The Puffer Forum

Long story, but to keep it short... the owner of the tanks plays world of warcraft and works... that's schedule he follows and just last the fish in the 100 gal were dieing so he changed the filters complete, brand spanking new, and they are fine again. that's his tank maintains. the other tanks just get new filter cartilages monthly... bout all the maintenance to the tanks owned by the "man of the house". I moved in with my girlfriend and started the fish tank after seeing a 100 gal in the living room. Obviously i am trying a little hardy to keep my tank clean and it inhabitant healthy. Not to sound mean but i think the puffer would love the 100 gallon

I have made much change since my last post. I have a penguin 150 and an aqua tech 20 (i think for 20 gallon tanks), for filtration in the tank. I am dong 25% water changes daily and adding 5-10ml of prime each change. Also, i purchased Cycle... it basically does the same thing as biospira i believe. Furthermore, I am starting to notice him be more active. He is eating one live crayfish daily, and if he decides he eats a snail or two. The crayfish are less than an inch long, so i think i might start giving him one every other day. I will get some pics up soon. Once I get his camera shy self out of the dark.

cycle is crap. it does not do the same thing as bio-spira. Bio-spira is actual live bacteria that must be refridgerated. cycle is dead bacteria in a bottle more often then not. If there are any surviving bacteria, they aren't the kind you really want anyway.

Keep up witht he water changes though, and let us know how it goes.

well all my fish supplies are free cause i have a good friend that works at petco and i get free or extremely discounted stuff. like right now i am experimenting with a tank divider. The right 4 inches of the tank is one crayfish and 4 snails. but just a few minutes ago i added a small pleco and 2 large otos. The old filter runs in the right corner of the tank, while the new penguin runs on the other part of the tank. The puffer doesn't seem to mind. He eats whatever i put on the left side of the divider, pretty much 80% of the tank.

good news! My puffer is finally starting to warm up to me. It comes to the glass and swims for me. It is also eating from my hand. I put a freeze dried krill in the water, squeezed the air out and let it bob on the top of the water and it came right up and ate the krill. Did the same thing to one more krill right after. The puffer is defiantly get more adjusted i think.

Good to hear. It can take a while before they get settled to their new surroundings. The whole ordeal prior to getting to your tank is rather trying for them.

Kidnapped from their habitat, held as a hostage for ransom, and then sold into slavery as a pet. What a mess. :p

Just wondering how many people actually have one of these puffers?

I have one I'm looking for a home for.

Are you downsizing your tanks to fit in a monster reef, PP?

Yeah, could use that 20g for a sump or a frag tank or a QT.

craigiscool wrote:Just wondering how many people actually have one of these puffers?

I have one. He is awesome and very moody. He changes colors constantly and I think that keeping this species on white/light gravel is a good idea because it emphasizes this trait. Mine is miserable unless he lives completely alone and he quickly kills anything he can. He is ridiculously picky about food and LOVES live crayfish.

Nice to hear a couple more puffers put there like mine. I have white gravel in my tank. It is 20 gallon, with a divider on the right side maybe 3" - 4" on the tank is divided. The crayfish stay in there and while the puffer, Spot(i finally named him), lives in the other side with a mountain of drift wood and oddly shaped aquarium decorations. Just tonight i added a bumblebee cichlid about 3 inches long itself into the puffers side. He put up with him for a while, then bit the cichlid's lower mouth. From the gills to the upper lip the puffer ripped off scales, flesh, and all. The cichlid was swimming and breathing but not he appears stuck to the top filter part on the penguin. He might be to tired and weak to move so he is just stuck to the filter's grip. I thought an aggressive cichlid would be able to survive with all the driftwood and hiding spots. Instead, he was taken out early.

Spot does like crayfish though, the crayfish cant all run around the tank... they will be devoured in 2 days, all 4. He will eat crayfish, snails, and freeze dried krill (from my hand). he doesn't like things that dint move. He wont eat krill that have sunk, hey just rot. And parts of crayfish lay on the bottom right now, i will wait till morning to see if he finishes it up before throwing the scrap food in the garbage. What does your tank set up look like Roman and PufferPunk? I have taken more pics of the tank. http://photos.yahoo.com/cdawgisback

I finally got my turgidus on dead foods. I had to get a bag of shell on shrimp from the grocery store (yes my fish is now eating human food :-\). I cut them in half and he gets one half every 2 days supplemented with snails. He won't seem to eat dead food with the lights on though (I think because it doesn't run from him) however in the dark he sneaks up on it and attacks it as if it were a living crayfish or whatever.