The Puffer Forum

hi, my name is stephen and i am new to this forum. i currently have a tank that is being converted to brackish, and hopefully one day(when i get enough money) to a full marine. my tank size is 61Lx24dx21w, and in it i have 2 Green-spotted puffers, 1 figure 8, 1 ropefish, 2 Fan Dancer gobies, 1 pleco, 4 neons, and 75-100 ghost shrimp. i would like to add some plants to it but with brackish water there are not a whole lot of them i can get. i was wondering what salinity/SG i need to have it at to accommodate all the species in my tank(except the plec and neons, they are going back to my 10gal fw) and if i can get the salinity/SG up high enough so that i might be able to add a couple sw fish that require low SG. also, my 2 GSPs wre not able to eat snails all the time due to lack of being able to find them at pet stores, and i am worried about their teeth getting too big. they have been on a diet of ghost shrimp, freeze dried shrimp, and frozen bloodworms. do you think that any of these foods would have been sufficient for the grinding requirements the teeth need? let me know if you have any suggestions. thanks oh yeah, i almost forgot that i have also ordered 1 archer fish and 1 mono argentinus that will be going into the tank next wed.

I'm no mathetician, what's that in gallons?

The conversion from cubic inches to gals is to divide by 231. So if they are inside dimensions: (61x24x21)/231=133, probably called a 130.

The f8 will not need to go beyond ~1.005, while the GSPs will eventually require full or nearly full strength seawater. I wouldn't keep the two together regardless of tank size.

http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/areajava.html

Your ropefish will not be able to handle salt. I suggest not getting the mono, as they are sahooling fish & grow quite large. You'd need at least a 300g tank for a school of them. The only plants you could try might be java fern or java moss. Neither will survive much over 1.005.

If you have a common pleco, they grow to ~18" & will outgrow a 10g quickly.

the ropefish was supposed to be brackish. i9'm not sure though i found the info on some random site. i think i am going to take the pleco back to the lfs. i just got it because i was having some algae problems in my 10 gal(i had it in front of the window so it was getting light almost all day). it is too messy for my big tank. i am changing from rocks to sand and it is pretty bad looking at the moment. waiting for the mess to settle on the bottom so i can clean it. i guess I'll have to obtain another tank(darn ) to put the rope fish in. thanks for the responses so far

Every RF I've ever had, has gotten out of a small hole in my hood.

ik don't even have a hood on mine. when i bought the tank(for $125) it didnt come with the hood or stand. it did come with the filters and heater and some pumps that were left over from it being a sw tank before. i think that my f8 is not really a f8 after all. i was looking at it a minute ago and i am pretty sure that it is a ceylen. it dosnt really have the 8 on back of it, it is more just a bunch of black lines. it also has three spots around its rear dorsal fin.

If you can post a pic(s) of your F8/ceylon we could ID it for you.

The F8 doesn't necessarily have to have an 8 on the back. You can ID it by the eye spots near it's tail. The Ceylon will have spotts along it's sides & tummy.

By definition, F-8s always have ocellated eyespots (ringed), two on each side of the fish - one on the caudal peduncle just in front of the caudal fin (tail), the other just under the dorsal fin. This is where the species name "biocellatus" (literally "two eyespoted") came from. If it has those, it is F-8, neither GSP nor Ceylon has those paricular markings.

Only some F-8s have the figure-8 on the their back - the lines there are highly variable and individual (which makes them really easy to tell apart in a group of conspecifics).

well, the puffer in question is a f8 due to the fact that it has the spots you speak of in those places. thanks for the id guys.