The Puffer Forum

Velvet, my ex's little F8, sometimes spends hours swimming right under the filter, just far enough in to feel a little current but not be pushed down. I still haven't figured out why he does it.

Ya mine likes(d) to swim against the current for a little while and then let the current take him away. Now he is in the cornor and I don't think he can feel the filter. He has always favored that wall since I got him but never the cornor. Plus hes not eating which is a problem!

Well my final f8 has died. I don't know why he died but I knew it was going to happen because he was acting really weird and bumping into things and not swimming very well. I think my salt level was bad so I bought a hydromator so that I will know exactly what level it is at. I had to leave Saturday for a race and when I came to give him food Saturday morning is when I found him. Now I think I know what is wrong so I will test the salt and see if that was off and hopefully I can find aother f8.

Sorry. I was inconsolable when I lost my first puffer.

Make sure you either leave the tank fishless for the next month or clean everything thoroughly with a milk bleach solution and re-cycle the tank before adding more fish. If you're going to leave it fishless then you'll need to feed the nitrifying bacteria to keep the tank well cycled. You can either buy pure ammonia or add bits of food into the tank and let it rot.

Well I have a few ghost shrimp in there that he didn't eat and a few platties. Why should I leave the tank fishless after a fish dies? My other fish are fine I don't know why the puffer died. I think he was sick before I got him and it was too much for me to treat. I did everything I could do for him and he just died. Well I can't find any f8s till Wednesday when my lfs gets some if they do last time they didn't send any.

I have a question what is the salt level for a figure 8? I didn't see it on the puffer pedia, am I just missing it (I most likely am and sorry if I am). Does anyone know the salt level for a scat? Can they be kept with a f8 or a gsp? Thanks!

I keep mine at about 1.005. And i don't think that platty's like salt but at a salinity that low they might not mind.

While you're other fish may not be showing symptoms, chances are they're carrying whatever the Puffers had. If you cant remove the other fish to treat/quarantine them I would recommend waiting at least a month before adding more puffers.

Most people recommend keeping F8s at a salinity of 1.005 to 1.008.

I see thank you for the help! I just got a hydrometer and I checked my salt level (its from Instant Ocean) It says my salinity is at 6 ppt and my specific gravity is 1.004 so I guess it was a little low for the puffer. I think I just got some bad puffers, but I don't know because my boyfriend got his GSPs at the same time I got my f8s from the same store, same tank and from the same company but just a few days later and his puffer is fine, one died but the other one is fine. His even had some of the same problems I had and his puffer got over the ich just fine and he has had his way longer then I had mine. I am at a loss as to why they died. Is it a bi difference between 1.004 and 1.005 to the puffer in that short amount of time I only had him for about 2 weeks. I treated for IPs and added the salt and removed all the ammonia from the tank and he still died. Any ideas why? I have a very good tank set up right now with plenty of hiding spots so I don;t think he was unhappy. I tried feeding him everything but he was a picky eater. Oh one more thing how do I raise the salt to over 1.004 in a 14 gallon? I don't want to add too much and it be too high for my next puffer.

Scats do well at similar Sg to GSP's, and can similarly go full marine as adults. They are really big fish, however, and bullies, at my job the regularly kill each other when more than one is put in the tank. I"d recommend at least a 90 gallon tank to give one swimming room.

What about a knight goby? Is he high or low brackish? Thanks for the help, we have a scat and a gsp together and we are looking for a bigger tank for them. Right now they are both babies and so they love each other they sleep together and swim together but the tank is to small for the 2 of them. At first the scat was for my tank but I had 2 f8s already and I didn't want another fish but my boyfriend did so now we need a bigger tank before we move them to full marine (slowly)

Knight gobies go well with F8's, they're low brackish and moderate aggression.

Well thank you for the help. Some sites say they all go together then some sites say that none of these fish go together. I would really like to buy a book by I think Aqualog about brackish fish but its about $40 and I can't find it anywhere so I will have to order it some time. I guess I am going to wait a while till I get another puffer even though it will be really hard and I don't know if I can wait, they are just so cute I can't help my self hee hee!

It's hard to find good material about brackish fish outside of the internet. Most of the books are either outed, wrong, or both.