The Puffer Forum

What you describe is lack of apparent movement of one operculum - the covering to the gills. Water may be flowing over the gills just fine and the opercular movement may be too slight for you to see. You cannot assume flukes from this - keep an eye on his opercular movement. Does he appear healthy o...

Kass - did you try the quit option in file - upper left in window ? I suspect you looked for the active X (close) to right of the minimize symbol in upper right, but you have to go to file & quit.

Works great in Windows. Thanks Neale. Useful to demonstrate quickly how changing temp while keeping SG constant affects salinity.

Shell-on shrimp should work and work well with larger puffs - you just buy a larger grade of shrimp. If the crab is soft-shelled, it's probably a good source of protein but not as good for teeth as snails and shrimp. Soft-shell blue crabs sold in the seafood store are certainly expensive - human del...

For puffers such as gsp, ceylon, f8, etc, its best if all food is fed with tooth health in mind. Hard foods keep the puffer dentist away....

You'll know their teeth are scraping against the shell because you'll hear it ! I love the sound of puffer grazing...

I freeze crab pieces and then thaw in Zoe vitamin.

Momo - where are you located and what species of crab are you considering? My puffs get Chesapeake Bay blue crab claws and legs (meal size pieces) - but I catch them myself. Blue crabs are sold as either freshly shed soft crabs (a delicacy for us - but doesn't help with puff teeth) or hard crabs - w...

Momodig, You are a good candidate for both investing in a refractometer and starting out right away by using the scale that directly measures salt in ppt (parts per thousand) - not SG, which infers salinity. When raising salinity in a tank, remove 50% of your water. Say its 10 ppt. Mix enough salt i...

I allow salt to mix overnight at minimum.

When you did water change, was new water temp same as tank temp?

As far as salt cost, its most economical to buy in large buckets - advertised as making 150 to 160 gallons per bucket. Since you are making brackish, say if 50% SW, that's 300 to 320 gallons. On-line prices are usually 30-$35 per bucket, so if you shop (and stock up) during free shipping specials, y...

Aquarists use SG to infer salinity - by convention because old floating hydrometers were the way we measured long ago. Biologists measure salinity directly in ppt. - parts per thousand. I'm convinced this is more logical and the math errors would be fewer. Refratometers almost always have scales for...

Cool topic. If I was doing this cross-country, I would bring a heater for the hotel stays, but might try to control water temp with air temp in the car - just one less thing to go wrong. Most of the little battery operated air pumps are junk, IMO. And air is mostly nitrogen so aeration is an ineffic...

2 *might* go in a 30 gal - depending on aggression, which could even change with time. The F8 I chose was very dominant in his fish store tank and I chose to keep him alone in a 30 long. He might be fine with a tankmate, but I choose not to risk it.

Cockles are bivalves. They are sold in seafood depts in Europe, but I've never seen them offered in North America. There are species of cockles native to the US East Coast however that are not locally eaten. I've collected two common species intertidally in New England. Snails are excellent food. My...

Wow. Now there's a puffer who should never get "bored". I love the colors, PP. Who makes/sells that fake coral?

Beautiful - thanks for sharing.