The Puffer Forum

hey. so i've setup my old 75 gallon tank last week. I'm running my green can filter on it. Its been a week already so i added a small silver arowana that i bought off someone, 4 goldfish and columbian catfish (I think). I also added my f8 and dps in there. I'm planning to get a bigger puffer as the tank seems pretty big for the fish. I;m thinking one of those big puffers. what do you guys thinks?

Please slow down a bit. Goldfish don't belong with tropical fish. The brackish Columbian cat/shark & F8 should be ok in there but beware, those "sharks" grow to 18" & do prefer much saltier water than the F8s, when they are grown.

DPs are purely FW fish & will definately be eaten by the sharks & arowana, which is also FW & cold easily fill that 75 by itself, as an adult. Please research the water prefrences of all your fish & their adult sizes/tank size requirements.

What did you do to cycle your green canister filter? Was it running on another tank?

My friend let me run it in her tank since last week. she also gave me some of her gravel in a pouch to let me put in my tank.. My green filter is pretty big I'm pretty sure it can handle the job. on it it says watt 20 tp and typ 2217. So what should I do about the goldfish? Should i return them to the fish store? What other fish are ok with mine currently? I still have the reciept for some of the fish so i could return them

I think you need to pick one species that's in there right now and go from there.

Running a filter in an established tank for 6-8 weeks might pick up some good bacteria in there but certainly not 1 week. Your tank is definately not cycled!

I agree with LGP, you have coldwater, FW & BW-SW species in there, some that will get eaten by others. Pick a species type & stock your tank accordingly. I would return the GF fore sure. Set up a seperate tank for the DPs (a 10g will do) & maybe return the arrowana or the other 2 species (shark & puffers).

hey unfortunately i can only return the columbian catfish and the goldfish. the arrow i bought off someone not a store.. what do you suggest doing then if i had to keep the arrow?

Keep the 75 for the arrow, set up a 15g for the F8 & a 10g for the DPs.

I hope that you have plans to upgrade that tank to a 200 gallon or larger. A silver arowana can easily grow 35-40 inches.

i was told by the seller its ok for a 75 gallon and it shouldnt grow bigger than the tank its in

It will, believe me! They get huge.

This is a pic of the arrowana that is in the Denver aquarium. The sheet of paper by it's head is a standard 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper and the fish is monstrous.

ak37_glock wrote:i was told by the seller its ok for a 75 gallon and it shouldnt grow bigger than the tank its in

Typical...

Yeah, the only reason he wouldn't get too big for a 75 gallon tank is that you stunt the walrus out of him.

are you sure that picture isn't manipulated somehow? i was told they get to about 20 inches... also i now dont have any of my dwarf puffers left in the tank... im guessing one of the fish ate them.. the goldfish are returned now. so I have a silvertip shark. it wasnt the columbian that i thought and the petstore told me they dont need aquarium salt only the columbian ones need it. and i have f8s which i will setup a new tank for with some salt.

For the F8s, you will need marine salt, not aquarium salt. Please read the species profile and the article on them in the PufferPedia and the Library, under the Learn tab.

The arawana really will get that big. I swear to you, it will, unless you try to squeeze it into a tank that is so small that it cannot grow. This would shorten its lifespan a great deal and be very unkind.

I think that you need to return or sell the majority of your fish, and try to work with just one or two of them.