The Puffer Forum

Hi all, I am from Singapore and here is my 4'x2'x22"(H) set-up in my room. Housing my main fish(& obession) Fahaka puffer named 'pringles' and its tank mates.
Pardon the poor quality pics, all taken from my Iphone 3GS.

Comments, critique and suggestions welcomed.

Tank filtration:
1 x Fluval 4 Plus for 100% mechanical filtration
1 x Atman CF-12000 stack and packed with 5x1L bottle of Seachem Matrix and 2L of coral chips and Jaqno Prefilter packed with wool as mechanical filter.



Lighting:
Aqua Zonic 4ft 54W PL x 2

Fauna:
1 X Fahaka Puffer, 1 X IT, 3 X Altifrons, 5 X Clown loaches




Substrate & Flora:
SUDO brown bottom sand, rocks, driftwood with anubias.sp and ferns and unknown vallisneria.sp ?


Tankshots:



Left scape:


Right Scape:


Once again, comments, critiques and suggestions welcomed thanks for viewing

Cheers to all.

Magnum

Nice setup,I like your aquascaping

Your Fahaka is quite cute!

are clown loaches messy fish?
would they add alot to the bioload of the tank?

i would love to add something to my fahaka tank
always loved the clown loaches
whether my fahaka would leave them alone is another thing

Nice set-up...and a nice looking fahaka

lesleyanndunn wrote:are clown loaches messy fish?
would they add alot to the bioload of the tank?

i would love to add something to my fahaka tank
always loved the clown loaches
whether my fahaka would leave them alone is another thing

I also have 3 clown loaches in with my fahaka and i dont think they are that messy...time will tell as they grow quite big.
As far as your fahaka leaving them alone, mine does give them a little chase sometimes but they are just to quick....or he is just letting them know who is boss

awesome tank, love the scape. Very cute fahaka. But that is a lot of monsters for that tank dont you think?

thanks all. The fishes are all still pretty juvenile and so far aggression is at minimum. They get along pretty well and dont really pay attention to one another, even during feeding. The loaches pick off food at the fahaka's mouth even but im crossing my fingers and hope they dont get in between its beak and food

The fahaka has grown from 2 inches to 4.5 in bout 3 months and i will keep an eye on aggression if theres any. Meanwhile i may remove the altifrons to keep the bioload down.

Thanks for viewing cheers

Nice Fahaka and love the decoration of your tank. Your concerns about agression will probably happen. But only in about a year. When they reach 10" they get a lot more dominant towards "intruders" of their territory.

Beautiful tank...nice Fahaka.

IME the tankmates will be fine...until the day he kills them... Good luck.

Hi scally very nice setup. And iam glad that i found someone that is in singapore too.

Cheers!

Where you got ur starpet susbstrate from./

Thanks,

ScallyWag wrote:thanks all. The fishes are all still pretty juvenile and so far aggression is at minimum. They get along pretty well and dont really pay attention to one another, even during feeding. The loaches pick off food at the fahaka's mouth even but im crossing my fingers and hope they dont get in between its beak and food

The fahaka has grown from 2 inches to 4.5 in bout 3 months and i will keep an eye on aggression if theres any. Meanwhile i may remove the altifrons to keep the bioload down.

Thanks for viewing cheers

I had my (then) 3" Fahaka in a 75 gal while I setup his 150... There was a few clown loaches in the tank... Now one of them has a piece of his face missing because of the Fahaka. I suggest you leave that tank to the puffer and move the other fishes out of there asap.

Fahakas do not have tankmates. They have a reserve food supply. Any other fish cohabiting with a giant puffer is potentially dinner.

Clown loaches are big fish with high body mass and great demands on water quality. They should have at minimum 75 gallons each, so the tank is grossly overstocked. They do prefer to be in groups, so that need is being met. They should be separated out into a lager tak of their own ASAP or better immediately.

All potentially large fish are in danger of stunting in captivity. large fish grow rapifly when young and well managed with their food and space and water quality needs met from the beginning. Fahakas are moderately long lived fish, but clown loaches make them look ephemeral - clowns can live into their 40s easily.

The tank does look attractive, but that is illusion considering the huge and inappropriate overstocking.

I hate always having to be the bad guy on tank set-ups, but I also cannot compliment a setup which looks good at the moment but is very poorly stocked for its size and equipment.

Love this:

Fahakas do not have tankmates. They have a reserve food supply.

I love the look of that sand. Crap--I've really gotta change out my substrate!

Pufferpunk wrote: I love the look of that sand

i was going to say that about that sand. it looks really nice and natural! and the quote about the reserve food supply