troschel in 1849.

  • It lives its whole life in fresh water.
  • It is one of the few puffers that lives in groups.
  • Puffers' teeth are fused into a beak that keeps growing, so they need hard foods like snails.

Sources

16 facts checked with sources