The Puffer Forum

Hi all,

I am going to plant two of my puffer tanks (a 500L and a 200L). My experience with live plants to date has not been great.

What chemicals do you use to keep the plants alive?

Is there any chemicals that I should avoid that puffers are sensitive to?

Thanks

What type of puffers are in those tanks? Many will either uproot plants while burrowing or destroy them while hunting.

I haven't had too much of an issue with incidental plant destruction with my schoutedeni but don't know about other puffers. I don't use chemicals in the water, I just make sure that they have appropriate lighting and so far, everything in the various tanks is looking pretty good. I am growing Val, anubias, c. wendtii, hygro, and bolbitis this way.

My smaller puffers, up to 4-5" don't seem to bother my plants, with the occasional cut in a crypt leaf.
My young fahaka (which is growing fast) tears up crypt leafs but larger leaved plants like Anubias & Nymphea he leaves alone. I recommend Anubias glued or bound on rock or driftwood (what I'm doing this week in my new, larger fahaka tank).
I use standard liquid aquarium fertilizer almost every day in my puffer tanks.

Thanks Ramp,

What are you feeding your fahaka??

I bought a baby one last month, about 1-2 inches, he was super skinny and he doesn't seem to be growing or gaining weight.

I have dewormed him (soaked his food in flubendozol for 5 days and definitely saw worms coming out)

so not sure what to try. looking at the pic of yours from your schoutedeni thread, he looks much fatter than frank! ( My fahaka)

You may need to deworm again. Try using something else, like Metro. Some worms only die from certain meds.
library/hospital/viiii-annabelles-diary ... nus-worms/

thanks whats metro?

NJD wrote: ↑Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:18 am Thanks Ramp,
What are you feeding your fahaka??
I bought a baby one last month, about 1-2 inches, he was super skinny and he doesn't seem to be growing or gaining weight.
I have dewormed him (soaked his food in flubendozol for 5 days and definitely saw worms coming out)
so not sure what to try. looking at the pic of yours from your schoutedeni thread, he looks much fatter than frank! ( My fahaka)

Like pufferpunk said, deworm again. Also by deworming, you kill the worms, what can give the fish the feeling of a full stomach. When he is/was heavily infested, iit can lead to blockage. So be patient for a few days so the dead parasites can be defecated.
As for food, I feed; frozen red mosquito larvea, cut clam meet, as for life food; black worms, cut, small eartworms, ramshorn snails. NO fish, poultry or meat products as they can't digest te last 2 properly and leads to illness.
Mine only eats food that he can fit into its mouth, so snail's not bigger than 2-3 mm.
I also found that he eats best when water temp. is 26°C - 79°F.
The pic was taken a few weeks ago. Check out a vid on my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9tqea ... 1c-hMOWSfQ) and update/feeding video will be posted there at the end of the week (he already doubled in size).
I feed ones or twice a day, 6 days a week at the moment.

NJD wrote: ↑Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:18 am Thanks Ramp,
What are you feeding your fahaka??
I bought a baby one last month, about 1-2 inches, he was super skinny and he doesn't seem to be growing or gaining weight.
I have dewormed him (soaked his food in flubendozol for 5 days and definitely saw worms coming out)
so not sure what to try. looking at the pic of yours from your schoutedeni thread, he looks much fatter than frank! ( My fahaka)

Answered your questions here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=36971&p=369635#p369635

I have quite a few different plants, but I’ve found that my GSP loves to eat the little onion plants and to uproot the bulbs.

Mharr31 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:46 pm I have quite a few different plants, but I’ve found that my GSP loves to eat the little onion plants and to uproot the bulbs.

When I first got my fahaka baby,the first thing I noticed was that he/she started picking on some green algae on a rock in the quarantine tank, he still does it from time to time. It has been described that several puffer species take in algae from time to time.

BTW, the GSP is a brackish to salt water species. Perhaps it does it to get more salts into it's system.

Anubias plants are thick and can take a beating. The Anubias nana petite are small.
They are in a 24x24x30 tower on the left with eight pea puffers.
Tiny leaves. Tiny puffers sleep in them.

Before the new year, I'll be able to post a few pics of what bigger puffers (palembangenis/dragon, Turgidus/target) can do to a hoard of the various anubias plants.

For now, planted tanks are so nice.
If the conditions are right, you can almost stop using Seachem Fourish (basically vitamins for plants) for a while, but may need some potassium to cure up a few yellowing leaves if they start showing up.

StinkyPete wrote: ↑Sun Oct 14, 2018 6:36 pm

Nice setup! I'm sure they love it !!!

NJD wrote: ↑Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:36 am thanks whats metro?

metronidazole... or seachem calls it Metroplex

I caught my SAP eating some of my plants, forgot what plants the were. I guess that little guy just needs a balanced diet from my aquascape.