From 3 to 1.

[SeCon]

Warning about AquaClear surface skimmers...

I have lost 2 of my 3 Fig 8's now. The 1st I got is still very healthy and growing well. Of the other 2, they were the last of maybe 5 in a tank with over 30 GSP (all very small) at the LFS. I figured they might not be healthy by the conditions they were kept in, and how big they were compared to the time they had been there.

Anyway, the first one I lost to (I'm guessing) internal parasites. He would do this strange twitching about every 10 seconds, he had trouble eating anything but bloodworms, and had stringy fecies. I treated with flubenol, but he didnt survive after a month.

The 2nd one I lost sometime today. I was very busy today ( work and working on my car) and didnt check on them from eight in the morning till their normal feeding time around nine at night. When I went to feed them, I could only find my larger older puffer. I searched the tank and decor for 15 minutes before I figured out what happened. I noticed my surface skimmer not pulling much water in. Trying to fix it, I pulled the float out. I saw my puffer shoot into the filter intake. Pulled him out of the filter dead.

Funny how you don't realize how much you care about pets till they are gone. I'm actually really sad right now over a fish. I'm kicking myself for not thinking he could be alive in the skimmer and turning the filter off before messing with it. The saddest part about all of it is he was becoming very healthy and actually gaining on my older puffer in growth. Even more irony, I ordered an Eheim surface skimmer and filter. It looks like a much better design, but I havent used it yet. The filter was on backorder, but I've had the skimemr for 2 weeks waiting for the filter before I put it in. With the Eheim this would have been impossible. I also had bought suction cups to make a DIY plexi tank divider. I find it too difficult at feeding, and my smaller puff was getting very agressive. I was planning on installing it when I got my filter. I planned on having the one that died in the filter on the output side of the divider unable to even be near a surface skimmer.

Be careful of AC surface skimmers and small puffers. I'm not saying the surface skimmer is bad in most cases. It worked well with my AC 70 for quite a while. Just make sure its functioning properly. Mine would occasionally suck air (usually caused by some water movement) and go through a cycle of dropping comletey down and completely up till the air was purged. I'm assuming this happened while he was near unless he somehow jumped in.

Should I get another Fig8 and divide the tank as planned? I have acces to baby and adult Fig8's right now. I'm trying to decide if I should replace him or just let my big guy have the 45 gallon all to himself. I don't want to lose another one.

I know this is long and I ramble a bit, but I just really feel like walrus right now. Thanks for reading.

[jake_vdb]

Sorry to hear of your loss.

You might consider different tankmates for your remaining F8. I love my orange chromides, and they sem to do much better as a pair. The F8s in my tank completely ignore the chromides and BBGs. (If I had to do it over again, I think I would only have bought 1 F8, the 2 I have are starting to get aggressive with each other once in a while. I'm worried I may have to seperate them.) As mentioned many other times on the forum, your puffer may not tolerate other tankmates at all, but based on my experience they actually do better with other species than they do conspecifics.

You might ask for other's advice in this area, this is just my experience so far.

[OraLacerta]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss.

From my experience I have noticed my two puffers have the occasional spat, but they only do this when there is a prized morsel in the tank or a lot of stress (like during tank maintenance). I am planning on removing my Knight Goby, as she has become extremely obese from her behavior of hiding in her log 24/7 until there is food which she will gobble up in massive quantities and then hide again. She bullies my fish and ate three of my mollies...

I would agree though that besides my Knight Goby, my puffers would probably be much happier as the only puffers in the tank and having some peaceful tankmates. Unfortunately this will happen as my Figure Eight is dieing
from a nematode.