The Puffer Forum

Hello Puff_Daddy here from York, England. I'm currently cycling a 65 litre tank to house a trio of Figure 8's, after being given the green light by my LFS.

Currently shopping around for tank wood, rocks and plants to aquascape a work of art. Pictures coming soon.

Welcome to the forum.

Hi welcome to the forum! = D
Glad to hear you are about to start owning puffers! They are such an awesome fish to own, and I am sure you will have many wonderful years with them.

Have you owned fish for many years or is this your first time?

Lfs as you will learn over your time here, often give bad advice to people and sadly when they gave you the green light. They were giving you bad advice as each f8 needs to get 50 litres each and a 65 litre won't be big enough for 3.

Also do you have a snail tank started? Because f8's need to eat crunchy foods to trim to their teeth or else they will get overgrown teeth. Finally get marine salt to raise the salinity level, and not aquarium salt.

I think you'll enjoy having an F8 -- I find my two fascinating! Your tank is too small for 3 of them to do well, but I think you'll find that even 1 F8 can fill a tank with its personality!

I've never personally owned fish, but I'm living with my girlfriend who owns a 125 litre fresh water tank and is very involved in my set up.

Also google is a handy friend to have, even if it does often give conflicting advice, such as the space required for keeping figure 8's.

After researching, and speaking to a previous owner/expert I'm introducing three and then paying close attention to how they behave with intention to upgrade to a 125 litre or more tank by the time they're fully grown. I'm well read up on their brackish water preference, diet etc, and will be providing them with the best possible environment, the live food aspect is one of the draws to owning the fish and I'll take joy in feeding them a wide range of foods. Snails included, which are in bountiful supply here.

Welcome

Honestly, your tank is the right size for one, not 3, even 3 young ones (if you want long term success). They are very active and intelligent. Even a 125litre is too small for 3. The problems with upgrading is that life happens while you make plans and you may not be able to upgrade in the future. Why not start out with one? When kept as singletons they are much more interactive with their human. If I got another F8 I'd keep it as a singleton.

Keeping 1 figure 8 is lots of fun. They interact with you more, and move around the tank so much that you won't notice the lack of other fish as much as you might think you would. Welcome to the forum!

Reaperpilot2014 wrote:Keeping 1 figure 8 is lots of fun. They interact with you more, and move around the tank so much that you won't notice the lack of other fish as much as you might think you would. Welcome to the forum!

I have noticed that Reaper! My fahaka is getting extremely personable with me. If he is out he comes to the glass and is all like HEY! lol it is awesome having a fish that acts likes a little puppy! all excited to see me and such!

Well spotted flutter. Yes too small i am going to have 1 f8 in a 90l soon. Which will be awesome, dont cram them in it will end in tears

Honestly, now that I think about it. If they are small you could use it as a temp tank until you get a bigger one! That is what I am doing with my fahaka. He is in a 40g breeder styler tank until I can find one in the upper 100's or low 200 gal area. But I know my fahaka has plenty of room. He is like 1/6 of the depth of the tank so he will be fine until I find a bigger tank and get it set up!

I may restrict myself to two, but having just one doesn't appeal much. I've gotten many replies from experienced owners stating that it would be fine. Of course any pet enthusiast is always going to recommend the optimum space, but the reality is that fish can be kept happily in slight varying conditions. The rules don't seem to be set in stone, hence the varied information available, as long as the fish are happy then it'll be fine, if not I'll do something about it.

But still room is a factor as stated above and even though one doesn't appeal to you as much as having two does, but it can't hurt buying one for the time being see how you like having a personable fish and then if you don't get a second one!

Sounds good! Just make sure whoever you talk to has experience with puffers, as LFS never really seem to understand their need very well. Anyway, you probably are already aware of this, so feel free to ignore the following if you are, but Figure 8s are brackish water puffers, and will need to be moved from freshwater at some point. In addition, like any puffer they are VERY messy eaters and put a fairly hefty bioload on the tank, so absolutely cannot be overstocked. They must be introduced to a fully cycled tank as they cannot tolerate even small amounts of ammonia or nitrites. Best of luck and congrats again on your new "water puppies"!

I love fish forums, no matter what tank size you have, it's not big enough lol

I was advised that if i was to keep more than one puffer, then i should introduce both juveniles at the same time as they are more likely to be aggressive to one another if introduced later on.

Puff_Daddy wrote:I was advised that if i was to keep more than one puffer, then i should introduce both juveniles at the same time as they are more likely to be aggressive to one another if introduced later on.

I would agree with that as long as they have enough space to form their territory. At the same time I'd say that it's kind of hit and miss with puffers. Some tolerate tankmates, some will fin nip, but not kill, and others will kill anything you drop in the tank regardless of size. I have puffers that cover all three of those bases. Like you said, you can try it and adjust if there are problems.