The miurus puffer is a species of freshwater puffer fish from the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The miurus puffer lives in large rivers and can sometimes be found in areas of considerable flow, even areas of rapids.They generally grow to an adult size of 6" inches. Males and females are indistinguishable from each other.
The miurus puffer should be kept in an aquarium of 20 gallons or larger with a footprint of at least 30" by 12" by 12" with excellent filtration and frequent water changes, as they are sensitive to poor water quality. They can be maintained in such small aquariums due to their low activity lifestyle. A soft sandy substrate (CS7581) with live or artificial plants and pieces of driftwood (ZM2000) to provide cover is ideal as these unique puffers like to bury themselves in the sand.
The miurus puffer prefers a temperature of 75°F - 82°F, a pH of 6.8 to 7.5 and a hardness of 10 - 15°H.
The miurus puffer is an aggressive and territorial fish that will do best as a single specimen in an aquarium of it's own. It will eat any fish it can fit into it's mouth and may bite chunks out of other larger fish. On occasion, armored loricariid catfishes, such as some species of pleco, may be housed with these puffers with little damage.
In the wild, miurus puffers are ambush predators and will feed on small fish and crustaceans and mollusks. In the aquarium they may be fed frozen krill (SF7137), clams on the half shell (ON8615), and live ghost shrimp and snails, frozen silversides and live earthworms..