The Puffer Forum

Let's start out with the bad news... Joe died right before I was going to transfer him into the larger 24 gallon tank.
Good news... I got two new figure eight puffers for the 24 gallon tank. I aslo put 1 small cup of saltwater from my other tank into the aquarium and several cups worth of marine sand into the tank.
Some more bad news... They don't seem to recognize the food (krill,bloodworms) I am trying to give them as food. Should I give them live foods to coax them to eat (I tried garlic solution with no luck).

Questions
Are they indeed brackish fishes?
What can go with the Figure Eight Puffers?
What should I name them?

Please help me out before anything bad happens

Sorry to read about the bad news. It's a sad fact that many of us have been through a similar loss.

Yes, they are indeed brackish fish. Aim for a target specific gravity of between 1.005 - 1.008.

Try offering them snails and live blackworms or bloodworms if you can find them. Ghost shrimp or small fiddler crabs (sorry, cute little crabbies!) might get them eating, too. Don't be too worried for a couple of days, though, because it just may be that they're needing to settle in to their new environment and will start eating once they're more relaxed.

As for tankmates, with brackish water you don't have a vast array of choices. Google (or Bing) for brackish fish and you'll get an idea as to what's out there. However you have to remember that your F8 is a puffer, and puffers tend to kill all kinds of things. However since I have no personal experience with this species, I'll just hope that someone who does will post something in answer to your question.

Oh - is the 24 gallon tank fully cycled? I sure hope so, if you have your F8s in there.

There is an article in the PufferPedia about Figure 8 puffers. It'd be a good idea to read through it.

With two F8s in a 24, I personally wouldn't do tankmates.

By the way, there's also an article on F8s in the Library. You should read that, too.

Yes, good point - two adult F8s is plenty of fish for a 24 gallon, in fact two might be a little cramped in a tank that size.