The Puffer Forum

Hey guys,

Just joined as we've bought four Figure of 8 Puffers.

The wife has wanted puffers for years and so we waited for our tank to deplete due to natural causes and then
we cleaned out, salinated and baught them this morning...

We're really happy with our tank

welcome, you should start up a thread to introduce your puffers

xrayjeeper83 wrote:welcome, you should start up a thread to introduce your puffers

ok, will do, i'll get some photo's first

Hi, welcome to the forum and congrats on your new puffers.

I'm just concerned about a few things. You just got these puffers, and you already had a tank. Did you cycle that tank before introducing your puffers, or did you just set it up and put the puffers directly into it? Thing is, if you haven't "cycled" your tank, then it's going to be bad for your puffers. Also, I would not have put any salt into the tank until it was completely cycled.

Can you tell me how big your tank is please? I don't want to offend you, but I am not sure how much you know or not. So please don't be insulted by my questions.
Did you get a dechlorinator to put into your water before it goes into the tank? Did you use marine salt or aquarium salt to make it brackish?

If you can let us know a bit more by answering some of my questions, we can go from there. Puffers are lovely little fish, very endearing and entertaining.

pufferpuggirl wrote:Hi, welcome to the forum and congrats on your new puffers.

I'm just concerned about a few things. You just got these puffers, and you already had a tank. Did you cycle that tank before introducing your puffers, or did you just set it up and put the puffers directly into it? Thing is, if you haven't "cycled" your tank, then it's going to be bad for your puffers. Also, I would not have put any salt into the tank until it was completely cycled.

Can you tell me how big your tank is please? I don't want to offend you, but I am not sure how much you know or not. So please don't be insulted by my questions.
Did you get a dechlorinator to put into your water before it goes into the tank? Did you use marine salt or aquarium salt to make it brackish?

If you can let us know a bit more by answering some of my questions, we can go from there. Puffers are lovely little fish, very endearing and entertaining.

Hey, no worries - it's good to know that you guys care so strongly about the puffers! That's reassuring as I'll be taking your advice very seriously

The tank was well cycled prior to introducing the puffers, the bio filter and SG (1.005) were already established in advance. The tank is 160 litres - which in gallons is about 36.

I did use a dechlorinator, the salt I used was recommended to me by my stockist specifically for the F8P, not sure of the type right now as I'm away from home at the moment but i will reply on this thread when I am. I checked the ph, it was a little low (7.5-7.. I will be addressing this asap.

One things that does concern me is that when asked, the stockist told me that the F8P will not need to have shelled food to wear down the teeth, but from reading numerous threads on this site, it's clear that they do. What would be a good starting point for shelled food?

Thanks so much for your help!!!!

They will need shelled foods to wear down teeth.

Best thing you can do is to set up a small 2-5G tank as a snail breeding tank. Also raw shell on shrimp, and clams on the halfshell(they scrape their teeth on the shell getting the clam out)

xrayjeeper83 wrote:They will need shelled foods to wear down teeth.

Best thing you can do is to set up a small 2-5G tank as a snail breeding tank. Also raw shell on shrimp, and clams on the halfshell(they scrape their teeth on the shell getting the clam out)

hey cool, i have a tank sitting there cycling away with no fish... i'll put them in there

good deal, in about 2-3 weeks you will have tons of little babies slimming their way around your tank

Just to say, I would not worry too much about your pH, puffers can adjust.

You might also try cockles with your puffers, that will help keep their teeth trimmed -- if they like them, not all puffers do. Some of my puffers absolutely love them and others don't blink an eye when I put them in. So it's a bit hit and miss. A friend of mine had a good idea about how to get puffers to trim their teeth if they won't eat snails. He said to get some small pieces of that rock with lots of holes in it (it's usually a very white rock) and to smear a "puffer food paste" onto the rock, and then the puffers have to scrape his teeth against it to get any food off it. I can't say I've tried this method, but I do like the sound of it. I suppose I should try it just to see how well it works.

Did you guys miss this?

we've bought four Figure of 8 Puffers.

The tank is 160 litres - which in gallons is about 36.

library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/