The Puffer Forum

Hi, I recently set up a brackish 10g tank and added a figure8 puffer that's about 1".
The SG is at 1.006 and temp is at 78F. My tap water ph is at 7.2. Is this ok for him? If I just add some sea shell or crushed coral be enough to raise it a bit? I have a few plants in there witch he seems to love eating. I feed him 2 times a day with frozen blood worms. I thaw them out in some vitachem for added nutrition.
Any advise will much appreciated!!

I also used play sand as substrate. I have this in my other aquarium and. Ever had any issues.

The ph will be ok but he really needs a bigger tank

everything seems to be fine, except the tank size.

Is the puffer showing signs of stress? or unusual activity?

As soon as I go close to the tank, he swims up and waits for me to feed him. He's swimming around exploring his ne tank.

How was his tank cycled?
viewtopic.php?f=68&t=28692

Pufferpunk wrote:
How was his tank cycled?
viewtopic.php?f=68&t=28692

It was already cycled and made the mistake of adding the salt and bringing up the sg up to 1.006 3hrs before i added the puffer.
I checked the water today params and got:
Ammo .25
Nitrite 0-.25
Nitrate 5.0
I did a partial water change today and maybe do another one tomorrow. The puffer has good apetite and is very active. Follows me like a dog.

I would slowly drop the SG down around .002 with some small fresh water changes and see if the FW bacteria is still there.

Wont the bacteria come back since the params are showing ammo and nitrites? This means the cycle is in progress.
Will do another water change tomorrow but wont add salt. Won't this be more stressful to the puffer to bring the sg back down and then back up?

The cycle will be stressful for you puffer either way because puffers are extremely sensitive to all of these things.

What I would recommend doing is daily water changes of 50% and look into a bigger tank on craigslist. You need at least 15 gallons (more is always better), and the tank needs to be the long kind. It can't be tall or square.

Daily water changes with salt?

You bacteria can't establish with the salt. Slowly drop it back down to 1.002. You should not be raising the salinity by more than .002 per week.

If you have any other established aquariums use some of the filter media, or decor to re-introduce some good bacteria once you have the salinity back down to 1.002.

IMO taking the SG back a bit will be much less stressful than ammonia and nitrite. And definitely as the fish grows he will need a larger tank and CL is a great place to do so for cheap..

How exactly was the tank cycled? Raising the SG .003, shouldn't kill off the bacteria.

Pufferpunk wrote:...Raising the SG .003, shouldn't kill off the bacteria.

But he/she went up to .006 all at once right before adding the puff. Do you think bringing the SG back down will save the bacteria or did it already die off? I think I'd try it.