The Puffer Forum

Hi All

i've got my tank rolling, now i plan to have an arrowhead once its cycled,

how heavy should i make the decor? its 3 foot long, just over a foot deep, and over a foot high, i've got an inch of sand substrate, raising to 2 and half in one side (for burrying and make a bit of a raise for interest)

got a 3 rocks making a cave,

two fake plants,

some live plants,

mostly kept to the abck so there's good roaming space in the front,

now question is, should i plant out the front to to make it quite the maze, or should i keep the front bare and keep the back covered with decor as is?

being a lurker and (whats the word for hiding or pouncing preditor) i thought maybe put some more decore to make a maze of runs and plants ect ect??

any help or even pictures of your tank would be ace!!

i'll get a pic of my tank to show you

Yeah I'd say go for more plants. You don't need as much sand area as some other lurkers, cause arrowheads bury less and prefer to hang out in plants and caves more. To give you an idea here is Rocker's arrowhead tank gallery:

ug.php/v/User_Galleries/Rocker/My+Tanks/suvattii/

ahhh i see, more plants are needed, shall i add more fake or more live...... whats the bonus of live plants? i fancy putting in some shrimp, that way they'll clean up left over food? but also act as food for the guy or girl, but they'd need a lot of hiding places to last i think!

I've never kept an arrowhead so I can't help you much there...

But two things I can tell you.. the tank will look 100% better with a background on it (even just a sheet of construction paper or posterboard).

And that window is going to give you trouble.. any sunlight shining on the tank will grow a ton of algae. (if that is, in fact, a window behind the tank)

Looks good though! You went with a very fine sand, you do know you'll need to stir it once a week to prevent anaerobic pockets, correct? Last thing you want is your puffer to dive into a bubble of toxic fumes under the sand.

Myaj wrote:I've never kept an arrowhead so I can't help you much there...

But two things I can tell you.. the tank will look 100% better with a background on it (even just a sheet of construction paper or posterboard).

And that window is going to give you trouble.. any sunlight shining on the tank will grow a ton of algae. (if that is, in fact, a window behind the tank)

Looks good though! You went with a very fine sand, you do know you'll need to stir it once a week to prevent anaerobic pockets, correct? Last thing you want is your puffer to dive into a bubble of toxic fumes under the sand.

yh i kepp meaning to get a back ground set up, and i agree with you there! just cant help but think that some look tacky... will have to look for some good ones!

it is indeed a window, but its pretty much level with the tank, and upstairs so sunlight is rarely a factor, and were surrounded by tree's, but thats duely noted and i'll keep an eye on it! what if anything will live with an Arrow head to clean up? i didnt think anything would survive with one?

yes it is fine, yh i'm up to date with the stirring! gotta keep ontop of it to ovoid spikes as well right? i went for a fine one so the chappy could borrow easily, i may change it though.... i quite like the black small gravels... we'll see

what kind of things can i plant in there? will they live in the sand?

thanks guys

the tank looks like a room divider so that is probably why there isn't a background.

My puffer stays burried 80% of the time. So having a deeper sand bed will be better for him I think.

Also don't expect to keep shrimp in there with him for any long amount of time. If you have other puffers putting some snails in there for clean up works great as the arrowhead won't eat them and they like to eat left over shrimp and crab. Then when it comes time to feed other puffers snails you can just take some from the arrowhead tank.

apachepufferman wrote:the tank looks like a room divider so that is probably why there isn't a background.

My puffer stays burried 80% of the time. So having a deeper sand bed will be better for him I think.

Also don't expect to keep shrimp in there with him for any long amount of time. If you have other puffers putting some snails in there for clean up works great as the arrowhead won't eat them and they like to eat left over shrimp and crab. Then when it comes time to feed other puffers snails you can just take some from the arrowhead tank.

if you look closley you can see a couple snails in there already

its at the end of my bed, wakes me up at half 6 in the morn when the light comes on, gets me up for work

i thought the shrimp would keep him ocupied also.......

You are correct, there isn't much you could put in there to help with algae control that the arrowhead wouldn't eat. The shrimp might be an option, especially red cherries.. they might be small enough that he doesn't bother hunting them and they breed quick enough that he'd probably never catch the entire colony.

Personally, I think most printed commercial backgrounds look tacky.. I tend to go with plain black or bright blue and think that looks the best. My favorite tanks have been a black sand/eco complete mix with a black background and planted, the plants really "pop" against the black.

Live plants have a ton of benefits, they are more natural so the fish feels more comfortable (imaging laying in the grass then finding out its indoor/outdoor carpeting.. hmm, that's not right). They also pull nutrients (waste) out of the water, acting as a natural filter. Plus they just look cool. They are more expense and work though, need to have adequete lighting for the species you are keeping, faster growing plants need a lot of pruning, etc. I don't think you'd want to be stickign your hand in the tank every few days to prune when that Arrowhead is full grown

One tip on the algae that you might get from the window, make sure you have enough current. Water that isn't moving around much tends to get hair/thread algae a lot faster than tanks with a lot of current.

My experience with my arrowhead is been couple of months now. I ue to have lots of plants in the tank but i found out when they try to burrow too close to the plants. Sometimes they will uprrot my plants. Almost every other day when i wake up i see 1 of my plants floating. It was very annoying. So i took out all the plants and only put driftwoods with plants attached. Oh all my platns are LIVE non plstic ones but im sure the fake one can be more sturdy. To me arrowhead tanks doesnt really need to be heavily plated like other puffers tank do. They stay in one spot most of the time during daytime or burrow. They tends to be much more active duing the night. Espcially when you turn off the lights. Oh and please no tank mates what so ever...they kill everything you put in there or eat em. Even plecos!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0103960346

just brought those to sprouse it up a bit,

hmmm interesting about the backgrounds also, i quite fancy a black background, and may change to black substraight also, on the plus side i can syphon out the sand easily as its pretty fine...

I agree with myaj, my favourite backgrounds are either black or dark blue. Which also makes it easy to do, cause you can just buy a large bit of black or blue card and cut it to the size of your tank and stick it on.

I don't agree that they don't need many plants though. They're lurkers. ie. most of their life is spent hiding, waiting for prey. I can imagine they would feel more vulnerable with less plants in there to hide and lurk in. But sounds like you already got some more plants anyway.

never have i seen my arrowhead hide inside the plants..either under the sand or inside a cave.THEY LOVE CAVES !!!

Every puffer is different, obviously yours just prefers caves. But hiding in plants is just something that they commonly seem to like doing according to people's experiences. Your arrowhead is one of the odd ones out.

Myaj wrote:You are correct, there isn't much you could put in there to help with algae control that the arrowhead wouldn't eat. The shrimp might be an option, especially red cherries.. they might be small enough that he doesn't bother hunting them and they breed quick enough that he'd probably never catch the entire colony.

I put 20 ghost shrimp in five days ago and they are all gone now. I think cherry shrimp would be the same way. I have more snails than a lake in my tank(at least it seems that way) with him though and i've never seen him eat one. I wish he did then I wouldn't have to feed him anymore.