The Puffer Forum

Why are her eyes white?

If your puffer digs into the sand, any loose plants might be uprooted in that area. Also if your puffer grow larger and goes into hunting mode and moves things around the tank, then some plants might be uprooted as well. Try to get your plants to establish a strong root system in order to lessen the blow of uprooted plants.

Her eyes are pretty iridescent at different angles,when they look white they are actually light blue. here she is today.



Terrance I let the plats grow inb for a few months before introducing the puffer. That is also why I planted crypts. They make a nice strong carpet of roots and I seem to grow them well But I agree Bella will redecorate as she will. It'sher home she can do what she likes with it.

Hey quick update.

Bella today



She is just over 3" inches, looks healthy and is bulking up nicely.

The plants are filling in nicely. Bella does not seem to want to bury herself and is not really messing with the plants.





Feeding mostly snails at this point.

Question: If I were to put a ton of cherry shrimps in her tank, would she eat herself sick or would having to hunt them down stop her from overeating.

I tried adding a group of shrimp with my fahaka and he just murdered the lot, they will not allow colonies to build unfortunately

I wasn't really hoping that they would reproduce and thrive. I was thinking of it as a vacation feeding strategy. I'm going away for 12 days at christmas. Usually I don't sweat it and don't feed them at all when I'm away. I was just worried that at 5 months Bella maybe too young to go that long.

Feeding question:
I have bought some vitachem and want to start soaking food. Frozen food I get thaw, drain, soak, feed, but I feed almost exclusively live foods at this point. Snails and cherry shrimp. I could see putting the snails or shrimp in small container adding vitamins might work, but would it kill them. Can I gut load them by soaking the food's food and then feeding them to Bella as usual.

Thoughts?

On a related topic, Bella appears healthy and strong, very active but is only about 5" tail included. I got her at about 1 inch, 7 months ago, should I be concerned that she is not anywhere near the 1' per month growth rate?

How about soaking an algae wafer in it before feeding to the snails/shrimp?

At almost 10 months.

Here's the tank. Crypts have grown in well, they are getting a little ropey as they reach for the light. I reduced the wattage going to all LEDS. The Vals have really taken off and are now more than 6 feet long.



Here's a couple of Bella. She is eating really well but I am a little concerned at still under 6" she is not growing at the usual brisk fahaka pace. Should I be worried?

Beautiful! Lovely puffer and tank.

What do you feed and how often? Whatever change schedule? (all though I'm sure your water is pretty good with those plants!)

Water has a deceptive way to make our fish seem smaller than they really are. I recently sold off some fish that I said were about 5" and when the person came we actually measured and they were 8" to 8-1/4". I bet your fish is bigger than you think. I think my big Pearsei is 11" but more likely she is at least 13".... so the moral of the story? Water causes shrinkage....

I feed snails mostly, often but not always soaked in vitamins. Everyday except occasionally I miss a day if I'm out alot. Water changes about 40% once a week, occasionally it goes to 2 weeks if I'm out of town. I don't test alot but after not changing the water for 2 weeks I test the nitrate and it is still about 5. I have two canisters I service them, one this month, one next month and so on. I am regular but not religious in my maintenance. Good water flow from left to right.

This is making me want a fahaka XD I had never seen them before until a few months ago at my lfs and couldn't get over how tiny they are! Like twice the size of a smallish dp

Well I have given up on breeding snails and cherry shrimp for bella. Too small, takes too many. I have added clams to the snails from the Chinese grocery.

Now I am going to try breeding marble crays to use as a treat and something live to chase. I have 2 20g long tanks one for adults and one for babies.

Here's the set up



Adult Tank: one 5" and 2 1 1/2"



Here's the big one.



fry tank



a couple of little ones

How big is the Fahaka's tank? The fish looks a bit fat to me unless the last pi was just after a huge meal.