The Puffer Forum

How big of a tank do you recommend for 2 f8s around 1.25"? (I have a 5G one and a 20G one, are they both too small?)
I've been trying to feed my f8s for the last 5 days and some days they will eat and other days they won't. What's going on?
I think one of them has tail rot because its tail is grey and looks burnt and a chunk of it is missing (didn't notice until after i brought it home). Will Melafix cure it?
What temperature should i keep the tank at?
How much sand/gravel should i have in the tank? (An inch from the bottom?)
Why do they keep swimming up and down the corner/side of glass? Is this normal?
When i wake up the next morning, one of my f8 is always bloated even though it doesn't eat when i feed it.
Do they prefer apple snails or ramshorn?

Thanks.

How did you cycle the tank they are in now? If it's not cycled, they will behave erratically and may become sick or die. Neither tank is really big enough long term, you can start them in the 20, but a 29 is probably the smallest common tank you could do two F8's in. Melafix should help with the tail rot, but yoiu also need pristine water - what are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings? Whey they are bored, they will swim up and down in the corner. They like LOTS of interesting things to explore. They are too small to eat apple snails, unless you have some hatchlings, and apple snails are much harder to breed, so I'd go with ramshorn or pond snails.

When I bought the tank, the lady at the store gave me packets of Big Al's Multi-purpose bio-clean, Multi-purpose bio-support and Multi-purpose aquarium water conditioner. So I followed the instructions on the back of the package and added them to the water and I let the filter run for about a week before I put the f8s in. I also added Aqua plus tap water conditioner to the water when filling my new tank and I have aquarium salt but I noticed on the threads that marine salt is better?

The tank I have is the 20-gallon aquarium deluxe bio-wheel starter kit. It includes a heater but I'm not sure what temperature to set it at so i'm not using it at the moment. I have these two cave decorations in the tank and they seem to like hiding in there from time to time. I'm feeding them frozen brine shrimp and freeze-dried blood worms at the moment and one of my F8 will only eat it if its floating at the top of the tank and the other one will only eat if the food sinks to the bottom of the tank. Is this normal?

One of my f8's tummy is bumpy, and even after it eats, it gets round but its also bumpy. Is that signs of internal parasites?