New here, in the market for a Congo

[MagicMan]

Hey, my name's Brett and I'm 17. I joined a few years ago as boosh96 but that email was deleted and stuff. I've got an empty 40 breeder tank in my mom's garage, and I'd like to get a Congo puffer in the near future. SO, here's my plan for my future puffer: I'll fill the 40 and fully cycle it, using about 2-3" of soft sand as the substrate and some fake plants and stuff for decoration. As far as filtration, I'm thinking I'll use a HOB filter rated for a 50-75 gallon tank, and I'll heat the setup to the upper 70's. I'm planning on feeding the little guy/gal a varied diet consisting of nightcrawlers, guppies, mollies, crayfish, and shrimp. Anybody have any suggestions, corrections in care, anything of that nature?

[Stratters]

Hi MagicMan, and welcome. No fish as food, it's not good for them

[bertie 83]

Welcome to the forum. Just an edit to the above: if you have a good source of healthy guppies etc they are fine to feed to a piscivore

[RTR]

Footnote to Straters & Bertie's comments: The issue w/LFS or chain feeder fish is that these tend to be breeder's rejects which have been seriously overcrowded and very poorly fed and maintained. The chances are extremely good that these fish carry a wide variety of diseases, more than a few of which are highly likely to be infected with drug-resistant forms of parasites and other communicable diseases. You do not want these fish to ever infect your show fish.

If you absolutely must use feeders, you really need to rear your own. There are relatively inexpensive guppy and molly strains which are not seriously over-bred or in-bred. Get such a strain and rear your own feeders, keeping them just as you would any other fish - i.e., keep them clean, uncrowded, well-fed and introduce new breeders every 3-5 years. I do keep a strain of guppies I have had ~50 years. They live in tanks which are pre-set but not in use for display at the moment. I trade off excess to the LFS periodically to control excess numbers.

HTH

[purplecandle]

Welcome again!

[DMD123]

Welcome!

I too was in a similar situation recently. But I was considering four different puffers: hairy, Congo, arrowhead and dragon. I decided on the hairy and could not be happier. The one Congo that I had available was not very colorful and the hairy seemed the most interesting. I have been doing a mix of foods similar to what you have listed and recently acquired some platy to start my own breeding for feeders. I do not plan on feeding live fish often but have read a bit that it is good for hunters to be able to on occasion stalk and catch prey so more for the fishes physiological well being. Dont know how true that is but I will have clean, healthy feeder's when necessary.

The problem I was also having, was to even find any puffers local to me. I ended up ordering mine online from The Wet Spot out of Portland, Oregon. They are only a couple hours away from me and shipping was fast and inexpensive. Not sure what stores you have in your area but likelihood is you will have to talk with them to try and special order one for you or to just buy online. Keep us updated, and we want pictures!