The Puffer Forum

Ahh c'est rien....
Pami.

Well... The little guy justdied this morning,

The water stats were the following

Temp: 79 F
PH 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: .25
Nitrates: 10 ppm
Salinity: 1.008

Poor Goober....

I will see what S_L_M wants to do but I don't think we will get another puffer for this tank.

May be 2 or 3 Bumblebee Gobys and a few Brackish Guppy or Mollies.

If we get a bigger tank than we might consider getting a new puffer.


Thanks for all your Help.

What? So sorry about that. I guess the nitrItes were too much for him to handle.
Don't give up on puffers just yet, you've already learnt a lot and like you said....try a bigger tank...helps a lot with water quality.
Sorry for poor Goober.
Pami.

For future reference, the tank must be fully cycled before adding fish, especially a puffer. There is an excellent article on Fishless Cycling in The Library here.

That why I will let my tank as is....

And I will continue to do my weekly water changes and wait till my tank has:

No Nitrates or Nitrates and no ammonia and the PH stabilizes.

Than I will a one or 2 fish a week until I have about 10 inches of fish in my tank

And then I will see about another tank (highly unlikely.... the death of goober really bummed me out) I hate losing pets.

Anyway, my only fish high note is that my FW tank is doing awesome.

Thanks again PP

Well, are there any other fish in the tank?

If not, they bacteria will just die and you won't have a cycled tank and have to start over...

Don't go by the 1 inch per gallon rule either, it is really poor and inaccurate. I would never try to get 10 neons even into a 10 gallon tank, they don't stay small forever. Definately look at the adult size of the fish, not what they are when you buy them.

Ok,

Right now in my tank I have

2 Plants, 2 Zebra Snails, and the water is at a salinity, 1.008

Should I get a Hardy fish right away (A Brackish Guppy or Molly), or wait till the nitrites and nitrate stabilizes at 0 for a week or so? (I would think then the tank would be considered cycled)


So what should I do?

Wait or Slowly Stock the Tank with hardy fishes?

Throw some flake food or somehting in there so it can decompose, that will raise Ammonia level

Yeah, you gotta keep feeding the bacteria...flake food is a great idea, rather than live fish. Even hardy ones are stressed by the cycling process.
Pretty much everyone here does fishless cycling.
Pami.

Yeah I used flake food to feed my bacteria in my 20L tank before I got my puffer.

Unlike useing shrimp or some other kind of meat:
1. It wont mold/rot
2. Wont indruce a breeding ground for other bacteria
3. Doesnt add smell to the water.

I used a manky piece of chicken, and told a few people that it was our new puffer. A couple of people believed me till they had a closer look.
I found it quite hard to do, as the idea of allowing a piece of food to rot away in warm water is antithetical to my usual fastidiousness around food.
Next time I'll use flakes for sure.
Pami.