Quarantining a porcupine puffer

[AdamHorton]

Hello.

I have a 150G saltwater tank and I'm planning to add a puffer fish to it in the near future. If you have any questions about the tank, you can look at this page. The information here is up-to-date.

http://www.adamhorton.com/flog/?page_id=153

I'm pretty sure I want to get a porcupine puffer, though the g/f still wants a "Stars and Stripes Puffer" and so the decision isn't final yet. I've been cycling a quarantine tank (using ammonia, no fish) and this process should be finished hopefully some time this week. I'm hoping to pick up a puffer when this happens.

Last time I checked, there was a young, healthy-looking porcupine puffer at my local fish store, assuming it's still there and healthy, that's probably the fish I'll be getting.

The purpose of this thread is to make sure I understand what all I'm looking for and should be doing in this QT tank. I'll post what I think I know and hopefully get some feedback.

I've used a QT for tangs in the past, mostly as a safeguard for ich so it doesn't get into my main tank. I QTed them for 6 weeks, doing a hyposalinity treatment for the first four weeks (1.009 SG) and also treating with PraziPro. So far, my display tank seems to be ich-free and I'd definitely like to keep it that way. I believe PraziPro shouldn't be harmful to a puffer fish, but what about hyposalinity? Should I be doing this or not?

Feeding: I've kept brackish puffers in the past and it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to get them to eat. I want to make sure I have the right food and I'm prepared to try target feeding until this new guy figures out what food is. Is there anything in particular I should be feeding it? In the display tank there is a population of snails that live in the sand bed from when I thought I might want that to be a reef tank, I expect them to end up as snacks for my new puffer fish. I also have a freshwater tank with a very stable population of Red Cherry Shrimp, and I don't mind dropping in a net to "borrow" a few if the puffer needs live food; but I'd prefer it if I could use frozen food in the long-term. Is there something in particular I should be getting?

I'll be QTing the new puffer for 6 weeks to watch for ich regardless, is there something else I should be looking out for? Is there any reason I should wait longer?

[Pufferpunk]

I'm glad you're asking questions here, before purchasing your puffer! If you look at the profiles of both puffers (under the Learn tab: Pufferpedia), the S&S puffer will outgrow a 150g, so stick with YOUR choice of puffers.

IMO, I'd QT with normal water (no meds, no hypo) & keep an eye on the fellow. No reason to stress out a healthy puffer.
There are excellent articles on SW puffers, Feeding, etc. Look around the site.

[AdamHorton]

Thanks for your response.

You said there's no reason to stress out a healthy puffer -- here's my reservation about that: I've QTed three tangs in my life, and the two times I waited until I saw signs of ich to start hyposalinity treatment, I lost a tang because of it and I wish I had just done a preventative treatment. I understand most tangs are ich magnets, and if I ever QT a tang again I'll be doing hypo no matter what, but are puffers as prone to ich as tangs? I also know that tangs really don't mind hypo and if it has more of an effect on puffers that would make me think twice as well.

I didn't plan to medicate unless I saw any problems, though.

I've seen a couple of articles just by looking at sticky posts, is there a resource for finding all of the articles, though?

[Infinity8]

These links should get you started I've tried to pull ones more relevant to porc puffs. It makes me so happy to see people willing to do their research first. What a lucky little puff yours will be!

library/hospital/qtine/
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/
library/puffer-care/inside-the-mind-of-a-puffer/
library/puffers-in-focus/big-marine-pufferfish-care/
library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/
library/hospital/help-my-puffer-is-air-filled/

From what I understand after prowling around here, a brand-new puffer is more susceptible to worms than Ick, I think? So that'll be something to watch for in QT ...I think most members here deworm their puffers straight on after buying them, just to be safe.

[AdamHorton]

Great, thanks for the links. I'll read these tonight when I get a bit more time.

I've learned the hard way that if you don't do things right now, you end up paying for it later on. I frequent aquariumadvice.com for a lot of stuff but they really couldn't answer puffer-specific questions so I came here for that -- their philosophy is very much that everything should be done to maximize the health and comfort of your fish and I agree with that, and doing your homework is a big part of that.

[AdamHorton]

After reading these articles, I think I'll de-worm once I get the new puffer, by including it with food. I'd prefer a proactive treatment and it seems these aren't very harmful if they aren't necessary. I'm excited to get a puffer, but unfortunately it's taking two days for nitrites to get back to zero in my QT (after adding ammonia) and I need it to take one day. I'm close!

[AdamHorton]

I took a couple of terrible pictures on my phone of the fish in the LFS that I'm probably going to get...

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/puffer1.jpg

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/puffer2.jpg

[bertie 83]

Looks healthy enough, have you seen him eating?

[AdamHorton]

I think I did a while ago, but not last night. It's been a week or so.

[Pufferpunk]

Are you offering live food?

[AdamHorton]

I don't have the puffer yet. I'd like to only feed frozen food but I can give live RCS if it becomes necessary.

[FishFan]

We had a Stars and Stripes Puffer that went from 3" to the size of a football in about a year and half. Unless you want an aggressive football-sized eating machine that will consume everything from its tank companions to electric cords and thermometers, you may want to stick with the Porky. The Porky will be a glutton and will get big too (about a foot for D. hollocanthus), but not as fast and alway with a smile and those big round headlight eyes (partial to Porkys and Burrfish).

Our experience is that Marine puffers tend to be highly stressed by changing tanks/water/shipping and if they have some Marine ich (maybe not visible), they will very likely get more after being moved. Watch close for spots in the QT, and if the fish doesn't get Ich it is most likely clean (others may reasonably disagree).

No food the first 24 hours, then gradually increase. Puffers can consume ridiculously larger amounts than they need, making the amusement of watching them get gorged a good way to cause a huge ammonia spike. The rule "feed them as much as they can eat in 3-5 minutes" does't apply because they can eat an enormous amount in that time.

Suggestion - get the SG of the store's tank using your hydrometer and make sure your QT SG is the same or a few points less, but not higher by more than .01. Also, use your pH test kit to get pH about right ( w/in .5, but .3 is better) ,measuring at the same time of day. Acclimate over at least 2-4 hours in dim lighting. If you use a bucket drip go slow at first and match temperatures bucket to AQ before moving the fish to the AQ. Transfer the fish with a clear plastic bag or a Tupperware, don't use a net as it can scratch their eyes, they can get stuck in the net if they puff, and some will puff with air and be unable to expel it.
-R

[casc]

I just moved last month. I moved 3 tanks. One of which was my 150G with Juke, my porc. He did fine. Since I've had him he's been a pretty sturdy fish. We have been through a lot together. For a "sensitive" fish, he had no problems so far. I do try very hard to keep him happy though.

[Pufferpunk]

How fr did you move? We are considering moving south. Many, many miles away. I can't imagine how I'm gonna move my tanks--especially Filbert, my 13" fahaka.

[AdamHorton]

I'm assuming you read my blog post about the move? That explains a lot about how I did it. The move is normally a two-hour drive, but there was a big snow storm that day so it took longer than that. I would have liked to get it all done in one day, but as I wrote in the post that didn't happen because of me being an idiot. The fish and some of the live rock had to spend the night in their buckets/coolers. It was about 24 hours before the fish went back in the tanks and I had no casualties.

Moving a large fish that would probably be a challenge, you want enough volume that he'll be comfortable for a day or so, but little enough that you can actually lift it.