The Puffer Forum

I will be the first to admit that with all the puffers I have, and have had, I don't seem to have very good luck with Figure-8 puffers. I will also admit that I've kept them in freshwater in the past. My last Figure-8 jumped out of the tank and wasn't found in time, poor thing.

So, after waiting several months ... I decided to get a couple more today. Only this time I've put them into a brackish tank (tank was already established I might add). So I am very curious to see what happens with these puffers. I keep hearing how they are so easy to keep, although that's usually NOT the case for me. I am hoping that these two, whom I've named "Klaus" and "Wolfgang" (they were imports from Germany) will live a long and healthy life, especially as I now have them rightfully in a brackish tank.

The shop we went to today also had Takifugu ocellatus, which I had never seen at any LFS's in my area. I was very tempted to get one, but two reasons I did not. First of all, I was not sure if they would do well in a brackish tank (thought they needed marine conditions) and secondly, we just recently talked a bit about this very puffer on this forum and the general concensus is that they aren't very easy to keep. I also didn't like the fact that this shop will not keep any brackish fish, puffer or not, in brackish water. I've tried speaking to the owner in the past on this issue, but he just smiles and nods and doesn't absolutely nothing to change things. These Fugu puffers were breathing heavily and I could see by their bellies that they had IP issues. They weren't very expensive and I was truly tempted ... but in the end, I thought I should go with the Figure-8's instead. I suspect those Fugu puffers won't live long anyway between their aggressive behaviour towards each other and not having any salt in their tank. Poor puffers.

I hate shops like that....
What SG are you keeping the F8's at just outta curiosity??

Yeah, when we first started going to that shop, I tried to educate the guy on puffers and told him how best to keep some of the brackish ones. He got a shipment of Ceylons and they had a fungus and I tried to tell him how to best deal with it, but he didn't listen and did things his way -- he ended up losing the entire shipment of them, which I felt was a real shame. I could have done better myself. People like that tend to take the cheap or easy way out instead of doing what's right for the puffer.

I haven't tested that tank recently, but I believe the SG is around 1.008

PPG why do you give this guy your business?????? Good luck with your Figure 8's.

pufferpuggirl wrote: The shop we went to today also had Takifugu ocellatus, which I had never seen at any LFS's in my area. I was very tempted to get one, but two reasons I did not. First of all, I was not sure if they would do well in a brackish tank (thought they needed marine conditions) and secondly, we just recently talked a bit about this very puffer on this forum and the general concensus is that they aren't very easy to keep. Poor puffers.

not your problem

We have enough on our plates and to educate others is well beyond out control. We can try, but do not feel bad if they do not listen (myself included).

pufferpuggirl wrote:
I haven't tested that tank recently, but I believe the SG is around 1.008

1.008 is more than enough SG for your F8's PPG RTR would say 1.005 even I think they'll be fine just keep the lid on

trekenk wrote:PPG why do you give this guy your business?????? Good luck with your Figure 8's.

We don't really go there that often, more like every once in a while just to see what he's got. Since I stopped going to World of Slaughter (think H2O in place of that last word), there's not as many shops that are keeping puffers. And this guy up north doesn't really keep his fish under really bad conditions, just that he will not put brackish water fish in brackish water. Anyway, sometimes he gets some unusual puffers, and as I'm still hoping to get a Fang's some day, I like to keep my options open.

Thank you J-P, you are right, but sometimes I guess I hope that if I keep trying to change things that something might change, and therefore be better for the puffers in the long run.

Ah, glad to hear that my SG will be good for my F8's. Maybe I should let it go down a bit then?

From the PufferPedia:

Low-end brackish water (SG = 1.005 - 1.008)

I think most people go to the lower end to save salt, since (to my knowledge, anyway) no one's found one number in that range that's better than the others.