starting 30 Gallons for puffers

[krissi1988]

Hi all, Im new here. I have a 30 gallon tank that i have set up to be fresh or brackish. right now, i have 5 tetras, 6 zebra danios, and 1 feeder guppy... (a mistake by the guy getting the zebras)lol but i wanted to set up a puffer tank. i think DP are the cutest thing ever. But i dont know what should go with them. some say they are a true fresh water fish, and others say they live longer in brackish water. i need help. i am starting to plant the tank. i already have one anubius and i want to get some java ferns, and low to med lighted plants. the lights i have on the tank are T5 HO. the white is 10K and the pink is 67K. Please let me know what i should do. i want the best home for my future puffers.

Kristina

[marksrush]

First of all, welcome to the forum! You came to the right place.

Dwarf puffers are freshwater. Here's the entry on them in the Pufferpedia: ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/C_Travancoricus/ Reading it will help you very much in getting properly set up for the little guys.

Good job on adding live plants, as your puffers will love to have to swim around them and explore all the little nooks and crannies for snails or other edible bits. I'm sure they'd really like a very thickly planted tank.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Make sure to get the right substrate for plants. Regular sand or gravel usually doesn't work. If you knew that already, ignore me.

[krissi1988]

i got caribsea eco complete black sand. but i need another bag. is that good enough?

[Myaj]

Eco Complete is probably my favorite planted tank substrate. Generally if I'm going with live, rooted plants (anubias and javas aren't rooted, but I don't know what else you are planning) I'd want it 2-3 inches deep.

To answer your question about are puffers fresh or brackish, there's a heck of a lot of species, and they come in all types, freshwater, brackish and full marine (saltwater).

If you look under the Learn tab at the top of the page, our Pufferpedia is broken up into fresh, brackish and marine sections and gives the basic info for most of the species you may find in local stores.

The most common puffer, the Green Spotted Puffer, is a high brackish to full marine, aggressive fish that needs a minimum of 30 gallons per specimin, they grow pretty big if given proper conditions.

Other types that you might find locally are dwarf puffers (small, freshwater, 3-5 gallons each) and Figure 8 puffers (low brackish, 15 gallons each). There's plenty of species to choose from when planning your tank, but often the hard part is actually finding the species you want. In a 30 gallon tank you could have a lot of different setups.. maybe a big group of dwarf puffers, maybe a single lurker species (don't move much, but are still cool in their own way), a modestus or silus would be gorgeous but can be hard to find locally, SAP's are freshwater and somewhat easy to find locally but have their own issues (overly hyper and need dental work).

So I'd suggest do a little reading in the Pufferpedia, get a basic idea of what species you are interested in and their requirements, then start visiting some GOOD local stores and see what is out there. I'm assuming you'll want to stay freshwater for your plants, but if you stay very low brackish and choose your plants wisely you can still have a planted tank if you decide on one or two figure 8 puffers for example.

Oh yes, and welcome to the forum!!

[krissi1988]

Thanks. I know that java ferns and anubuis, watersprites and things like that can handel brackish water. thats why i started with the anubius just incase i wanted to sway that way. its a nana and is attached to some driftwood, and the roots are growing through the driftwood and to the substrait. its really cool
where i live, there is no good fish stores. the one that i live closest to they have figure8 and GSP, and i noticed they have paracites, and the guy said. "no thats just food that is stuck to them" and the other store they have white ick. the only fish store i trusted was about an hour away, and now they downsized and they only have saltwater. so whatever i get, im going to get it off line, from someone who knows what they are doing.

any suggestions to any good sellers of fish online?

thanks,
Kristina

[Myaj]

Online purchasing can be tricky.

No matter what you do, ask for photos of the actual fish you are buying.. going by name often means you'll get the wrong species (the common names especially are used interchangably).

I know there's a few online sellers to stay away from (I can't think of names but I know when I see the websites I recognize them). http://www.aquabid.com is like eBay but for fish, and you can look at seller's feedback to get an idea of how reputable they are. On Aquabid, you'll find puffers under the "Oddball Fish" section.

[LilGreenPuffer]

I've heard good things about LiveAquaria.com and Diver's Den.