The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone,

New to the forum and need some advice.

I have been keeping tropical fish for some years (community tank mainly) and recently went travelling and had to sell all my gear. I now want to get back into but have less space and would like to try keeping figure of 8 puffers. I understand the specific dietary requirements and need for gradual increase salinity but what I am really on struggling to understand is the size of tank I should get. I am thinking that I could keep a pair in a 100 litre tank with no other fish. Would anyone care to offer an opinion on this as a set up size?

Any help would be gratefully recieved.

Thanks

Mickey

Hi and welcome to the forum. You posted this 3 times so I deleted the other 2 for you. 15usg or 60l for each f8. Your tanks gross capacity is 100l so you are looking at a net capacity of approx 80l once you factor in displacement. You could keep 1 f8 and a pair of bumblebee gobies in there, bbg's are great at eating puffer scraps. Ideally for 2 f8s you would need 120 l useable volume or 30g approx, a 50g would allow for 2 f8s and some bbg's. Once again welcome fellow Englander

Thanks Bertie, that is very helpful.

I would really like a pair but I am struggling to find anything but 125l tanks at the moment. I don't really have space for much bigger but the tanks sizes seem to jump to 180 after that which is too big for my space.

Guess i will just have to stick to the one at 125 litres and give him a massive home to play around in. How many bumblee gobies do you think I could add to 125 with one figure of 8?

Are there any other brackish/freshwater options I could consider. I have looked at Dwarfs but I think they are a little too small. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jacks2High wrote: Guess i will just have to stick to the one at 125 litres and give him a massive home to play around in. How many bumblee gobies do you think I could add to 125 with one figure of 8?

I kept my F8 in a 29g (110L) with 9 BBGs for a long time. What are the dimensions of a 125 liter tank?

Hi JRC3 thanks for your comments.

Dims of the one I was looking at are 80cm (l) x 40 cm (d) x 50 cm (h). What do you think?

I have been a little confused by whether height in the tank is more important that length as some say they swim up and down alot whilst elsewhere I have read they like to swim laterally and prefer the space that way. Apologies for lack of knowledge but it is hard to tell in the LFS when they are pretty stationary and unstimulated.

Thoughts?

125l is really close to our 29g. The 125l is just a couple inches bigger and would be a great size tank for an F8. The good thing about that size tank is they are plenty big enough, but not too big when space is limited. If I were you I'd go with a single F8 and about 5-6 BBGs. I would do 5-6 because you don't know how tolerant the F8 is going to be. I got lucky, my F8 was an adult when I got him and he was very docile even at feeding time.

Compared in inches.
(29g) 30 x 12 x 18
(125l) 31.5 x 15.5 x 19.5


I'll PM a few vids of the old 29g setup with the F8 and BBGs in action.

80x40x50 is 160l gross, 41usg gross. So a net of 35 for a lightly decorated tank, more realistically 30 for a heavily decorated puffer home. That should suit a pair. A larger footprint would be preferred though.

I heard 120l and thought 33g...I didn't actually calculate the volume from the given dimensions to get 41g. I still would keep it to a single F8 and up the BBG count.

When I first had a brackish tank, it was in a 48x 24(h) x 15(w). However due to the glass construction of the tank, we could only fill to 18 inches. So I had 2 F8, several BBG, a couple of archer fish. And over time scats, topaz puffer, knight gobies and a mud-skipper. eta..and monos..how could I forget monos....

JRC3 wrote:I heard 120l and thought 33g...I didn't actually calculate the volume from the given dimensions to get 41g. I still would keep it to a single F8 and up the BBG count.

There's a difference between imperial(Uk)gallons and US gallons. I've been in Canada for 12 yrs and still get confused...

thanks for everyones comments, really apprieciate them. I think will definitely get the 125 with 1 x f8 + maybe 3 gobbies and see how he the f8 tolerates them if he is chilled out I will maybe add a few more later down the line. Seems like the most sensible way to role.

Yep there is a MASSIVE difference between imperial gallons and imperial Gallons, I don't even pretend to understand it! Metric makes alot more sense to me!!

Thanks again everyone, great to have such good support.

Mickey

We get an extra 1/2 litre per gallon over here lol. I always work in usg, most of the members here work by 4l= 1usg

Be sure to cycle the tank 1st!
viewtopic.php?f=67&t=28467

Pufferpunk wrote:Be sure to cycle the tank 1st!
viewtopic.php?f=67&t=28467

This x 10. Also, how do yo plan to mix your brackish water?

JRC3 wrote:

Pufferpunk wrote:Be sure to cycle the tank 1st!
viewtopic.php?f=67&t=28467

This x 10. Also, how do yo plan to mix your brackish water?

ahhhaaa you have pre-empted my next question. From what I have read, the process of adding salt to the water is a very gradual thing. However I am unsure as to how do about this. As I said above i have lots of tropical freshwater experience but have never added salt. I have read that Marine salt would be the way to go rather than tropical aquarium salt, although part of me thinks this might be a good way to start building up the salinity then go to marine later down the line.

If anyone has any ideas of a good way to go about this I would be really glad to hear them. Oh I ended up buying a 125l tank in the end. Which is currerntly being cycled - I think I will add 2 or three gobies first to start with although this does pose the question of adding salt now but I can always find out the salinity (if any) that they are kept in the LFS.

Ideas on a postcard please!!

Many thanks in advance