The Puffer Forum

I would like to introduce you all to Penelope and Phillip. They were my birthday present.


Penelope is on the bottom left and Phillip is on the top right.


We added in a medium and large sea cave for them which they enjoy swimming in and out of.

I bought them from a good pet store that is a local chain in my state. The store is always clean and well stocked and has a large and friendly staff. The figure eights had their own brackish tank at the store which was good to see.

The puffers have both settled in nicely, only pacing when they get hungry now. They get along well and only chase each other a bit at feeding time. I think the fish like how the aquarium is set up. They certainly seem happy and healthy and enjoy swimming through and around the decorations.

And isn't it funny how you can't have just one aquarium? The puffers have their 36 gallon one, their ramshorn snails have a 10 gallon one and I'm planning on setting up another for shrimp next month. Eventually I would like to have a freshwater and a marine aquarium or two as well. No, you can't have just one aquarium!

I am very glad I found this forum because I have learned so much here. Reading through a lot of the threads has answered almost every question I have had. So thank you everyone.

Super cute !

Oh wow very nice. I'm slighlty jelous

Thanks guys. : ) Our whole family loves them and everyone who visits admires them. They have such charm and personality.

I am feeling a little nervous right now though. The hurricane is heading our way and we are expecting to lose power for a few days or even a week or more. I'm going to do a -larger than usual- partial tank change before it hits and keep a close eye on the water parameters once the power goes. I think all generators are sold out at this point so my husband and I will be taking turns at manually keeping the water oxygenated and circulated. It will be a round the clock job but we will manage. I'm a stay at home mom right now so I certainly have the time to take care of the fish 24/7 until the power comes back.

Get a pitcher & raise it very high, to splash the water back in. I had to do this all night for 8 tanks & still lost 1 fish & 1 shrimp.

Can you buy a battery backup?

Yep we are going to do the pitcher technique. Not the best option but it will have to do for now. I told my husband to get a battery and/or UPS thing if he can on his way home today.

yeah, i was going to say get a battery and a few air pumps to circulate the water

Oh no! That hurricane is bad news for a lot of people! Hope your little puffers make it!

Note you can use your car as a generator! There are power inverters that you can plug into your car either thru the cigerette lighter plug or directly to the battery. The one I have is a Cobra 400 watt 12v DC to 120v AC power inverter. Just get a long extension cord to plug into the inverter and run the extension cord to power strip to run the aquarium. The units run from $30 to $180 and the one I have I got at a truck stop for $39.95.

Trinity wrote:

And isn't it funny how you can't have just one aquarium?

For every tank I get a puffer for I have another tank cycling "just in case"...I used to think this was abnormal until I came here...I'm currently cycling a marine, a brackish and a FW tank..

sgtmyers88 wrote:Oh no! That hurricane is bad news for a lot of people! Hope your little puffers make it!

Note you can use your car as a generator! There are power inverters that you can plug into your car either thru the cigerette lighter plug or directly to the battery. The one I have is a Cobra 400 watt 12v DC to 120v AC power inverter. Just get a long extension cord to plug into the inverter and run the extension cord to power strip to run the
aquarium. The units run from $30 to $180 and the one I have I got at a truck stop for $39.95.

Looks like it's going to miss us...

Master of Puffers wrote:

sgtmyers88 wrote:Oh no! That hurricane is bad news for a lot of people! Hope your little puffers make it!

Note you can use your car as a generator! There are power inverters that you can plug into your car either thru the cigerette lighter plug or directly to the battery. The one I have is a Cobra 400 watt 12v DC to 120v AC power inverter. Just get a long extension cord to plug into the inverter and run the extension cord to power strip to run the
aquarium. The units run from $30 to $180 and the one I have I got at a truck stop for $39.95.

Looks like it's going to miss us...

My husband actually ended up getting a power inverter. We didn't need it though because the power never went out. Right now 30% of our town is without power, so we were lucky. It is a mess out there today with a lot of downed trees and wires. We didn't have any flooding at our home either, but we are about 6 miles inland in CT. I hope everyone else here was not too affected by Sandy.

Thank you again guys. The fish are doing well and are going to have their snails for the day pretty soon. : )

Thats awesome! Glad all is well!

you have 2 little cuties there.nice setup too.