We just adopted our first F8 yesterday (named Beetlejuice) and we have a few beginner questions. How soon should we begin transitioning him to brackish water? And I know we should raise the salinity by .002 per week, but with a 29-gallon tank approx how much salt should we add each week? (We did purchase a hydrometer, but I'm afraid to just start adding salt water to the tank.)
Also, how often should we be feeding him? He is approximately 1.5 inches long. Yesterday he had a crayfish claw and 2 bloodworms, and today he had about a dozen brine shrimp. We stopped feeding when his belly started to bulge. Does this seem like the right amount of food? Is it okay to feed him every day? (BTW I did read the articles on this site about puffer diet, and they were so helpful! Turns out I knew more about feeding puffers than the LFS did!)
Sorry for all the questions but we love our little guy already, and we just want to make sure we are treating him right. Thanks!!
Just add the marine salt to your bucket when when you carry out water changes and start making your tank brackish on your next water change.
Don't know how big the crayfish was but it sounds like he got a lot of food yesterday. Mine are slightly larger and are full up on a very small amount of shrimp or about a 1/4 cube of frozen foods (for 2 F8's, halfbeak & 4BBG's). You can tell if you should feed your puffer in the morning by the look of his belly, if it's flat then feed him, if it's still round then hold off for the day.
Iliveinazoo wrote: ...You can tell if you should feed your puffer in the morning by the look of his belly, if it's flat then feed him, if it's still round then hold off for the day.
My perpetually round-bellied little Ceylon, whose tank is about four feet behind me as I sit at the computer, saw this and screamed at the top of his lungs, "NO, NO, NO!!! That's not right!!! Don't listen to that person!!!"
Iliveinazoo wrote: ...You can tell if you should feed your puffer in the morning by the look of his belly, if it's flat then feed him, if it's still round then hold off for the day.
My perpetually round-bellied little Ceylon, whose tank is about four feet behind me as I sit at the computer, saw this and screamed at the top of his lungs, "NO, NO, NO!!! That's not right!!! Don't listen to that person!!!"
Yeah mine are very rarely seen with a flat belly - the girlfriend can't resist her little 'puff puffs hungry faces'!
Well, everyone's salt will measure out a little differently (humidity, moisture level in the salt, etc all plays a role) but a good estimate is that a half cup raises one gallon to full seawater (1.022ish).
So a quarter cup will make a gallon 1.011, an eighth of a cup of salt will make a gallon of water 1.005ish, a sixteenth of a cup will make a gallon of water about 1.002 or around there.. do you get my drift here, it takes quite a bit of salt to raise the salinity.
Since I'm too lazy to do the math, I cheat. I do 50% water changes, and mix up my new water by adding a little salt at a time, checking it with the hydromether after every salt add and stir, to see where it is, until I know approx how much salt I need per bucket, to reach the salinity I want. Then I pour that water into the main tank. Remember, it will be diluted by the water in the tank, so if your tank is 1.000 (freshwater) and you do a 50% water change with water that's premixed at 1.004, your tank will end up at 1.002. If your tank is at 1.002 and you do a 50% water change with water that's at 1.004, it will probably move up to 1.003ish..
If I did do the rough math, considering a 29 gallon tank holds 25 gallons (less when you figure in substrate/decor), to raise it to 1.002 you'd probably need to add a little more than two cups to raise the entire tank to 1.002.
Now of course, remember that you don't NEED to raise it .002 every week, you can take it as slow and gradual as you want. So if you feel better only adding a half cup this week (or just a couple tablespoons), and next week add more, that's perfectly fine. Just don't raise it more than .002 per week because that can kill your biofilter.
If the math is too much to figure out, just do it slow and easy and be sure to check your tank with the hydrometer to make sure you aren't getting too high.
Wow! That's exactly what I needed to know. Thank you!
We have been feeding Beetlejuice everyday - it's amazing how quickly he fills up. We actually cut up the crayfish into really small pieces and froze it. So he's had a small tail section each day. One day we gave him a clam instead. We removed most of the meat and just let him tear at the muscle till his belly puffed up. It's so much fun watching him eat. He seems like a happy little guy. I can see now why people adore their puffers so much! He's already part of the family.
