The Puffer Forum

What's this fellow's name?

After waiting a long time for the local stores to get dwarf puffers so I could get a male for my two females, with all of them saying they rarely get them and they are too hard for them to keep before they're sold anyway, I ordered one (along with other fish) from thatpetplace. He is beautiful and awesome (and will eat things the other two refuse, which is anything but blood worms and snails) and I love him to death. So I do suggest it.

However, you might want to wait until fall. They don't have a live arrival guarantee when the temperatures are above 90 degrees. And for good reason.

and, to perhaps the dismay of some folks here, I have him in freshwater. He was ALREADY in f/w at the LFS, and is very exploratory, perky and has a terrific apetite - LOL!!

He will be the only fish in his tank, obviously, and I hope that with diligent care, he will be with me for a long time! He is just SO cute!!!!

thats fine that he is in fw for now, but you might want to slowly start turning it brackish

Life expectancy of an F-8 in FW is quite short compared to that in light BW. Make it a tiny bit easier on yourself and let the fish die at a fraction of the lifespan it should have, or take it to 1.003 and expect to keep the fish for an average of 15 years. Your choice.

The last two posts above are very correct. If you want to provide diligent care, do the right thing rather than the easy thing.

The reason fish stores keep figure 8s in freshwater (as they do with GSPs) is that, since there are few brackish fish and they all generally require a different amount of salinity, they usually don't have brackish tanks.

If I recall correctly, they are born in freshwater, but quickly migrate to brackish. Keep that in mind.

One of these days I hope to be able to keep an F8 alive for more than a few months. Don't know what the problem is, but it's the only puffer I can't keep alive. Very strange I think since so many novices get them and don't seem to have any problems. I guess I'm not meant to have an F8.

It might be that the ones you've gotten weren't that healthy.

I've used a good online retailer for fish I haven't found nearby. Sadly, sometimes the fish I've gotten from them that I have seen around here wound up being better quality. You might want to consider that.

Yeah but I'm talking about getting F8's probably 4 different times, different times of year, different years, and from different suppliers. It never seems to work for me. They live, look really good for a while, then bang, dead.

I think I'm cursed when it comes to F8's. I mean, look at all the puffers I own, and they are all fine, but let me get an F8 and I bet you it's dead in less than 6 months.

Aw. That really sucks.

I want to get one eventually. Don't transfer your luck to me.

I don't think you have to worry about that. It's just me. I'm sure you will be fine with keeping one. Everyone else is, just not me. But I shouldn't complain because I have several puffers that are healthy and I should consider myself fortunate that I have them. And I do consider myself fortunate.

Oh, I know what you mean. Other than an outbreak of neon tetra disease in one tank because of something REALLY stupid, I've been very lucky with keeping fish even from the beginning.