Unsettling News from LFS about F8....Help Needed!

[MatthewLaw]

Greetings All- I spoke to my LFS this afternoon and inqiured aobut their availability of F8 puffers. Specifically I watned to know their SG value so I could duplicate it in my own fish tank. I was told that they keep the F8s in freshwater (eek!!) since it is not a 'pure' marine fish.

When I am ready to get this puffer, do you suggest I put the puffer in my fully cycled FW tank and THEN turn it into brackish with the puffer inside? OR should I turn the tank brackish before the F8's arrival and use the drip method??

Thanks for the help. -Matt

[yunachin]

Unfortunately, some of our LFS' sell many kinds of fish in an "improper" environment but not all is lost. You can add your Figure Eight to your freshwater tank and over the course of a month raise the salinity up to an acceptable level. Figure Eights do not require a high end brackish environment and will do just fine in water of 1.005 at a maximum. Raising your salinity up by 0.002 per week using marine salt will be just fine.

[MatthewLaw]

Thanks for the help. I assume that i should add the salt to a separate bucket and then add that bucket to the tank (instead of adding the salt DIRECTLY).

Sorry if is a dumb question but how does one know how much salt to add for say an increase of 0.002?

[Idontknow]

All my puffers came from different places and they were all kept in freshwater too. I have two F8s and two GSPs. I cycled my F8 tank at 1.005 and drip acclimated the F8s from fresh to brackish.

Yes, from what I have read you shouldn't add salt directly into the tank, but either mix it with a little water, or fully dissolve it in water before putting it in. Some people put the salt into the filter, but that takes a long time to dissolve.

About a 1/2 cup will raise 5 gallons of water to 0.002...but you have to play around this amount because some marine salt brands dissolve better than others.

[MatthewLaw]

Thanks for the help!! Barbs...get ready to move to the other tank....

[Agnate]

Your best bet would be to get a Hydrometer or Refractometer. I noticed that as salt gets older, it's ability to increase the salinity drops, so you end up need more salt to achieve the same salinity. Thus, using one measurement won't always suffice.