I just got my new f8 today and have a couple of questions. Right now I'm keeping him in a 10 gallon tank. It is freshwater now, and I'm going to slowly change it over to brackish. The tank was fully cycled, but has been home to only my red clawed crab for the past couple weeks. My guess would be that the puffer is going to start a mini-cycle, so I'm planning on doing frequent water changes mixing in a little bit of salt each time until the cycle is compete. Is that the best way to acclimate to brackish? I have heard that you can use marine salt or cichlid lake salt and am wondering if this is correct.
My last question is about the red clawed crab. I have heard that he will be a snack, so I'm thinking about getting him his own tank. He is about the same size as the f8 at the moment, and he hides a lot. There are a lot of places where he is able to get away from the puffer. Do you guys think it would be ok to keep him in with the puffer until I can come up with a better setup or will the puffer be too much for him? The puffer also looks like he suffered some fin nipping prior to me getting him so is there anything that I should do for that?
Water temp - 79
pH - 7.6
currently 0 nitrites and ammonia but I haven't checked since I put the puffer in
The crab will probablly become puffer food, or vice versa. I'd get him out ASAP. I wouldn't worry about the fin nipping just do water changes and it will heal up. I suppose you could use Melafix or Pimafix just as an extra precaution but I wouldn't.
thanks for your quick reply! I will start saving up for a new home for my RCC. Hopefully they can get along for a little bit until I am able to buy and cycle it. I won't worry about the fin nipping.. Hopefully he will be a healthy puffer pretty soon
The best way to acclimate the puffer and the tank to brackish is to do it very slowly. Do it with your weekly water changes so that you raise the S.G. no more than 0.002 per week. This way you should not harm the puffer or the biological filtration. It is very important to use MARINE SALT. Cichlid lake salt is not the same thing and does not contain many of the minerals which are inherently in brackish water.
If the crab is big enough, he might be ok for a while. But my guess is that he will end up food eventually.
You could use Melafix and/or Pimafix if his injuries are bad (can't tell from pictures), but it's probably not necessary. Just make sure you keep the water very clean and the fish should heal on his own. I personally use Melafix pretty frequently with any injuries, but it's probably not necessary most of the time.
yeah the best thing to do would be to adjust the salinity very slowly with each water change, but as little as an increase of 0.002 as suggested or you run the risk of die off from the filter bacteria. As for the mixing of the crab and the puffer it wont work out IMO as the puffer will pick at the crab, probably removing the legs one at a time an the eyes until the crab can't escape. Or the crab could inflict serious damage with those claws so a seperate tank is the answer. However I would look to buy a larger tank for the F8 as they need a 15G minimum with plenty of filtration. I would buy a 15G and cycle it at 0.002 and then add the puffer to the new tank leaving the crab where it is, you can use some of the gravel in a mesh bag or a pair of thights and use some of the filter media you have from the old tank to help seed the new setup with all the beneficial bacteria you will need. Make sure you have a test kit so that you can see when the cycle has completed. When you transfer the puffer make sure it is not expose to air as it may inflate and take on air which means bad things for the puffer
Everything is still going pretty well today. I went out and got 6 pond snails, and the puffer got one before it even hit the bottom of the tank. The puffer and the crab seem to be ignoring each other for the time being, so I'm hoping as long as I keep them both well fed nothing too bad will happen anytime soon.
I did a 20% water change and raised the salinity to 1.001. The nitrites and ammonia are still at 0, so I will do another 20% water change next monday and raise SG to 1.002. I'm going to try some frozen bloodworms tomorrow and see if he goes for them.
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