The Puffer Forum

really nice!

Amazing plant growth! With such dense plant growth, you might want to toss a dozen cherry shrimp or so in there and let them breed. Your puffer would have such fun hunting them

I agree, at least some open swimming room would be appropriate for the fish.

A short video taken this morning after a heavy pruning a few days ago.

That is one great-looking environment for your fish! I gave up on submersible plants, so your success is so pleasing cos I have absolutely NO luck with them.

So when you do WC, you obv don't vac the substrate then, right?

I wonder if there is not enough poo, cos my weekly WCs consist of pulling everything out and gravel-vaccing my entire tank. I siphon about 40 - 50 %. I have no live aquatic plants (after my wisteria died, I gave up) apart from 3 moss balls and a thriving pothos plant whose roots are submerged. I have fake plants, rocks, driftwood and terra cotta pots cos u can't kill those.

This is my first proper go with aquatic plants and I've been pleasantly surprised. I had some great help from a guy on ebay who sold me the plants. My method is very low tech, minimal oxygenation, decent lighting and fertilizers. I do approx 25% water change each week and yes you're right I do not vac the gravel. I've never seen any waste on it, either the malaysian trumpets are eating it or it just gets broken up into bits too small to see. It's not like a single dwarf puffer produces much poo.

If your trying to grow plants you really don't want to clean the gravel, and you especially don't want to pull everything out. My puffer tank has all plants that don't need to be rooted and like low light such as anubias and java fern. If you wanted to give live plants a go again you could try those tied to rocks and then you could still clean your gravel. I use this method also in my cory catfish tank which is set up for breeding and doesn't have a deep enough substrate for rooted plants
http://i.imgur.com/x6ksrJK.jpg
I also have a 110 gallon thats planted, although not as nice as the OPs! Its also considered "low tech" because it doesn't have CO2 but its amazing what the right additives can do!
http://i.imgur.com/kQarMWZ.jpg?1

I really like your 110G pollypuff. I don't think there's a substitute for real plants, they transform a tank and keep it interesting as you can watch the plants growing as well as the fish. My Java fern is multiplying very quickly. I only added one, now I have about 6.

Bit of an update. Kept the plants under control by pruning more every week when I do a water change so there's plenty of open space now. Upgraded the filtration and heating to an Eheim 350 Plus (2215) canister with Eheim media pack and a 200w external heater. The old internal Fluval U2 wasn't providing enough flow for the plants and took up a good chunk of space. It only made sense to go for an external heater at the same time.





The little dark speck top left just under the Eheim spray bar is my puffer.


I replaced the Eheim strainer with with a fine stainless steel mesh one so that there's no chance of my little puffer getting into difficulties.

Wish you lived on this side of the pond. I'd have you send over those cuttings!

All of my original cuttings were from ebay and cost under £10 (approx. $15). I cut loads off all the time. I enjoy looking at the plants as much as the puffer

I've since moved the filter and heater inside the cupboard. I wanted them where I could see them to check for leaks as they were new.