Adding new F8 to existing F8 setup

ash · Post by **ash** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:06 pm

Would it be a risk to add a new F8 to a tank with 1 F8 already in?

The tank size is easily enough to cope and is over filtered so this should not be an issue, I am mainly worried about any aggression that may break out.

Thanks

Post by **Hilly** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:17 pm

Aggression could be a factor as the F8 already in there could have established territory and may not take too kindly to having a new potential threat to his territory introduced into the tank. Or he may not be bothered. Either way if you decide to get another you should quarantine the new one before introducing it into the tank and als be prepared to seperate if aggression breaks out.

Boxermom · Post by **Boxermom** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:19 pm

Agreed. If you must add one, quarantine and right before adding the new one, rearrange all of the existing decor.

manutius · Post by **manutius** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:26 pm

Would situating the Q tank next to the original so they can see each other work, you may be able to gauge any aggresion that way perhaps?

ash · Post by **ash** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:15 pm

I think you are all right and that would be what you said.

The existing puffer is in a 45l tank at the moment but is being moved to a 140l tank shortly - The tank is being left to cycle at the moment,

I dont think that it is worth the risk to add another F8, so im gonna just put in 5 BB gobies. Luckily if the puffer has a problem with the gobies he can always be moved back to his origional tank which i will leave set up for a few weeks after the move.

OraLacerta · Post by **OraLacerta** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:51 pm

I QT'd a Figure Eight to add to my 35 gallon that already had a Figure Eight in it. It was disappointing because after a month I introduced the puff and he actually was the aggressive one! He tried nipping the resident puff and the other tank mates. I went for round two and found a good match that time, but it takes patience and luck.

Going with BBGs is a little easier. Hopefully your puff will tolerate them. Best of luck!

Pufferoni · Post by **Pufferoni** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:21 am

I think you might have some luck introducing a new F8 if you can add them both in to the new tank at the same time. If it is well decorated they may have enough space to settle in. I have two F8s together and they are the most accomodating fish I have. They live with two sailfin mollies. They tolerate the molly fry as well.

kimmers318 · Post by **kimmers318** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:09 am

I don't know if this will help at all or not, but my first dp, Missy gave me a problem the first time I tried to get her a tankmate. I brought home another dp....rearranged all decor, everything went fine for about a day and a half.....they swam and ate together, it was beautiful. Then all of a sudden I had this alligator roll fight break out between the 2, I scared them out of the fight, the 2nd one stayed hidden in a corner until she passed a couple of days later. There wasn't any apparent illness or disease to make me believe Missy was removing an animal that needed to be gone (survival of the fittest and all that) so I will never know for sure what happened, but with her history of nipping other fish (long before I knew this much about dp's) I had to at least figure there was a chance she did this on purpose. When I fell in love with a male that came into my local store and found myself visiting him everyday I ended up coming home with him and the female HE chose (we went thru several in the process of picking them out, when he accepted one in the little container that is the one we brought home). When I brought them home, I divided the tank for about 10 days to allow the newbies to get healthy and fat, and they were able to see each other without fighting. They did a lot of checking each other out thru the divider. When I removed the divider about 10 days later I not only rearranged all the decor I finished removing the gravel and added the sand substrate, leaving the gravel in a mesh bag for the bacteria cultures. This thru all 3 into a major tizzy running around trying to figure out what the heck was going on and when all was settled they were too tired to care. Things have been fine since. That was shortly after Mothers Day. If problems do arise, I have 3 spare 10 gal tanks so I am not worried, but so far all has gone well. It was a major PITA to do this but I feel it was worth it to end up with a trio of happy dp's.
This is a method that may work for others wanting to add a newbie to an established puffer tank.

ash · Post by **ash** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:07 pm

You know it is funny you should say that about the F8 not eating the mollie fry. I used to keep mollies and platies with the puffer when it was in freshwater (in my uneducated days of keeping the F8) - When the platies had fry - of which they had lots! the puffer would eat them, but when the mollies had fry he would leave them alone and let them grow.

I always put this down to the flavour of the fish - the platies tasted of strawberry and orange? and the mollies of licorice? I agree with the puffer on this front - I hate licorice!

Maybe there is a better reason, but i like to think that this is the truth. lol.

But back to the puffer tank mates - I value my F8 more than anything so putting it into a potentially dangerous situation is not a good idea. The BB's are less of a risk.

Pufferoni · Post by **Pufferoni** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:10 am

I couldn't agree more err on the side of caution and BBGs are cool anyway.

ash · Post by **ash** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:31 pm

I Finally managed to find some bumblebee gobies at a fish store. I have added 5 to the new tank (it has been left to mature for 1 month and water quality is good). I have to say that the Bumblebees are a lot more active than I thought they would be, they are really entertaining to watch.

So now I start the long process to slowly convert to brackish. I need to get the tank to about 0.006 which would match the tank that the F8 is currently in. I figure it will take about 2 months, i want to aclimatise it slowly and try to keep the java fern in there as happy as possible.

Just one thing - When it comes to actually moving the puffer would it be better to net him, bag him and move him that way (in the bag). I would like the move to be as subtle as possible and i dont want to stress him too much. Do you have any ideas for this transition to be stress free?

OraLacerta · Post by **OraLacerta** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:31 pm

I think so long as you make sure you do not take your puff out of the water at any point he will be ok.

Net him, and while he's still under water transfer him to the desired bag or container. That way there is no risk of puffing on air. After that, be sure to acclimate him to the temp and salinity of the new tank. So long as you are patient and acclimate him correctly, he should do well.

If you're really worried, maybe keep the light off in the new tank for the first day. That might also help with any initial aggression if you're adding him to the tank with the BBGs.

snail · Post by **snail** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:30 pm

I've never had agression isure with my F8s but it is always a risk. As for quarentine-DO IT. I find out the hard way, after 5 years of healthy fish, and lost 3 of my four puffers plus the new one that I added from disease that I'm pretty sure the new one introduced.

my name is mike · Post by **my name is mike** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:59 pm

funnny thing with BBG and Fig 8 agression --

i have one baby fig 8 not more than an 1" long and 5 BBGs (about 1" long) -- and when its feeding time, one of the BBGs always bickers with the fig 8 ---- its hilarious and, from what i can tell, pretty harmless ---

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Adding new F8 to existing F8 setup

Adding new F8 to existing F8 setup