I had been wanting to buy some SAPs for a long time, but they are quite hard to find in Korea (I'm an expat working in Seoul). This past weekend I finally came across a store that sold them and couldn't resist buying 3. Unfortunately, I currently only have 2 tanks - one ~55 gallon (202L) brackish with 2 GSPs and one 10 gallon planted tank with a betta and 4 julii corys. I know I probably should have set up a larger tank first before buying but the store was fairly far from my home and I also didn't want to risk them going out of stock, since SAPs are so rare here. So currently the saps are in the 10 gallon (pictured below) with the betta and corys. So far they all seem to be doing fine though obviously SAPs cannot stay there long.
I have already ordered another 55 gal (100 x 45 x 45 cm) and Eheim classic 2217 and they should arrive in the next few days. My plan is to transplant everything from the 10 gallon into the 55 gal (substrate, decorations, plants and 4 corys) and put the media from my current filter into the Eheim. The betta will be going to a friend. Although a great deal of new substrate and filter media will have to be added, my hope is that the old will be enough to allow for an instant cycle and transfer of fish. What do you guys think?
SAPs are great FW puffers, a 55 should do for three of them, and if you plant it well they will be quite happy.
Their only drawback is that their incisors grow quite fast if their diet is not primarily home-reared snails. Will you be able to devote the 10 to become a snail rearing tank? To avoid regular dentistry I had to feed mine 90-95%+ live uncrushed snails.
They also will appreciate a decent current along the front glass of the 55 - they are exercise nuts also. But they are totally charming and one of the best-looking puffers IMHO, and are well worth the effort they require.
Thank you for the reply RTR. I've been reading about SAPs for many months so I'm familiar with their dentistry requirements. I've already asked my sister about buying some finquel from the states to send over if necessary. I've also been breeding snails for my GSPs in a fairly large jar that Koreans use to store kimchi, about 3 gallons or so. Right now there are only about 30 snails in there though - I'm guessing I will need to pick up the snail production quite a bit for 3 SAPs plus the 2 GSPs.
Any thoughts on whether or not the tank should be OK right away for the fish?
If you transfer all the media, decorations and substrate you should be good. Get the longest tank you can and you will soon see how great these fish are. I have some sort of OCD going on where fish tanks are concerned, mine resides in a 5 foot tank and explores every inch. Most commonly found swimming in the flow from the powerhead. A huge +1 to rtrs comments on dentistry and snails, in a tank with other fish soft foods will get snapped up by the sap and hard foods left, in this case dentistry every 3-6 months will be essential. They need a tank of their own plus a snail breeder tank for ease of care
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
Words cannot express how envious I am of your 5 ft tank. I would go crazy trying to build a super realistic biotope. It's a dream of mine to one day have several huge 100 gal+ tanks. Unfortunately the "houses" in Seoul, are very, very small, especially by American standards. The tank I ordered is almost the largest that stores here sell without having one custom built.
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus Punkster, the 4" red T miurus Mongo, the 4" A modestus 2 T biocellatus C valentini C coranata C papuan Also kept: lorteti DPs suvattii burrfish T niphobles
wetmartini wrote:Words cannot express how envious I am of your 5 ft tank. I would go crazy trying to build a super realistic biotope. It's a dream of mine to one day have several huge 100 gal+ tanks. Unfortunately the "houses" in Seoul, are very, very small, especially by American standards. The tank I ordered is almost the largest that stores here sell without having one custom built.
I am in England, houses here are tiny compared to the USA. My tank addiction takes up around a quarter of the living space in the front room and about the same in the kitchen lol
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
+1 to bertie's comments. I have to confess that my favorite SAP tank was a 120 US gallons, but only 4' long. It was set as Roman Circus - with plants in the center spine and the 4 corners and circular current. A 6' 180 would have been better. Maybe some day... Our home is not large by US standards, but is certainly not small.
Yea that's incorrect. I'm originally from Chicago NW suburbs but am living and working in Seoul, Korea now. I think I just typed that instinctively because I'm an American.
Bertie, I can almost guarantee the houses in the UK are still much bigger than those in Korea. There are 50 million people here living in a country much smaller than the state of Illinois.
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus Punkster, the 4" red T miurus Mongo, the 4" A modestus 2 T biocellatus C valentini C coranata C papuan Also kept: lorteti DPs suvattii burrfish T niphobles
I can't stop laughing. My older sister used to live in Seoul and her appartment was about the size of my wifes clothes closet - how many pyeong is yours?
Sorry, the reason I'm laughing is I have an image of you getting a 6' tank and putting your bed on top of it
Pufferpunk wrote:Can you change that in your profile?
was already changed about 2 hours before you asked
Squaffy wrote:I can't stop laughing. My older sister used to live in Seoul and her appartment was about the size of my wifes clothes closet - how many pyeong is yours?
Sorry, the reason I'm laughing is I have an image of you getting a 6' tank and putting your bed on top of it
haha yea, there are many homes like that - they call them "one rooms" here in Korea - less than 10 pyeong (unless your wife has an enormous closet). The place I'm at is not quite that small - about 30 pyeong. It's very similar in size to one of the apartments I rented as a university student.
speaking of university students, many of the single person dorms in Korea I would guess are much, much smaller than a closet in the US. enough room for small desk and a bed that doubles as a chair, and nothing else.
To give a quick update - I was finally able to set up the new tank yesterday. Added a lot of new plants - mostly vallisneria, amazon swords, some water poppies and one cryptocorne willisi - and more driftwood and rocks. I was using a fairly small HoB mini-canister filter for the 10 gallon so quite A LOT of extra media had to be added to Eheim 2217. I used a mixture of Eheim Substrat Pro and Ehfi Mech, in addition to some of the sponges that came with the filter.
Had already passed the betta over to a friend but I'm concerned about the corys. Their dorsal fins were nipped quite a lot by the SAPs - some barely have anything left on top. I'm hoping that this was mostly due to the small confines of the 10 gallon they had to share.
So far water parameters seem good - everything at 0, including nitrates (though I'm not sure that is a good thing). Of course I also did the near equivalent of a 100% water change yesterday. SAPs seem to be doing very well after one day and are enjoying their new, greatly enlarged habitat.
My sap is a bugger with plants, pruned my wisteria so it's level with the gravel lol, keep an eye out for plants he doesn't like and move them to a new location. They like to remodel their homes lol
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
bertie 83 wrote:My sap is a bugger with plants, pruned my wisteria so it's level with the gravel lol, keep an eye out for plants he doesn't like and move them to a new location. They like to remodel their homes lol
This is the first comment I've seen about SAPs eating plants ... I am a big fan of lush planted tanks so I certainly hope that your SAP is an anomaly. So far my SAPs don't seem to be interested at all in my plants and I hope it stays that way.
Unfortunately I can't say the same for my poor Corydoras. They are still getting their fins devoured by the SAPs. Looks like I will have to relocate them but then I will be faced with the problem of dealing with uneaten food particles on my substrate. Has anyone had any success with SAPs and Amano Shrimp living together? I have seen some at the shop that were larger than the SAPs but of course this may count for nothing where puffers are concerned. I can, of course, as a last resort, do my best to vacuum the substrate regularly, but this is not really ideal imo with a heavily planted tank.
