The Puffer Forum

I am off to see a 2" baby congo puff in a mo and was just making sure everything was just so with the tank when it dawned on me that I may need an airstone? Is it a good idea? I have a venturi running on one of my internal filters but would it need more than aeration than that?

I'd rather do it now before I go and see the puffer than disturb it while it's settling in

I don't run extra airstones in my tank accept at night, so that's entirely up to you, but unless you've got CO2 going into that tank, I don't think it's something that's required.

Good luck with the Congo, I have a feeling you may be coming home with him!

Thankyou for your speedy reply!

I have a feeling I'll be coming home with him too I'll do a diary in a bit as I have to wait for my OH to come home as he's gone to collect the external filter that didn't arrive on Thursday. I think it will be better all set up rather than disturbing the little chap once it comes home with me.
I've got my mature filter media sitting in a bucket with a powerhead, heater and airstone at the mo

Well I'm vicariously living through you at the moment, as I'd love to have another Congo, but I've already got two and don't really have the space for another, so I am enjoying your excitement with you seemingly about to get one.

Your fish list is impressive - how many tanks do you have running? I have 8 running at the mo and a couple empty - 2 (soon to be 3) puffer tanks, 1 coldwater fancy goldie, 2 marines, 1 small community, 1 planted CO2 gourami tank and I thought I was doing well

Will this be ok for the puffer or do I need to bring some of the decor out to break up the middle part of the sand bed?

Sorry I didn't get back to you before you went offline. Your tank looks really nice, I love those plants, just bought a couple of those myself even. You might need to deepen the sand a bit in the center, so the Congo has enough space to completely bury himself. As long as there's enough space for him to bury in a few different directions, it will be fine. Looks good from my view, and my only suggestion would be to make the sand a bit deeper. I bought the expensive sand for my large Congo, Orangey, but then we found that B&Q stocks a nice sand, very soft and lovely, called Play-Pit sand, it's almost a light orange colour too, and that seems to work really nice. About a 15kg bag for less than £4, which you can't beat, especially at the prices most LFS's will charge for big bags of sand.

As to the previous questions you asked about my tanks -- I have 18 tanks at the moment. Out of those 18, one is my snail breeding tank (very small little tank), one is my red crab/shrimp tank, and two others are mudskippers tank (one for my larger mudskippers and one for my dwarf mudskippers), then there's one big community tank, and the others are all puffer tanks. In the very near future I am looking to get two more tanks, one bigger one for my Mbu, and a larger tank for my Ceylons as well. But I think I may downsize after that and sell off a couple of tanks, maybe rehome some puffers as well because it's getting to be quite a job keeping up with these tanks, and I pretty much do all the maintenance myself, and it really is a full-time job.

It's got 25kg of silver sand in which is effectively soft fine play sand. I'll keep an eye on whether the puff has enough depth but the sand is approx 4-5 inches deep at the mo as it's a flat bottomed base not raised like some and is level with the bottom of the black trim.

My OH can get another big bag for me easily enough though so not a problem there

Your tanks sound fantastic! I'll have to search the forum for pics

I'm en route to the shop now as the external is now set up and running like a dream with mature media in. The OH is ferrying me there which is a bonus as I'm too excited to drive

i cant wait for a update jennybugs (pacing room now) lol jk

i hope the congo is healthy..must send pics!! i have to go to work soon so i guess i wont know till later

I don't run extra airstones in my tank accept at night

Why at night?

do I need to bring some of the decor out to break up the middle part of the sand bed?

Leave that section open for burrowing. Hopefully, he'll not uproot that nice plant.

He is such a stunner! I can't believe how colourful he is. A lovely burnt orange and so small! No more than 2" long and fairly active, he's now in the tank and I caught a few snaps before he went off to hide under the heater I can honestly say I think that for now there is plenty of sand for him to vanish under


He needs a name now



I'll take an FTS later so you can see how tiddly he is I'll put all further pics in my puffer pix thread

Hello! from "ollie"

More pics HERE

Pufferpunk, the reason I run airstones at night and not during the day is on those tanks that I have CO2 going into because plants use up oxygen at night, that's why I run the air at night, just got in a habit of doing that and have continued to do it.