Hi!

[Berto]

Hi, I'm Andy and have recently aquired a F8 puffer. I have this in a 160 litre community tank and it seems to be getting on well at the moment! As with all my fish I like to know how to care for them, hense joining the forum. So get ready for me asking loads of questions, starting... NOW! Thanks.

[Lil' Swimz$]

Haha welcome to the forum!

What other fish do you have in the community?

[Berto]

Thanks for the welcome.

I have the following fish in my community tank:

2 x 6" Common Pleco
2 x Sucking Loach
7 x Neon Tetra
3 x Guppy
1 x Ghost Knife Fish
1 x Figure 8 Puffer
3 x Ghost shrimp which were puffer food, but have setted in nicely as my puffer hasn't eaten them (yet).

[Flutter]

Welcome. Hopefully you're reading up on your new puffer

F8s are not community friendly puffers (none are really). They're also brackish fish so that probably wouldn't jive with your community anyways. This puffer will need it's own tank and lightly brackish water. Are you able to do this for it?

Here are some pages that you may want to read:
library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/
library/puffer-care/alone-but-not-lonel ... fers-solo/
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Brackish/T_Biocellatus/

[Pufferpunk]

Flutter's right.

[pufferpuggirl]

I suppose the first question would be, how long has the tank been up and running, and how did you cycle it? Have you added marine salt to the tank yet?

[Pufferpunk]

I hope not! None of those other fish will appreciate any salt at all. Many are the exact opposite of BW fish, preferring soft water.

[pufferpuggirl]

When I asked the salt question, I sort of missed that he was keeping the F8 in a community tank. I didn't see that until after I posted, sorry.

[Berto]

I have been reading up on my F8 but have got mixed answers as other sites say that the F8 can be kept happily in a freshwater tank and the one in question has done so for several months.

I am trying to reduce my number of tanks as had 2 tanks plus a divided fry/quarantine tank, however I could keep the puffer in a seperate tank if needed.

I know they are not ideal for a community tank but again, I have heard of them being peaceful in a community and if mine was to become agressive then I would have him on his own straight away.

Yeh, no salt added yet as the other fish may disapprove!

[Pufferpunk]

I'd check on those sites & see if the F8s lived into their upper teens, as they have been known to live >18 years in BW.

[Berto]

To be fair they did not say how long they had/have live for in the freshwater.

So if my F8 would be better on BW, are their any links explaining creating a brackish setup please? ie, which salt to use and how much per litre, suitable plants, etc...

BW is new to me as of now so any info would be appreciated.

[PolishPuff]

You would need to use a marine salt ( instant ocean )

I keep my F8 at 1.005 SG which is ok for some fresh water plants

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