Things you want to know but are afraid to ask.

[fahucker]

Oh I see well good point and thanks for the tips Reaper!

and Goldie if its juvenile from what I read its everyday but skip one day a week. for me I feel monday tuesday thursday friday saturday sunday. so 6 days a week

but check the pufferpedia for more help!

[goldielocke76]

Oh I see well good point and thanks for the tips Reaper!

and Goldie if its juvenile from what I read its everyday but skip one day a week. for me I feel monday tuesday thursday friday saturday sunday. so 6 days a week

but check the pufferpedia for more help!

Rotating diet? If I got 6 different foods, can I feed it a different food everyday? Is that healthy?

[fahucker]

Depends. Somethings you want to feed in moderation such as hard shelled foods. From what I understand like clams should be fed 2-3 times a week and meal worms due to chilton. I feed my fahaka clams a few times a week, but his staple is a mix between blood worms clams and ghost shrimp. Ghost shrimp is pretty good as long as you gut load them kind of like gut loading crickets for a reptile. I throw mine in the tank and let him feed as he wants to hunt. As the other ones grow and stuff they eat the algae and poo along with the left over food from other fish so they gut load themselves. But usually most people feel their puffers crayfish as a staple from what I have read and heard.

[Pufferpunk]

Yeah usually find them near the filter intake!

Also would a sand and gravel mix be ohk? Or just plain white gravel be ohk? It would be easier for clean up if I could get a under gravel filter

I have 50% large sand, 50% med gravel. Cleans easily with a python & doesn't suck up the sand.

[Reaperpilot2014]

1. Why is it bad for puffers to "puff?" Don't they do that in the wild in defense and deflate themselves? Why do we have to do it for them?
I'm sure someone can give you a more detailed answer, but when they puff as a result of stress, I've heard it related to a human having a heart attack. How true this holds though, I'm not sure. In any case, when our puffers are practicing puffing up, I don't think there's much to worry about, but if your puffer inflates every time you reach in the tank, it could be harmful. The real danger comes from them inflating with air when out of the water, as they can't always get the air out and will die.

2. What is a good feeding schedule for an F8, feel kinda dumb asking
With any smaller puffer, I like to feed them once a day, with a fast day once a week. They should have a healthy rounded belly, and only be fed as much as they can eat in a few minutes.

3. How big around is a full grown, 3 inch F8?
Not positive how to answer this question. They should be "pufferly proportionate" lol. Not too fat, but not sunk in either.

[RTR]

Fish develop relative immunity to Ich after the initial infection. They can in that way support small infestaions in their gills indefinitely (Remember: Ich is a gill parasite primarily. It only infects fins and skin when the gills are crowded with the bugs). Outbreaks occur, even without re-introduction of fresh parasites, when the fish is stressed in any way. Stress reduces the immune system's functions and allows an outbreak from a chronic infection.

The above is why conservative hobbyists run treatment at 3x the life cycle time after all visible spots are cleared. That is to clear the bugs favored location, the gills. It is all but impossible to examine the gills of live fish without major stress - which would be counter-productive.

And:
1. It is not bad for puffers to puff on their own. They do so as a form of system test at some interval (not frequently), and more while growing than after maturity.

It is bad to tease a puffer into puffing. That is a final defense, so only occurs with high stress. It is even worse to pull a puffer out of the water to make it puff - they may not be able to expel the air.

2. I feed immature F-8s 6 days per week and skip one. I feed mature F-8s alternate days. Feeding is to a lighly rounded belly. It is very definitely not to a belly that looks puffed. That is over-feeding. And that is not a dumb questions. It is a valid and very good question. The transition between 6 days/week and 3 days/weel is by adding one extra fast day at a time, with weeks in between adding another day of each schedule. Does that make sense?

3. When puffed, about 2 1/2" (the caudal fin does not count). Un-puffed I do not know, I never measured.

[fahucker]

Thanks Puffer Punk! could I get a pic of what that looks like?
Also does most the poo and stuff stay on top or in the gravel?

[Pufferpunk]

Big poop on top & the rest winds up broken down into the substrate.

Don't laugh at the disco gravel:

[Reaperpilot2014]

Disco gravel or not, that is a beautiful tank!

[RTR]

It is a well laid-out tank. The gravel might be a bit much for me, but the layout is excellent. It is a very good puffer set-up. Many puffers do respond markedly to substrate color, and I cannot predict just how the colors will shift over different gravels. Obviously our eyes do not see the same as puffers.

My puffers have to deal with essentially one "natural" gravel mix in all my FW tanks, whether it brings out their best colors or deadens them.

[geronimo69]

Big poop on top & the rest winds up broken down into the substrate.

Don't laugh at the disco gravel:

Nice tank PP! Do you ever feel that your Fahaka is crowded by all the stuff in the tank? Mine is in a 150 gallon and the only thing in the tank with him is a large sponge filter, which he sits behind at night. During the day, he spends his time swimming back and forth from one end of the glass, to the other (only 1 "window" on his tank) as it is a plywood tank.

[Pufferpunk]

Filbert spends most of his day under the decor:


The gravel color was supposed to enhance the stunning maroon stripes I see on so many fahakas. Didn't work on Filbert. Too much work to change it out now. Maybe someday...

[RVS]

So reading all these awesome answers i still have a doubt about GSP pooping time... is very rare that i see them un action doing number 2 hehe...

I have not seen my GSP pooping for almost 15 days... but when i feet them are with the belly a little fat (no so fat) and the next day they are normal (not sunk) but i have read that GSP they do number 1, constantly many times per day ¿is that true?

[fahucker]

Filbert spends most of his day under the decor:


The gravel color was supposed to enhance the stunning maroon stripes I see on so many fahakas. Didn't work on Filbert. Too much work to change it out now. Maybe someday...

Filbert looks really good with that color, but not gonna lie I like my light sand because it really brings out the yellow on his stomach and the darkness on his sides. But you do have a really nice tank! I need to get some drift wood!

[Reaperpilot2014]

I just went and bought 1 more 5lb bag of red sand for Ramses, and his red stripes have already gotten stronger. I have 3 videos of him eating on my other thread now, but the next one should be able to show how red he's turned.

About your puffer seemingly not pooping... I wouldn't worry about it if he seems healthy and happy. A smaller puffer's poos would be pretty hard to find. Like I said before, I've rarely ever seen any of my puffers actually doing their business. Maybe five times in the last ten years lol. You said he gets full, and then loses his tummy, so no worries.