3 Little Pigs!!!!

[Donna_G]

Today I went to collect my Figure Eight puffers. I walked past the tank they were in twice while looking for them
They are so small(about an inch) I thought they'd be bigger!!! I also bought some plants for the tank while I was there.
I got them home and started acclimatising them to the tank, everything going good. Got to the stage of releasing them and off they went exploring, so I was sat there watching them and all of a sudden 1 of the puffers started eating my plant that I'd just bought well now I have holey plants they're all at it!!!! and they aren't finding snails cos I haven't put any in yet
I've called them the 3 little pigs for now as I was feeding my Congo puffer and had some prawn left over so thought I'd see how they reacted to the feeding tongs, yeah, it didn't faze them at all and every time I tried to take the tongs out a puffer or 2 was rising with it lol.
Here's some pics( taken with the tank lights off as they'd only been in the tank 1/2 an hour) enjoy

http://s1069.photobucket.com/albums/u47 ... 20piggies/

[Arny]

Nice Puffers, they look like Celyons to me though

[Donna_G]

Nice Puffers, they look like Celyons to me though

I've had a look at Ceylon puffers on YouTube and the markings seem to be different and the ceylons had spotty tummies unlike the figure eights white belly. Of course they are really small and I'm no expert lol
Anyone else think Ceylon?

[Donna_G]

Here's a quick vid

Look at the very end of the vid, you can see the holey plant lol

[El Scorpio]

Nah, those are figgy 8's.

[Donna_G]

Phewww......

[kcartwright856]

My Lord! How cute are they?!

Oh, Donna. Now I really want to get on that tank for a Figure 8 of my own!

[kcartwright856]

Speaking of which, since I see you have live plants (AKA F8 food!) in there... are you starting out as FW, or is it already brackish?

[Donna_G]

My Lord! How cute are they?!

Oh, Donna. Now I really want to get on that tank for a Figure 8 of my own!

They are super cute lol, even when they're picking holes in my plants it's cute when they first went in the tank I didn't think I'd be able to tell them apart but ones got war paint on his cheeks(he's the greedyist little piggy) ones the same as the first but no markings on the cheeks and the third is slightly lighter.
My tanks freshwater for now, am going to wait a week or 2 so they can settle and I can make sure they are ok before adding any salt, and I'm only going to go up to 1.005 as I find it hard to keep most plants alive without the added obstacle of salt lol

[kcartwright856]

I wonder if their colorations/markings will shift, because I can't tell my DPs apart! One moment, they look totally different. The next, the same. Then they switch!

Gosh, they are so stinking CUTE!

I'm planning on only going up to 1.005 as well, for the sake of the plants.

How slow/fast are you going to raise the salinity? I know the .002 per week for bacteria, but I didn't know if you were maybe going to go slower for the plants. I've heard that's one of the big keys to acclimating the plants to brackish.

I think my plan right now is to raise the salinity in my tank at a snail's pace, with plants only, and then drip my F8 in whenever that time comes. I'm not anticipating this until the end of the year or perhaps even next year, so no rush!

Part of me wants to grow the plants in and then start to raise salinity, but I've heard that the plants sometimes need to melt away and then regrow as the salinity comes up, which would defeat the purpose of growing everything in first off.

I'm clogging up your thread!

Daily pictures and videos, please! Haha!

[Terrance]

I like the figure 8s with the trademark number 8 on the back. They look better than the ones without a clear 8 IMO. Your 8s look good.

[Donna_G]

I wonder if their colorations/markings will shift, because I can't tell my DPs apart! One moment, they look totally different. The next, the same. Then they switch!

Gosh, they are so stinking CUTE!

I'm planning on only going up to 1.005 as well, for the sake of the plants.

How slow/fast are you going to raise the salinity? I know the .002 per week for bacteria, but I didn't know if you were maybe going to go slower for the plants. I've heard that's one of the big keys to acclimating the plants to brackish.

I think my plan right now is to raise the salinity in my tank at a snail's pace, with plants only, and then drip my F8 in whenever that time comes. I'm not anticipating this until the end of the year or perhaps even next year, so no rush!

Part of me wants to grow the plants in and then start to raise salinity, but I've heard that the plants sometimes need to melt away and then regrow as the salinity comes up, which would defeat the purpose of growing everything in first off.

I'm clogging up your thread!

Daily pictures and videos, please! Haha!

Yeah, I'm not going to rush the increase to 1.005, I was thinking of upping it every month or so. From what I've read there's not too many people that bother with plants in brackish tanks, so I'll see how it goes as I'd prefer not to have plastic plants.
I've got say there's only 3 of my dp's that I recognise, the other 3 are pretty much identical which is why I didn't give them individual names lol. I'd love to have your patience, next year sounds such a long time to wait

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

Great lil F8's and I love the markings also. Btw, well atleast they wont be picky eaters..lol

[Donna_G]

Great lil F8's and I love the markings also. Btw, well atleast they wont be picky eaters..lol

They are definitely not picky eaters lol, fed them some snails yesterday and wow!!! They were straight on them and munching. Funny thing was they lined up waiting for their snail to be placed in
This morning though I've noticed one has white poo hanging from his behind, haven't noticed any other symptoms but am off to get ip meds to be on the safe side

[puffykid]

<3