The Puffer Forum

hello, i got my first puffer today, after spending the last month researching them and setting up and cycling my tank (a 20g long with aragonite substrate, live plants, and plenty of fake wood decor full of holes and caves and such), but the one thing i can't find an online consensus about is the best temperature for a figure 8 tank.....

i've seen everything from 72-85F listed on various sites... what has worked best for you and your fish?

my tank is currently at 78F and 1.004 SG (which is what comes out the the tap here) and the as-yet-unnamed F8 seems "fine", exploring the tank actively, not "pacing", and not showing any obvious stress signs. the tank also has a few common pond snails of various sizes (i inadvertently introduced them with some plants to a different tank which i am now using for breeding cherry red shrimp on purpose and snails on accident) and about a dozen ghost shrimp also of various sizes. at the LFS the F8s were being kept with the ghost shrimp, fed a hand-full of pond snails weekly, and frozen brine shrimp daily (i purchased a pack of those as well). oh, not counting caudal fin the puff is about 1.5 inches long.

i've kept aquatic turtles and fresh water tropical tanks for years, but this is my first puff and first brackish tank, so i'm very excited about it.

78-80 is good.

I have some difficulty holding some of my tanks temps down -the rainbowfish I bred especially - they are best in the mid-70s, the high 70s are not quite as good for them.

I have kept f-8s from 75-76F up to 80-82F and cannot tell any difference. The higher temp may make the fish a bit more active so long as the tank is well oxygenated. That should not be an issue with the tank you describe as the 20-longs tend to keep good DO levels.

In theory the 75-76 fish should live a bit longer than the 80-82 fish, but I cannot tell any difference.