The Puffer Forum

I had two 30g tanks, both with african cichlids. Yesterday, I decided to put all cichlids (three in total) together to free the second 30g tank for two figure 8 puffers. One of the cichlids is way smaller and weaker than the other two and he was going to certainly die if I had left him in there, so I had to take him back to the tank intended for the puffers. He is probably a hybrid of the johanni type (Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos--blue johannii-- and Melanochromis johannii--electric blue johannii). I have had him for more than a year and he not shown any kind of aggressiveness. Can this guy be a possible tankmate for two figure 8 puffers for the time being (i.e. freshwater phase--the puffers are in freshwater at the LFS)?? If any of you know, can he survive in brackish water required for the figure 8??

Will probably suffer once in brackish, not at all what he's used to. How big is he? If he's big enough, he'll likely abuse the puffers, especially if he was abused by other fish. On the other hand, the puffers have beaks, so if they decide they want to, they could do him terrible harm even if he were much larger. F8's are particularly docile, however. Even if he could survive the level of brackish the F8's need without his health suffering, and was mutually unaggressive with the puffers, he'd eventually grow enough to overstock the tank and need to be moved anyway.

He is around 1.5" and in pretty bad shape... the F8's I saw at the LFS were very small, about 0.5"

get some melafix for him, to help his condition...

then if you are really going to do this, heavily plant your tank to provide hiding spaces for all of them.


I guess if it works, then you could hope that he grows enough to put back with the other two Cichlids before you start raising the salinity for the Fig 8's...

or see if you can donate him to a LFS...

or set him up in a tank on his own.....

I've had to donate several fish to my local fish store. If you can't keep him in your tanks, it's better that he goes to a place that will take good care of him (assuming you take him to a reputable fish store). Just make sure you call ahead so that they have a good place for him to go. However, don't take him back while he is injured. Wait a couple weeks while you treat his tank with Melafix (an herbal remedy that helps fish to recover from injuries a lot quicker). Once he's in better shape, you can bring him to the store.

Unfortunately, it means you're going to have to wait for the figure 8s. If you have the money, you could pick up a temporary 10-15 gallon, take one of the filters from your current tank (if you have extra filters... if not, this won't work), and you'll have an instantly cycled tank for your two Figure 8s until the 30 gallon becomes free.

I'd be very careful if you're going to put the figure 8s in with a wounded fish, especially after he's been attacked so recently. Make sure you have a backup tank ready (in which case, you're better off just to have a temporary tank). After you move the F8s into the 30 gallon, you can convert the 10 gallon into a shrimp/snail factory to feed your F8s with once in a while! Breeding shrimp is neat (so long as you don't put other fish in the tank), because you can keep live plants with them, and they'll reproduce quite quickly. Good shrimp for that are Ghost Shrimp or Cherry Shrimp. I have both in one tank, but I'm not sure if the Ghost Shrimp are eating the baby Cherry shrimp, so I might have to separate them.

Thank you for the advice. I got a 10g tank for him and he is currently on melafix. A friend of mine is going to take him as soon as he is healthy.

Good to hear that you found him a good home!