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Going to try an F8 again

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 8:04 pm
by abcdefghi
About 5 years ago I had an F8 puffer for a few months, cured him of ich, got him looking healthy, then out of nowhere he died. To this day he has been one of my favorite fish, so I thinking about giving it another try. I have a 20G long that will be just for him/her but have a couple questions on substrate, tank readiness type of questions.

My water from the tap is a pH of about 8.0 and definitely what would be considered hard water. I forget the gh/kh numbers. Will I still need to use aragonite sand? Or with the water conditions I already have, not need to worry quite so much with buffering and can look at other substrates.

I keep a spare filter running on my 125G, had been for QT usage, but will now move to the 20G. I plan to test ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, but will it be a pretty safe bet that the tank will be cycled right away? Essentially planning to move the filter the same day I get the puffer.

What is the best way to treat for internal parasites? I struggled with getting medication into the food in the past. Wondering what the best way to go about it will be. Planning to treat for 3 days.

This question is more curiosity than anything else, I read an article earlier today that said if you have hard water with a high pH that F8s can live in freshwater, I am planning for brackish, but was curious how true that was.

Other than that, figuring out the decor will be fun since it's such a change from a fresh water planted tank. I have snails readily available and will pick up some clams, brine shrimp etc.

Thanks.

Re: Going to try an F8 again

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2018 4:51 pm
by Iliveinazoo
I don’t blame you they’re gorgeous little fish. You’re filter should be fine as long as it’s sized for the tank and the tank that you are taking it from has fish in it so that the nitrifying bacteria has had a constant food source - use some of the water from the filter’s tank when you swap over so as not to shock the bacteria too much, if your QT tank hasn’t got fish in then your filter will will not have nitrifying bacteria and you will need to cycle the tank.

My tap water sounds like it’s much the same as yours and i’ve onky ever had a planting substrate capped by silica sand and my Figure 8 is over 10 years old, that said an arogonite substrate offers the buffering capacity that silica sand doesn’t so if you become lax with tank upkeep or the water company switches source then you are less likely to have a pH crash with aragonite.

I’ve never ran the tank non-brackish because the additional salt makes nitrate less toxic and i feel that i’d be pushing my luck especially since i also don’t use aragonite, that said my tank is planted and I keep the salinity low at SG1.003 at 25DegC. I also remember an old post on here where someone tested water in one of their their natural habitats and the water was slightly brackish.

I don’t routinely use parasite medication and my experience with it is poor, in the past when I’ve noticed my puff losing weight my parasite treatment has never seemed to help (most likely doing it wrong), what usually helps is increased water changes and an increased feeding regime and a couple of weeks of worried patience.

Re: Going to try an F8 again

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:15 pm
by abcdefghi
Well, picked one up. I did get aragonite sand, I like the look of it and hopefully the puffer will as well. The water at the LFS was 1.004 so I made sure mine matched. Crazy think is my tap water reads 1.004 out the tap with a hydrometer that I had. I did not trust that at all, so picked up a refractometer.

The filter was running on a stocked tank, so plenty of bacteria built up, I may pick up a second filter to use as well though just to keep the water very clean.

Interesting comment on the parasites, most research I did says to treat them for 3 days when you first get them.

Glad I picked one up again, so inquisitive, I need to figure out what decor to put in to keep it from getting bored. What was funny, when I first got him home I floated the bag in my freshwater tank while moving the filter over and double checking the salinity, watching the puffer and my angelfish (I have 6) trying to figure each other out was pretty entertaining.

Re: Going to try an F8 again

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:01 pm
by abcdefghi
Quick question, how much water movement do these guys like? I have a Koralia Nano which is rated at 240gph, trying to decide whether to use it or not. If they like to have a good bit of water movement, then I will switch it on, but if it will be too much I don't want to be blasting him all over the tank.

He seems to be settling in nicely, albeit I suspect bored. He paces up and down the glass quite a bit, the tank is still somewhat bare though. He is eating readily so far ramshorn and pond snails, brine shrimp and a cricket.

Re: Going to try an F8 again

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2018 6:03 pm
by Iliveinazoo
Happy days, i’m sure you’ll love your little puffer. The pacing is probably just a settling in thing.

I wonder if you have a water softener to get a salinity reading in your tap water?

My Figure 8 does like flow and he will swim through the current rather than turn into it and swim against it like minnows might, he does get pushed back a little by my filter outlet and spends most of his time in the slower regions of the tank - i reckon that 240gph would pin him to the opposite wall of the tank!!

Re: Going to try an F8 again

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 9:09 am
by abcdefghi
No water softener, just a sure fire way to see how inaccurate a swing arm hydrometer can be. Water with the hydrometer 1.004, water with a refractometer 1.000.

I might try to position the pump somewhere that the flow gets deflected instead of going straight across the tank. If that won't work then I will just take it out of the tank altogether.

Just noticed you are in Southampton, I used to live in Chandlers Ford, originally from Winchester.

Re: Going to try an F8 again

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 12:12 pm
by Pufferpunk
Both the refractometer & hydrometer need to be calibrated.

Re: Going to try an F8 again

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 9:40 am
by Iliveinazoo
abcdefghi wrote: Wed Oct 10, 2018 9:09 am No water softener, just a sure fire way to see how inaccurate a swing arm hydrometer can be. Water with the hydrometer 1.004, water with a refractometer 1.000.

I might try to position the pump somewhere that the flow gets deflected instead of going straight across the tank. If that won't work then I will just take it out of the tank altogether.

Just noticed you are in Southampton, I used to live in Chandlers Ford, originally from Winchester.
It's a small world - I'm originally from Newcastle but have lived in Southampton for about 15 years. I work in Basingstoke so pass Winchester on the way. Winchester's lovely but houses are far too expensive to even think about!!

I also used to work in North Baddesley - a mere stone's throw from Chandlers Ford.