A New F8 Came Home!

[fugu99]

Well, I guess it couldnt wait that long. Only two days ago (was it really only that long? Maybe three?) Otto Von Zeppelin, one of a pair of Figure 8s we got together, passed away from jumping out of the tank overnight. After patching up the tank to keep the other safe, we wondered if we should get another. They were very buddy buddy and its been hard to decide whether a new one would possibly get along as well as the first one did with Herbie. Since Otto was really my fiances puffer, he decided to get another one, so I let him browse the pet store and we saw lots of cool puffers that day, as well as some cool cichlids he also decided to get... I saw a Dogfaced (sp?) puffer that was lipping the side of the tank (obviously begging, so cute and friendly) he was about the size of my fist. They had small puffers in with the guppies and gouramis who you wouldnt notice until you got close and watched carefully... the decision to add them to a guppy tank? Not something I would do... all the guppies were all nipped and so were the gouramis... but they had an avacado puffer and a small GSP about the size of a dime. God, theyre so cute, I wanna take them all home.... but Tony found a Figure 8 he wanted that had healthy looking fins and nearly the size of our other puffer, so he wouldnt be so intimidating. They had GSPs in with the F8s... and the girl told me they kept the water about 1.003 SG although she wasnt really sure, which makes me a little disappointed... because the puffers didnt look all that happy. Anyway, Tony named his new puffer Henry the Figure Eighth... ....lol. But its a great name. I noticed something about this puffer compared to Herbie... Herbie is a more brown with neon yellow stripes all over, and weve noticed that Herbies belly never turns grey. Henry is a lot more black with wider, brighter stripes and less of them, and he definitely shows his color when hes hungry/unhappy. His belly gets all dark grey or partially grey around the edges. Are there different kinds of Figure 8s? Because besides body shape, which is the same, they are noticeably different. But unfortunately, although I almost expected it... Henry is showing signs of ich, very slight at the moment. So Im taking steps to combat it, just with salt treatment. It worked fine when we brought Herbie and Otto home and they had the same problem. Henry is from the same pet store, and I have to wonder how new their stock of puffers is. I also got a dozen more ghost shrimp, for only $1.80 this time! Yay! And more than half of them were heavily berried females! Yay!! So they are happily cleaning my breeder tank, and have been occasional snacks for the puffers/cichlids. I wish I could post a picture of Henry right now, but it will have to wait, Ill put one up later this weekend! My fiance and I are getting civilly married tomorrow so we are busy, maybe if I get a chance while Im beginning to raise my tank salinity tomorrow Ill snap some pics. Id like to thank everyone who was supporting me after we lost our first puffer though, it was traumatic to find him like that in the morning and it really broke both our hearts that we lost him. Especially since they were both so young, we expected to have them both for a while. Also, Herbie is really cute... he tries so hard to be near the other puffer like he wants to socialize, and the other puffer just doesnt know what hes about yet...

[Pufferpunk]

People come in all shapes, so why not puffers? Are they housed together now?

[fugu99]

People come in all shapes, so why not puffers? Are they housed together now?

lol good point. Yes they are housed together, in a 30 gal. The lady at the store said the water was at an SG of about 1.003, not that I really trust that because she seemed unsure, she kind of pointed at the marking on the hydrometer and mumbled. So I put him on a drip when I was acclimitizing him in the bag. But some time this afternoon we noticed he had white spots on his body and fins (and I verified that they werent just his spines, or bubbles on his fins like Ive seen happen before). So the transfer didnt go so well, whatever was the cause.

I know that its recommended to house new fish in a quarantine tank, but we dont have a BW tank for that purpose so I took the risk... when I can afford it and we have the space, Ill be better equipped for new fish. At least Ive been through puffer ich before, and I know what to do.

[Pufferpunk]

So you'll have to treat both of them for ich then.

[Srkoe]

Good for you!!!! So glad you found Herbie a friend!!! Sorry about the ich. The same thing happened to us. We got Gizzy first and added Fugu a week later, two days later we noticed ich on Gizzy. Heat and salt cleared it up quickly. Fugu was real aggressive towards Gizzy at first but now there is only mild aggression at feeding time...Fugu is a selfish, huge PIG!!!! I saw the tiniest f8's ever two weekends ago, couldn't have been no more than 3/4" long! Took everything in me not to bring one home...just can't have another f8 tank right now, with all the brackish and saltwater tanks I have going...salt costs so much. Besides I have super-secret plans on getting a Congo...sssshhh...don't tell my husband!

[fugu99]

So you'll have to treat both of them for ich then.

Oh yes, Im treating the whole tank. Im hoping it wont stress the fish out too much, Ill just have to take it easy. But both puffers are showing great appetite, and they arent lounging around on their bellies, they are swimming and hunting when I put snails in, and I've actually seen Henrys belly go white for once. When we got him home he was showing grey for a while, even though I acclimated him for over an hour. He was still unsure of Herbies need for proximity, and thought he was being attacked. Im happy to report that Herbie gets along great with him and still wants to tag-along the way he did with Otto, following him around the tank and sleeping near Henry and such. Henry has got spots all over now, although not bad as some ich cases Ive seen. The spots are relatively small, so its going to be a while before this is done with. But Otto and Herbie both initially came home with it, so Ive done this before. Ive got a bubbler going to keep the water moving to reduce their stress. Have to do a water change tomorrow. Ive noticed that Henrys mouth has almost an upward tilt, so if you see him at the right angle it looks like hes grinning at you. Herbie still has buckteeth. Im starting to worry that Im going to have to trim his beak, although he doesnt quite have an overbite yet. The snails are at the very least keeping his beak from getting longer.

Thanks Srkoe, yes Ive only noticed mild aggression at feeding time, Henry is a little bigger than Herbie and gets a little greedy. He also doesnt know what to do with the jumbo shrimp when I hang it in the tank. Im hoping Herbie will show him. I dont know what they were fed at the store, but it probably was shrimp, chopped up or something. He took immediately to the bloodworms and did get a bit greedy. Loves the snails too. I know what you mean, whenever I see tiny puffers at the petstore I get a case of the cuties and have to gape at them and publicly humiliate myself ("Aww, wook at de widdle puffers") cuz I saw a little avocado dwarf puffer and a small GSP (I think? might have been leopard?) and they are so adorable small... and big too... although I admit I like the round puffers rather than some of the saltwater types that are oddly shaped. But the saltwater ones have awesome coloration.

[Srkoe]

I do the same thing at the lfs...lol! I get crazy looks...I think there are a lot of people who do not find puffers as attractive as I do! If they only knew the personalities that come along with them they would understand!

[fugu99]

My husband says that I should draw caricatures of the puffers because they have such cute faces that they would make great paintings and drawings... hes right of course, with those big eyes and grinning mouths I could make some really attractive puffer art which I bet would even sell. I know a lot of ppl probably dont notice puffers or how cute they really are, but when you see those pretty big eyes turned at you and they twitch their little mouth or yawn it is the most precious thing. Especially when I was in the store and that dog-faced puffer was pressing his mouth against the side of the tank, obviously begging, but people dont know what they are doing when they see them, they probably think they are trying to get out of the tank or that they are dumb and cant see the glass. Ive been noticing how really smart they are, how they hunt for one because my substrate is mostly shells of a snail variety and Im always amazed how they can tell which ones are 'food' and which ones are substrate (except when Henry came home and confuseldy picked up a piece of coral and tried to eat it, it was cute to see him roll it in his mouth and then he must have thought, "oh, rock" and then ptoo he spit it out lol). But they never pick up the substrate otherwise, they can always pick out their food from it. Theyre marvelous hunters. Although... there was this one thing that Otto did that made us shake our heads. Obviously he thought he was smaller than he really was because he was constantly trying to swim against the back glass and trying to squeeze himself between the filter tube and the back glass... which he couldnt do... bad depth perception? or just a dumb quirk? He would ram into it all the time and back up like, "Dang it, why cant I fit?" He was a slight doofus. Miss him.

[fugu99]

Okay well, things are progressing pretty good. Henrys ick spots dropped off, so its stage two of ich cycle now. Noticed a spot on Herbie though, so here we go. The other fish are hanging on relatively much better than I thought they would, and the mollies dont seem to care as long as theres plenty of algae to eat. I did see some flashing though, but not too bad. Ugh, the hair algae! I wipe the glass and it just comes back! Looks cool on the log though. My husband promised we'd get out his good camera and take pics, maybe this weekend.

[fugu99]

Going to try to post some images of our tank and new puffer... now that ich is over!


This is Henry the Figure Eighth, my husbands new puffer. Hes very different from Herbie (the last picture) our other Figure 8. Hes black instead of brown and has much wider stripes.

He also shows off a very dark grey belly when hes moody, which Herbie never does. Herbie never changes color at all.





I added a couple pictures of the tank as a whole, and some of the tankmates. The mollies are about the size of a penny right now. Two of them look like that one, the other is a bronze color. The bumblebee gobies didnt seem to want to have their picture taken. I think my substrate is ugly... one of these days Ill go for sand. If you look close you can see my hair algae. Its actually quite pretty, except when its covering the front glass, but I wipe it out and then its fine.

[Srkoe]

Are those neons in there? I tried a Mollie but Gizzard bit his face off. They get along great with my bbg's and knight goby though. Pretty tank!

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

Now thats a great BW tank other then the neons which are pure FW. Now that pic of the F8's has that awesome F8 pattern .

[Pufferpunk]

I agree, neons will be very unhappy in BW. Be sure to do a thorough cleaning of that substrate during your next WC.

[fugu99]

I know about the neons, someone told me I feel bad about it now that I know, but I dont have anywhere to put them at the moment. I havent lost any and they dont seem unhappy, but I know thats just as well because Im probably shortening their lifespan or something keeping them there. Id love to get a tank to aquascape and have them in there by themselves. Ill figure something out, maybe Ill put them in with my platys, only that tank is stocked enough at the moment. Sigh! We really only got them because they were cheap, quick, thought theyd make a great addition, and Id seen lots of pictures of ppl keeping F8s with neons... obviously misinformed like me... Since I dont have room to move them, Id hate to kill them off, so Ive left them. Like I said, Ill figure something out. Maybe I could sell them to someone, but who'd want 'used' neons? lol.

My mollies actually compete for food with the puffers (possibly something Im going to have to watch as they get bigger) but the mollies are only as big as a penny and the puffers ignore them. Except when one or the other is stealing food, heh heh.

Yes, I love that our F8s have the 8 pattern! They are so different but both have beautiful patterns. That pic of Herbie is old, we couldnt get him to come out and get his picture taken this time. Camera shy.

PP, yes I do carefully vacuum my substrate and it turns white again, only to turn greenish brown again within a couple days. Going to start a new WC schedule though and that should help.

[Pufferpunk]

I'd love some used neons, if you're ever in Chgo.