The Puffer Forum

My puffer tank is 100x40x50cm with external filter and 6x39w T5 light and CO2 system.
T 25C
Gh6
Kh4
pH6.9-6.6
No2 0mg/l
No3 5-10 mg/l
Po4 0.2-1 mg/l
Fe 0.2-0.5 mg/l

Heavily planted.vith the following species:
Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini'
Eleocharis parvula
Hemianthus callitrichoides Cuba
Blyxa japonica
Staurogyne repens
Aponogeton crispus Red
Proserpinaca palustris Cuba
Pogostemon helferi
Rotala wallichii Tropica
Rotale indaca (Ammania sp bonsai)
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Ludwigia glandulosa
Ludwigia repens
Eriocaulon setaceum
Tonina fluviatilis
Syngonanthus sp. 'Belem'
Microsorum pteropus 'Narrow'
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Myriophyllum tuberculatum

The fish I have are:
5 Carinotetraodon irrubesco (2 males e 3 females, my pride and joy!!!)
12 Danio Margaritatus
12 Microdevario kubotai
16 Pseudomugil gertrudae
10 Otocinclus vittasus (?)
So far the C.irrubesco have been very peaceful with the other guests and among each other. Just some minor fight when it's time to get the food. But nothing to serious. The males have territories well apart and tolerate the females completely.

Beautiful tank! i like the plants distribution (but left side looks a little empty ñ_ñ) and those puffers seems to be just ok with their partners, certainly is the C. lorteti the one who is quite agressive at them selves and in some cases to other species.

Now you make me want a Red Eye red Tail puffers!

What an amazing planted tank! I simply don't have the plant knowledge or skills to do a tank like that myself, but I admire yours very much.

Gorgeous irrubescos! I've never seen those for sale around here, and I love them.

Nice looking tank. Unfortunately overstocked, you have more than 1 fish per gallon of water there, that is far too little space

Bertie 83: One fish per gallon? It's quite ridiculous. One measure for every fish?

RVS: yes the left side is a bit empty. I had some problems with B. japonica and P. palustris. They stopped growing due to incorrect NO3 and PO4 concentrations. Now the problem seems solved and they are growing back, slowly.

I was saying for every gallon of water in your tank there is more than 1 fish. It's a 50g tank with 50 fish and an additional 5 puffers ontop

filofilo wrote:RVS: yes the left side is a bit empty. I had some problems with B. japonica and P. palustris. They stopped growing due to incorrect NO3 and PO4 concentrations. Now the problem seems solved and they are growing back, slowly.

Ou! i never tried those plants before, but its good to know that they are recovering space...
About population those fish are quite small, Danio Margaritatus & Microdevario kubotai does not even get more than 2cm, P. gertrudae & O. vittatus never reach more than 4cm...

i´ve never used more than 6 otos per every 50gal and no more than 10 fish for each species school in community tanks, but thats only my experience on FW.

Errase this please

Cool aquascaping. How long have you had all 5 together + the other fishes?

Thats an awesome planted tank and love the red-tails

bertie 83 wrote:I was saying for every gallon of water in your tank there is more than 1 fish. It's a 50g tank with 50 fish and an additional 5 puffers ontop

thanks, was wondering what it was in terms of gallons... anyway, love the plants! especially the baby tears in the front. id love to get my freshwater tanks covered in a short plant like that. what plants are in the second picture? the mostly red leaved ones...

Thanks to everyone.
RSV: yes most of the fish are very small and will stay like that. The biological load of this tank is insufficient to sustain plant growth. I have to ADD NO3 and PO4 at each water change to keep them at measurable levels. Without integration they go to 0 in one week, and plant suffer.
Terrance: They have been living all together for about 3 months.
Hadla: the plant you are referring to it should be the Ludwigia repens. It's the "rubin" variety sold by Tropica. It only gets red under strong illumination (mine is about 1.3W/l) and good fertilization.

There's no doubt you know your stuff about plants, something I suck at lol

Yep, I could not keep up with a planted tank either. I mean, I can keep live corals healthy, happy and growin better then I could keep a planted tank the same...lol I do not have a green thumb for a well planted tank.