The Puffer Forum

Hey peeps! At long last I am getting an old plan running to have a marine Toby puffer tank!

This is going to be marine tank number three and very much experimental. I want to see what fish I can keep together and what corals I can 'get away with' keeping with a Toby or two. These plans got waylaid with my lovely purchase of Smooch, my congo puffer, but it's full steam ahead now.

My stockist is on the search for a couple of small tobys of different species for me at the moment and I'm hoping we can get two who are happy to grow up together without beating each other to shreds. The shop are even going to get lots of different ones in that are young, and then try that I like together in their quiet tanks out back of shop to see how they'll get on with each other. The plan is to have a pair of different tobys that are the same sort of size to tolerate each other as they grow. It may not work, but we'll see.

I'd also like to try a bicolour or starry blenny in the mix to add some interest to the rockwork, and maybe get to try some softies like mushies and leathers in the tank as well. The latter will be complete experimentation and I have tow other tanks to put the corals in if it goes pear-shaped.

Now you can see why I am saying this is going to be experimental!

Anyhoo, progress so far...

the tank is my great 180L Akva Stabil Effectline that used to house 3 fancy goldies. They've gone to another tank now that's more suitable for their needs shape-wise.

It's rather tall so I have a collapsible decorators platform to reach the bottom of the tank which makes cleaning fun (wet boobs and armpits ahead!). The lighting is two basic T8 tubes at the moment but I have a couple of spare T5 lamp units from my Osaka marine reef tank that I can use if I want to.


I actually make the tank look small there

previous occupants

filling up slowly

I felt so clever plumbing this in myself! A total bargain purchase from a reef forum

and I also got some great LR from another reefer who was shutting down his vast tank so the rock is beautifully mature

So, that's where I am at this moment. I have my skimmer ready to roll and will be off to get some live sand this weekend. Rock scaping will occur next weekend, or the first attempt at it anyway.

I'll just be running circulation pumps and a skimmer on the tank, trying to keep it as natural as possible - oh and sumpless too.

So, that's the story so far. The rock is dumped unceremoniously in the tank at present. More to follow soon.

I wouldn't get more than 2 tobys for that tank. Look far & wide for a Leopard, they're gorgeous!!! Here was my Coronata:


( think you might be able to add a dwarf lionfish too.

LOL, what's a "mushy" coral?

Oh it won't be more than a pair of tobys! Maybe I was a but misleading. The shop are seeing what ones they can get in and I am going to choose two. I love papua and solandri and the leopards.
I should hear from them soon with the stick they get in.

Ooh dwarf fuzzy! Now you're talking! Would that be a good idea if I'm allergic to stings? super thick gauntlets maybe

I do believe it is a similar chemical to bee stings.

Hmmm. I heard that too which means I could have just a few breathing problems if I got stung
I wonder if the thick pond gauntlets would be an effective barrier. I'll have to look into it and the fish

fu-manchu lions are really cool, look into one of them.

If you can get a mirus to eat krill you can get a fu-manchu to eat too, just make sure to do it in a QT tank, (beyond other reasons) they have a knack for going into the rock work and never coming out if added to a display.

Looks good! I like the look of the gold fish tank too!

Fu-Manchus are close to impossible to get eating in captivity.

Not in my experience. About as easy as getting a suvattii to eat. Put the fu in a QT tank, filled him up on gut packed ghost shrimp for the first two days. Then stabbed a live ghost shrimp on a coat hanger and the twitching enticed it to eat rather easily. We did that for a few more days. Then was able to substitute a whole krill impaled on the coat hanger, this part is a little more tricky but with patience and giggling the shrimp around the fu got the idea. With in about two weeks the fu-manchu was eating from our hands. It helps to have only one person in charge of feeding the fu, as they do recognize the person. I have talked with a few other reef club members and they have had success with the same method. If the fu doesnt eat for a extended period go back to gut packed ghost shrimp and restart. It just takes patience, a QT tank and some creative giggling of the krill to make it seem live.

I had a good day's shopping at my LFS today and came home laden with good stuff (and not all for this tank!). They've got some tobys in and will be getting round to trying them together soon...a couple of valentinis and solandri I think

So, the tank progress...

Scaping has been decided on, the ski slope effect and I have speed glued the rock down - loving that stuff - and am happy with the scape for now.

I bought a couple of SunSun faux Koralias (yes I'm a tight buttocks) - two for the price of one Koralia - and found I only need one of them at the mo.

My dead sand

the Gymnasium - step classes, who need's 'em?

the leaning tower of rockza

side on

I am pleased with it and plan more branching areas when I see the right bits of rock or branch

sand added


So this is where we are at present...a nice box of milk, 6000 calories burnt off getting on and off of my platform producing biceps Arnie would be proud of and buns of steel - I wish

Just need a bit more water and we're away...well, I have to get the external fitted first, but we're getting there!

Looking GOOD!! i so wanna start a toby tank

Nice!!

That silt will settle of course but if you want it gone fad .. diatom filter

oops "gone fast" ... is what meant to say (I need a mind reading computer)

Oh it should be crystal clear today all ready from me to stir it up again making sure the rock's free of dust and that the sand is where I want it

I've been researching fuzzy dwarf lionfish and I think a Fumanchu might be better as they stay smaller. Going to do more research though

Well I had a successful trip to my LFS yesterday that turned out expensive again even though I seemed to only buy a few bits

I got a new Eheim connector as one decided to leak on my old nightmare to prime filter I have (it only took a few hours to prime this time round), but I also got a few other bits and pieces that seemed to add up rapidly - I now have a gorgeous yellow/green finger leather that's currently drooping in the corner of my Osaka reef tank, but will be destined for this tank if the tobys are happy with it that will accompany a cluster of toadstool leathers and maybe my long polyp leather too. I have visions of a tank with lots of different leather corals in it if the Tobys will allow it

I reserved the cutest little Valentini puffer today as it wasn't shy of my big face looking at it for half an hour and kept coming up to me all the time, and we are now trying a bigger Solandri puffer in with him too. So far so good and they tolerated each other well while I was there...a little bit of showing off but no physical damage. The shop's going to separate them at night so they can still see each other, but keep them together during the day and if all is well they'll be mine when the tank is ready

I was contemplating a FuManchu lionfish (smaller than a fuzzy dwarf), but thinking about it and the 5 stingers they have, along with the fact I am alergic to many types of stings and value breathing, I don't think it's really that good an idea But I am known to change my mind on occasion so you never know...

I fell in love with a McCosker's Flasher Wrasse which is like a swimming rainbow, so that's something to think about along with a lawnmower blenny

We'll see.

The tank is sparkly clear and the external's spray bar is giving some nice surface movement. The weir is drawing in the surface water so that shouldn't film up. The external is just mostly empty, for surface movement purposes only.











0 ammonia and nitrite at the moment...long may it continue

Just a quick couple of iphone shots from the LFS yesterday....





Trying not to get too excited in case they don't get on together too well

WoW looking nice keep-em coming