gone for 1 week

[Putte]

I am going on vacciation and i will be gone for 1 week. my father can feed them every 2 day. is that okey ore should i ask him to feed them every day?
How often do you feed youre sap´s?

i have 4 sap´s and they are 2-4 cm long and i baught them like 3 days ago...

i feed them whit frosend food and i have a lot ov diferent food. but what do you rekomend??

(i hope you can reed my english )

hace a nice day!

[Boxermom]

Every 2 days is fine. They can easily go a week without food. Don't put extra food in before you leave, and do a water change.

[Pufferpunk]

Your English is understandable. Just have to learn a little better spelling.

[Putte]

Hehe okey Pufferpunk i will try

3 of my 4 saps is not agresive to other fish, the last one is! he is eating on my other fish and he has killd one Guppy.

Are there enything i can do? i dont want to give him away, he is the coolest sap in my akvarium....

[Woland]

Tjäna Putte.

Once a puffer has started nipping other fishes, it is close to impossible to make them stop the habit.
SAPs is said to be a "gentle" puffer, but it is still a puffer.
Keeping puffers with long-finned fish is more often than not a bad idea.
It is to tempting to grab a bite if the other fish for some reason should be in the way, or simply irritating.

How big is your tank?
What kind of fishes do you keep there?

I would suggest that the fishes are fed on their regular basis.
They are more likely to "grab a bite" If they feel hungry.
Try getting hold of a handful of "pest-snails".
(The irritating small snails who comes with most plants you buy in a LFS.)
Go to your local fish store and offer to pick clean a tank with a snail problem.
A slice of cucumber (gurka) or some lettuce (sallad) in the bottom of the tank (overnight) will certainly give you a nice crowd of snails.
If the Saps has something to hunt the will probably be less prone to nipping.
But; you should really consider moving any & all longfinned fish out of the tank.

Send me a PM in Swedish if you have further questions.
Ha et gott semester!

[Putte]

Hej! yes i will do that! what do you think is okey to have whit Saps? the tank will be very empty whit only 4 saps. (180L)

And will saps grow to be 7cm? som say that they will be 14cm?

Se you

[Boxermom]

SAPs get to be about 7.5 cm. We recommend about 56 liters each so you are already overstocked with 4 in 180 liters by our recommendations. I wouldn't add anything else. Cramping them is a good way to invite aggression, IMO. You should remove the one that is showing aggression and put him in his own tank of at least 56 liters if you want to keep him.

[Woland]

I have to disagree with Boxermom on this issue.
There has been quite a bit of experimenting when it comes SAPs in captivity.
Some done by myself...

A SAP should be kept in a tank which measures around 15 US Gallons, (56-57 liters).
That does NOT mean that the tank volume needs to be raised exponentially when more SAPs are brought in.
10 SAPs = 150 US Gallons, or 568 liters; I think not...

180 liters is a fair sized tank for holding 4 SAPs.
Possible tankmates are plentiful.
I have kept small Chiclides, Neons, Platy, different kinds of catfish, different kinds of barbs and tetras.
Many choices... Few problems...

I had this tank active for quite some time:



Description:

A 90 gallon (350 liter) freshwater tank built into my living room wall. Rather heavily planted & decorated in order to make a semi-successful community tank containing 1 male and 2 Female Carinotetraodon irrubesco. Other fishes are a Pleco, 10+ Ancistrus, 8 SAE, 2 Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, 2 Indian Dwarf cats and 40+ Neons. Plants take some punishment from the everlasting hunt for (imaginary) snails. Small gravel as substrate. A select choice of roots are built together and attatched to a mahogany "frame" which is hidden under the gravel.
Specs: T5 lights, JBL500 outboard filter, Fluval 4+ inboard filter, a small powerhead for current.

Originally I kept 4 large SAPs as the Puffers of the tank.
Less violence than with the C. irrubesos.
The occational neon was eaten, but that is the name of the game.

[Boxermom]

I’m going by TPF “official” recommendations. Some people have kept their puffers in tanks smaller than what we recommend. Doesn’t mean its something we agree with. But if you feel TPF recommendations should be amended, perhaps such a discussion needs to take place.

[Woland]

I’m going by TPF “official” recommendations. Some people have kept their puffers in tanks smaller than what we recommend. Doesn’t mean its something we agree with. But if you feel TPF recommendations should be amended, perhaps such a discussion needs to take place.

Hi Boxermom.

The "official" recommendation is for 1 specimen alone.
And; as I wrote, a sensible recommendation indeed.
(I was after all involved in the discussion which led to recommended tank size .)

Multiple specimens of SAPs is another ballgame indeed.
The SAP is quite unique when it comes to freshwater puffers, a semi-schooling fish as it is.

Putte's tank is IMO not overstocked by any means.
Far from it...

[Putte]

The sap that is eating on my fishes are only eating om my corydoras aeneus (the swedish word is Pansarmal, dont know the english) and on my Guppy. he is leaving my Brachygobius xanthozona alone.
In a swedish forum where i take most of my information from say that the smalest tank size is 200L but after i visit this forum i whas satisfied whit 180L.

I have plans to start a 50L tank whit crabs. Maby my corydoras aeneus will like it better there.

The best thing is maby to keep them whit faster fishes, ore larger one.
Last night one of my guppy whas having babys huge fun for the puffers and they left my other fish alone because they where to occupied hunting the babys.

How is Sap´s whit fishes that are bigger then a sap? maby 15-18 cm?

Have to go soon.am going to Alanya for a week

[Nick]

Aggression does not seem to have much do do with size in puffers, it's just the temperment of that puffer. Dwarf puffers will happily have a go at the fins of fish 100 times their size. The baby 1" gsps at the pet store where I work part time continually take bites of the tails of 6" gobies.

[Pufferpunk]

How about we ammend the Pufferpedia to say the same tank size for F8s--15g for the 1st one & 10g for each extra. I think that makes more sense.

[Woland]

How about we ammend the Pufferpedia to say the same tank size for F8s--15g for the 1st one & 10g for each extra. I think that makes more sense.

I agree.