Things to Ponder and wonder

[CanuckPuffer]

Hi All, great forum. I have read a few and gotten some great info. I have had two puffers for about two years now, both GSP's. One is 3.5" long and the other 2". I a preparing to move them into their new home, a 75 gallon corner tank, 24" high with 1.5" of sand. They are living in high brackish/ low marine salinity at 1.018 and may up it to 1.020. I am hoping to keep a few feather dusters, coco worms and gorgorians to help with their messy eating habits. Does any one see any problems with having these in the tanks with the puffers? The puffers are kept well feed with a varied diet. I am also wondering if I could keep an eel in the tank with them? A small eel, 6" would stay in his tube 80% of the time and roam abit at night.

Thanks for any info and advice,

[J-P]

double post of viewtopic.php?f=6&t=26454

[CanuckPuffer]

I posted it in marine as well. Was not sure where it really belonged. I have salt water tanks as well, so marine to me is 1.022 and higher. But from reading some other posts, people are talking about 1.015 as marine.

J-P, thanks for the welcome, I am from a hour south of you.

[Blaine]

All hail to another Canuck!!! Welcome to the neighborhood!!

[J-P]

If you are in TO then it is more like 3 hours. 1 hour south is Peterborough

On occasion we head to TO for shopping. There are also a few other members in that area

[Pufferpunk]

Please forget about those filter feeders you are considering. They will eat nothing similar to what the puffers eat. They need heavy, constant feedings of microscopic foods & Phytoplankton, which will add greatly, to the bioload of your tank. It is more than likely, the puffers will eat the soft flesh of the worms.

[CanuckPuffer]

J-P, sorry, I meant to say i used to live a hour south. In Tweed.

I feed a homemade food to my puffers, along with dried kryll, ghost shrimp, live snails and frozen snails. The homemade food has squid, dried flake food, pellets, kryll, seaweed, salmon, clams, snails (shells and all), scallops all put through a meat grinder then mix with agar agar to help stiffen it. they love it, but they do tear some pieces apart and it is just a cloud of food. I feed a similar food to my reef tank, just without the agar agar. It breaks up easier, the fish love it and the polyp corals grab anything going by. Even if the coco worms are in, they come out to get what they can.

Has anyone tried to put things like that in their tanks or are they just going by what is written, and yes, i have read alot. I had four hermit crabs in with the puffers for over a year till i moved them to a tank of live rock to help clean it. They never really bothered the crabs much, usually only when the crabs crawled up the silicone in the corners of the tank.

Cheers

[CanuckPuffer]

Thanks for the welcome Blaine

[Pufferpunk]

Whether the puffers eat them or not, Coco worms have a poor success rate in captivity.They are filter feeders & it takes them about a year to starve to death.

[CanuckPuffer]

Pufferpunk-- are you speaking from experience? I had mine for over two years before an angry lobster took it's head off along with a sleeping blenny's tail. He got put on permanant vacation in the refugium. I know multiple people who have had them for years. They do require alittle more attention, much like like sun corals, gorgorians and other non photosynthetic organisms. Coco worms will drop just their head when stressed, mine also did it then came out again about 6 months later with two heads. They will also retract for extended periods while building more tube. Many people think they are dead when they do not see it come out for weeks then just remove it, worried the decaying worm may pollute the tank. There has also been increased success in keeping finicky filter feeders with the use of a bio pellet reactor on your tank, the increased bacteria load is great for them.

Cheers,

[Pufferpunk]

I have excellent luck with sun corals & gorgonians & spot feed them regularly with powdered foods (many different kinds of foods), in addition to phyto. Did the same with the Cocoworm & eventually every one of mine died. I think 2 years is the usual max in captivity, if kept well-cared for.

As far as carbon dosing (which is what the bio-pellets do), I dose 2x/day with vitamin C.