Figure Eight Puffer in a 6.6g?

Perfectblue · Post by **Perfectblue** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:09 pm

Hello everyone I'm new to this site and have a question. I have been deciding what to house in my 6.6g tank that I will be setting up and recently saw Figure Eight Puffers at a lfs and thought they were beautiful and looked like they were full of personality. My question is can I keep a single Figure Eight Puffer in a 6.6 gallon tank with the dimensions 24" Long, by 6" Wide/8" at center bow, and 9" High? If the tank is large enough to house a F8 puffer than I will keep a couple pieces of driftwood and some Anacharis and Java Fern as I've read they do well in Brackish water. The filter you see in the pictures will be replaced with a AquaClear 20 or 30.

Here are two pictures of the tank to show you what tank I was thinking of using:

Any help will be appreciated.

Raphael · Post by **Raphael** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:11 pm

Hi. Welcome to the forum. I would recommend something more like 15 gallons for a single F8. BTW the wood will probably rot in brackish water. You may want to try fresh water puffers like dwarf puffers.

Polish · Post by **Polish** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:12 pm

that is to small for a F8 you could start him in there and then upgrade but that is quite small the drift wood and any other decorations would take the amount of water down even further. from what i know 15 gallons is recommended for a F8 if you allready have a heater and what not i whould go out and buy a 15 - 20 gallon tank they arnt that expensive. in that tank you could easily house some Freshwater Dwarf puffers about 2 and some otto cats mabey some shrimp. if you want puffers thats the best bet.

lisalisa · Post by **lisalisa** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:36 pm

I agree, dwarfs would be good here.

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:58 pm

Agreed. Also, anacharis won't make it in BW.

Polish · Post by **Polish** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:11 pm

rapheal you said that the drift wood would probably rot in brackish? i have two peices of mopani wood in my tank and its soon to be brackish do you think this is fine? iv never heard of this

Post by **RTR** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:13 pm

Wood rots faster in BW IME, regular driftwood faster than mopani, but both faster than in FW.

Polish · Post by **Polish** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:28 pm

ahhh how long do you think it will be fine in the tank probably years right? but il let the expert answer that

ChesapeakeSwellfish · Post by **ChesapeakeSwellfish** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:34 pm

Its a gradual process, during which the wood will leach tannins, discolor your water, and possibly lower your pH.

crazyforpuffs · Post by **crazyforpuffs** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 8:21 pm

I would say that it would only be a matter of months before your water was noticeably browner - from the driftwood...

This I know from experience...2 pieces in driftwood in a 75 gallon BW tank - it took not more than a few months for the wood to noticeably foul up the water.

I forgot to address the important issue - while the dimensions of the tank are cool - and long enough...it falls a bit short on width and height to provide enough water volume for you to be able to maintain ideal water parametres.

A minimum tank size of 15 gallons is recommended (24x12x12) for a single f-8.

Dwarfs would certainly be cool in that tank though.

Perfectblue · Post by **Perfectblue** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:25 pm

Thanks for replying everyone. Figure Eight Puffers are out of the question for this size tank, since I want to provide the best home that I can for my fish and if they need a 15g then I will get a 15g for them. I was actually thinking of Dwarf Puffers for this tank, but how many do you think I could house in this size tank? The Dwarf puffers the lfs has are small maybe less than a 1/2", so would I be able to tell males from females?

lisalisa · Post by **lisalisa** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:00 pm

Maybe at that size. If you can, try for 2 females.

LittlePuff · Post by **LittlePuff** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:46 pm

If it's a them, you'll need a 30gal for the Fig 8's.

Kim

ChesapeakeSwellfish · Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:12 pm

The 30 would be ok for water volume for 2 F8s, but the aggression would be unknown. I keep 1 in a 30 with some shrimp. Based upon what I saw this dominant individual do to much larger GSPs and F8s at the LFS, I will not add another fish to his tank.

These guys interact with you so much, there's no need to keep more than 1/tank.

Polish · Post by **Polish** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:19 pm

you could fit about 2-3 puffers in there 2-3 per gallon you could also get some Otto cats to clean the algae. they grow to about 1 ince you can tell the males from the females only when they are mature the male with have wrinkles behind his eyes and a strip going down his belly the female has neither of these.

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Figure Eight Puffer in a 6.6g?

Figure Eight Puffer in a 6.6g?