I made the mistake of again going to the lfs close to me that has a 'pustulatus' for sale - I mentioned it in another thread, but basically it's clearly a juvenile fahaka, about 7" with a deformed tail, and stuck in a 24"x12" holding tank. Anyway, I only had to pop in there for one item and of course had to go check on the puffers, saw this little guy again, and again got to thinking how I could rescue him.
So basically I've measured up, found a tank I could bid on on ebay and so on, but it's only got a useable volume of 101 US gal (total volume 112 US gal). Obviously it's better than the tank he's currently in, but would it be large enough?
Personally I think this should be an adequate size, can you share where you have seen this fish? Not near Farnham by any chance . . . .? If so then this is one of 2 I looked at in jan and they were £300 each, I went back recently and there was one left - not looking too great and at a much lower price.
Funny you should say that, but yeah, you're right on location. Personally I'm disgusted by that lfs.... I've heard them give out so much bad advice about puffs and the state of some of them (and the overcrowding) is appalling.
Edit - would I need to upgrade eventually or could serious over-filtration do the job?
Last edited by Bonsai_girl on Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Yes, I voiced my concerns about this particular fish 2 weeks ago, but they didn't seem concerned. It looked fantastic in January - and I was pretty sure it was a cross-river, it's colours look so poor now it is hard to tell. They do have a huge number of puffers in stock but you are right in that they always look overcrowded.
The lines are pretty clear on it, so I'm as sure as I can be it's a fahaka....I've never seen a fish look as desperate as that one. Not just looking for food, but clearly miserable beyond belief. Oh and he's currentl sharing a tank with 5 or 6 mouldy cockles. I thought that was a nice touch. I've already complained about them at the Guildford branch and am seriously considering reporting them to the RSPCA.
I think I edited my post after you'd posted - will I need to upgrade in time or can I get away with some extreme filtration?
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept: T lineatus T miurus A modestus T biocellatus C valentini C coranata C papuan C lorteti DPs suvattii burrfish T niphobles
Why support a shop you hate? If you keep buying their fish, they will just keep stocking & killing more of them. If they lose enough fish from poor treatment, they will go out of business & stoop killing fish.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
I don't see it as supporting, I see it as saving a life. I'm hoping I can do that, and hit them where it hurts by reporting them and hopefully changing things for the rest of the fish that unfortunately get 'cared' for by these people. This is a massive chain of stores - my business, or lack thereof, isn't going to make a blind bit of difference to them. They could lose every fish in the store and not go out of business...they're just too big. They'd be financially supported by the many other branches until they restocked. They have some branches with excellent staff who know what they're doing and, clearly, some who haven't the foggiest.
I think it would depend more on the footprint of the tank. Is it at least 24" wide? If it is then it would be a great tank for it. The min. is 120 gallons but I think if the footprint is good (24"wide) 8 gallons should not make that much of a difference. He just needs enough room to be able to turn around once he is full grown. If you can upgade later he would probally be much happier in a larger tank. Good luck.
i did the same thing bonsia girl...except i like my lfs. He is three inches now and he is in a 55gal i plan on upgrading real soon but i only wanna do it once. I know that 120ish the range to shoot for but is that the MINIMUM or is that really a good sized tank for him? I only wanna have to buy the big one once at this point so I wanna make sure that it is right.
Is it 120 with a 24" footprint/width or is it 100 and up with a 24" footprint? Im sure i will get a 125 cause thats pretty common but should i go for taller as well as the 24"?
A 125 is an 18.5" tank, so it's actually less suitable for fahaka than tanks with slightly lower gallons that provide more turning space.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
I'm still in the process of rearranging things here - I've gotta be in the States for a while for most of August, and I'm the only 'fish person' in the house - my OH is fine taking care of our current fish as they're healthy, but I'm not sure he'd necessarily spot problems with an ill fahaka, or he'd worry too much. But it's an on-going project - it's been at the lfs for 7-ish months so far, and I'm hoping it can hang on till I can get it
By the by - I have no problem upgrading once we've moved house and have more room, so if there's a particular size tank that would 'do' for the next 6 or so months, considering his size, let me know. I'd obviously prefer to get him in his tank for life sooner rather than later, but given the situation I'm happy to spend more long-term by getting two different set-ups over time. It's not as if I couldn't find a use for the tank once he's upgraded!
that is to bad that he has been there that long. I would imagine him to be very stunted in his growth living in a crappy tank like that. When you get him he may only ever need a 55g which is very sad.
I know how you feel about the upgrade I already have plans for the 55g he is in right now...i'm thinking marine, . I'm having a company give me a bid on an in wall tank that will be about 500g. If I can afford that I'm gonna give that a shot and see what he thinks of that. I might try 3 or 4 in there like the guy who put 8 in a 240 for breeding. I figure if there are more than two the dominace will work out and the tank will be big enough for territories. Still just a dream right now but if the company just give me the plans I can build it to save on the expense. Also I think if you start them off together when they are young in a tank that size they will grow into there territories and be used to one another and won't know any diff.
an mbu would be cool but they still need even a bigger tank than that from what people have put on here so I would have to wait till I build my next house that way I can design the tanks that i want into the house.
. I'm having a company give me a bid on an in wall tank that will be about 500g. If I can afford that I'm gonna give that a shot and see what he thinks of that. I might try 3 or 4 in there like the guy who put 8 in a 240 for breeding. I figure if there are more than two the dominace will work out and the tank will be big enough for territories. Still just a dream right now but if the company just give me the plans I can build it to save on the expense. Also I think if you start them off together when they are young in a tank that size they will grow into there territories and be used to one another and won't know any diff.