my sap wish

[jimi]

so i want some south american puffers and i am moveing my eel out of a well planted ( over and over ( its and every day venture) 20 so he can have more room ( the 55 long wil be alot better for him ( but i might get some thing with more with and less height so he has tons of room) anyway i was wondering how many south american puffers i could put in there when hes gone ( he was in there with a red tailed shark and some other community fish which are going with him )

[Nick]

Probably only one, maybe two because they enjoy each other's company, IF you are really on top of water changes.

[plurmaster]

SAP are peaceful puffers. They dont really bother other fish and they do well with each other. They are extremely active besure to make plenty of place for them to explore or else they will swim against the glass up,down,left,right all day.

[jimi]

yeah i know i hade a problem with bordem with my figure 8s for a few days but they seem alot happyer now that i put another 5 punds of rocks and plants and im all about proper fish care water changes arnt a problem ( i love to tinker and spend probaly about an hour and a half a week on tank mantance and care of 3 tanks ( most of that is becousei have to replant the eel tank to keep every thin happy ) but maybe i sould get them a better tank first i would love to have a bunch 2 would be fine but i would hate to have them unhappy

[Pufferpunk]

Hopefully it's a 20 long, if you want 2 in there.

[jimi]

yeah but i postponed that plan im gitting a better tank to keep them in ( i figure 3 in a 50 long would be better

[nmonks]

In a 50 gallon tank you could keep half a dozen or really as many SAPs as you have filtration/water changes to look after. The more the merrier with SAPs. Like any puffer they appreciate good water quality though, and avoiding overcrowding is more about that than territoriality or aggression (of which there is NONE with this species).

In terms of avoiding boredom, I've found that plants work well, but so do big piles of rocks. Not so much for caves, which they barely use, but for flat surfaces they can explore. Once these are covered with algae, they seem to happily swim around them picking off snails, bits of food, and occasionally even bits of algae itself (apparently).

My SAPs do seem to like sand as well, and when feeding take in whole mouthfuls of the stuff. Whether this helps wear their teeth down isn't clear, but I suspect it does.

Cheers, Neale

[jimi]

lol i see well i have some time to worry about that ( im going to order some in becouse never see them if i dont im thinking maybe 5 to the 50 becouse i dont want to change water every day thats a bit much but thanks for the information