The Puffer Forum

Hi! Im excited to write on this forum for the first time. My fiance and I are happy to have discovered some Figure Eight Puffers at a local pet store recently. Quite recently, infact... only this week. Already we have been scouring the internet and whatever sources we can for information on these little guys, but really its disappointing how little information there really is! So Im happy I found this forum.

My name is Laura and Im 29, and my fiance Tony and I have lately gotten into the hobby of fish. We live in Virginia, US. We now have moved up to 3 tanks, which makes for a very soothing living room let me tell you. We dont even need to use lights anymore . My fiance has a cichlid tank, with a Pleco and some mollies and rainbow sharks. He tried Cory Cats but we realized that the cichlids would rather eat them... but he just attained a nice balance of harmony in his tank. The cichlids are beautiful. His tank has a roman theme, (and we like to name all our fish) so his fish are all roman type names, like Julius and Octavian and mythology names. My new 20 gal. is devoted to the females and baby-givers, and also the weaker fish the cichlids would have picked on. I have some Red Wag Platys, a Panda Platy, three Cory Cats (one peppered, two panda) and several fancy-tailed guppies, which is my focus. I also have several types of fry seperated in a breeder box, Red Wags, Mollies, and Guppies. Mine is the baby tank. We also made sure to get some snails recently, finding out that we needed to have them for the puffers to grind their teeth on. Im keeping several in my tank hoping that they will multiply. My tank is Asian themed, so I have named them mostly Asian names like Ichigo, Kurosawa, Miyazaki, and the like. I may post some pictures of everyone, we are both proud of all of our fish. But first the story of how we discovered the cutest fish we have ever seen...

I accidentally cracked my 14 gal. tank. In the process of changing over to cichlid sand, which we find easier to maintain, it cracked on the tub during a rinse. Unfortunately none of the stores had that same tank, but we decided on a 10 gal. as an emergency tank. The length was the same as the 14, just not the height, thankfully. I didnt need to buy an entire kit. So I saved my fish, which weve had since we started the hobby. Weve lost quite a few, but its been a learning experience.. I would hate to lose those fish who have hung on so long. We got a 20 gal. the other day and transferred all my fish and babies with the new sand, looks great and the corys especially love it (natures vacuum cleaners). We went to a local pet store we havent been to to see what they have, and were surprised happily by their fish dept., they had a little more variety than we had yet seen. I didnt even know freshwater puffers existed... and my fiance happily got two of the cute little guys. Ive always been wary of fish like puffers, for one thinking they were saltwater only and that made them way too delicate to care for, that was my main worry. Its true that they prefer brackish water, and seems that its not as difficult as you would think. We both love these little guys! We thought the cichlids had personality, but the puffers really do. Their bright eyes and curious nature. Their beautful coloration and patterns, and they are fun to watch as they eat and really greet you at the front of the tank. Only after two days, they are already recognizing us. We have distinguished their different patterns, and named one Herbie and the other Otto. Cute names fitting a cute creature.

I worry most of all about things Ive heard, and wonder if I could get some advice. How do we keep them best entertained? Or keep them from getting bored? Do they play? Is there any special care I need to consider to give them? How frequently do they eat, and in what amount? Our puffers are only two inches now, I read they might get up to 20 cm or just 3 inches. Is there any kind of behavior I need to look out for?

We are proud puffer owners now and intend to put all our effort into keeping these little guys happy and healthy.

Welcome I'm glad to see another F8 person on here. I've got a little one and she's just something Yes, they do prefer light brackish water and it really isn't hard at all. I think a 29gal tank would probably be best for them with an aragonite substrate.

You can keep them best entertained by providing them with a very complex environment. You'll want areas with high water flow and quiet areas as well. We also regularly add some live cherry shrimp in and she stays busy hunting them for a bit. Actually, she's either begging for food, jumping out of the water, or out of our view presumably checking the rocks for shrimp. We used rock in our tank because it went with the look we wanted but more importantly because it is full of nooks and crannies. We thought this would help the shrimp but it doesn't seem to. Ours doesn't play in the way that a mammal would but she's very spunky and is always busy. She never stops, except when she's sleeping.

Special care would be to provide a large enough busy tank, provide crunchy foods (snails are best), and to make sure that your water stays hard and keep it as light brackish.

You can start with feeding them 6 days per week and you want to feed them until their bellies are slightly rounded. You don't want them bulging out like a man's beer belly but you need to see some food in there They'll grow to about 3" (definitely not 20cm), and as they age you can reduce the feedings to every other day and possibly even less depending on the fish.

There's pictures of ours and her tank in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23856&p=258685&hilit=feight#p258685
In those pictures she's had too much to eat When she has shrimp in the tank we don't feed her anything else until she gets a more healthy and less blimpy figure.

Hey! Thanks for posting back! Those were great pictures, what a little cutie. We are already so attached to ours, they are so lively.

I forgot to mention, we are using crushed coral aragonite substrate, which took a heck of a long time to filter! But with a few filter washings and a lot of patience the water finally cleared up today.

I actually read and saw in a video on another page someone had used hamster tunnels in their tank, to give them more to explore (I like the idea of the see-through ones, so we can watch them) do you think this would be a good idea? I would hate to think of them going to hide in there and getting stuck, or being sick and us not knowing because they hide. We are currently going through the process of arranging the tank and finding decorations and plants to suit it. Ill take a pic if I can later to post. lol they are good beggars... so darn cute you cant resist... we made the mistake of dumping quite a few snails into the tank thinking they couldnt possibly eat them all (the guy at the store didnt say they would). But before we knew it, at least one of them had a bloated tummy. Do they digest shells? I was wondering whether they cought them up later, or just digest them completely. Which is cool if so! We love to watch them snail hunt. Havent had any trouble with them eating off the bottom, and weve been feeding them frozen brine shrimp. Just learned today though that those have no nutritional value!!! So will be going out again to find them some new foods. Have to find something readily available for them that isnt too expensive...

We have a large rock (coral) taking up the center of the tank, helps to break line of sight pretty well. Want to add plants as well. I think because of the snail escapade that we will refrain from feeding them tomorrow. Have you ever tried using crickets as food? We read somewhere that it was a possible food source. Im going to see if theres a list of good foods for them. Thanks for the advice!

Fugu99 where did you find these Figure 8s at? I am located in near Hampton also and I have been looking for these puffs for a loooooong time! I must know where you found them!

Hi CaptainMorgan! We live around that area too. We found the Figure 8s at Care-A-Lot! Care-A-Lot Pet Supplies I believe its called. Its on the corner of Oyster Point and Warwick in Newport News. They had quite a few and seem to get a wider variety of fish in stock than other pet stores around here. Word of warning however, the fish have good color but there wasnt a one in the tank that didnt already have ripped fins. They were keeping them in with some Cichlids, I think they were the Firethroat variety. Apparently they said they were getting along but from the ripped fins, which could have been the puffers attacking each other too, I dont know. But ours have been healing up pretty well. Anyway its worth a look they might have new stock in. They have a 5-day return policy. Also try Animal Jungle in VA Beach, but I didnt see any Figure 8s there. They had some SW puffers and they also had some GSP (they had ich) and some Dwarf Puffers. Animal Jungle doesnt have a return policy, although they are a fine store for supplies and take really good care of their animals, (particularly birds).

Awesome! I will have to check them out this weekend.

Good luck! Hope you get what youre looking for