The Puffer Forum

Squee got a girlfriend...here's Bella!


I was expecting a little more fuss, actually. But so far they are getting along great, no fighting or squabbing. Squee seems excited to have a playmate, and Bella is settling in to the new digs wonderfully.


I had added about 20 RCS and a LOT more plants to the tank since my last FTS, this should give the girls lots of places to explore and hide as well as help with the nitrates (but I haven't seen any jump in the numbers since adding Bella a week ago), and the RCS gives the new girl something to chase and snack on if she can catch one, which she seems to be enjoying. (Squee gave up on catching them quite some time ago.)


I hereby re-name the tank "The Isle of Lesbos"...I love my little peanut chicas!

What a wonderful place to live!

Thanks, PP! I appreciate that.

+1 awesome setup!

love it! what is the substrate and are you adding anything to help the plants along(co2,etc)??

Thanks guys!

Hadla, the substrate is a 50/50 mixture of the fluval ebi shrimp stratum (comes with the ebi set-up and is supposed to lower pH) and seachem flourite. With it mixed, I still stay around 7.6, we have hard tap water here in Houston. No Co2, but I'm dosing liquid ferts: Flourish, Excel, Iron, & Nitrogen once per week, plus a drop of iodide for the shrimp- my man is an invert keeper, he insists on that one lol. There are also some root tabs underneath some of the plants that I've put in or rearranged, but not all of them. It's all low-tech, the light is standard to the ebi also- 13watt, 6,500k I think.

ok, thanks for all that info lol... my tanks both have flourite mixed with sand and natural colored gravel... does it matter if the flourite is over 4 years old? is it still as good as when i bought it? if not, should i get another bag to mix in with it when i move my tanks?

how long do the root tabs last?

Your flourite should be fine, it's chemically inert so it shouldn't matter how old it is. The root tabs break down and should be replaced every month-3months, but I have to admit I do it less than that, maybe every 4-6 months. Hope that helps!

ok, thanks! my lfs has some 'dirt' looking substrate (it might be a kind of flourite, ill have to ask when i go back) in their planted tanks so i think ill try to get some of that to mix in with my planted tanks. the thing is that i just need more plants and amanos to battle the algae problem lol.

she's adorable! I cansee why her name is Squee!