The Puffer Forum

I have seen some online statements people said they have turned their brackish water puffers into freshwater i guess they kept them in freshwater all it's life. Is this by any means possible and if so is it healthy? I assume it's possible but it won't be healthy in the sense that freshwater fish exposed to salt water they will die and vice versa. If possible and healthy how do i do this?

If you wish to shorten it's life, then by all means... Most BW puffers can easily live into their upper teens, in BW.

+1 to PP"s comments!

thanks just wanted to confirm as some people said you can but i didn't believe it was possible

It will not kill the fish quickly, it is just not the best technique for keeping them healthy. We should try for the best care we can arrange IMHO. If I can't do it right, I won't do it at all.

It's like I've said before...Don't put your wants over the fishes needs. Is it fishes or fish's?

Are you asking because mixing water for water changes is a pain? If so many people use a trash can, cheap pond pump and heater to do this. A mixing vessel not only makes it much easier but the properly aged new water is more stable and better for the fish. What kind of puffer and what size tank is he in?

fish's

Trash cans used as aging or mixing vessels should be labeled as "food safe". Some plastic, and some colors are high risk and should not be used.

JRC3 wrote:It's like I've said before...Don't put your wants over the fishes needs. Is it fishes or fish's?

Pufferpunk wrote:fish's

It's fish Used as both singular and plural for a single species. The sentence just needs constructing slightly differently... 'Don't put your wants over the needs of the fish'

RTR wrote:Trash cans used as aging or mixing vessels should be labeled as "food safe". Some plastic, and some colors are high risk and should not be used.

+1, always use a 'food grade' container

Worth adding also, anything not considered 'food grade' will be made from the wrong type of plastic. I learnt this the hard way after buying a kitchen bin to use, after 3 weeks, in the middle of the night, we were woken by a loud SPLOOSH noise - the container had split and dumped 30 gallons of brackish water all over our upstairs kitchen floor, dripping through the light fittings downstairs, ruined the ceiling, cost a fortune to fix. For the extra cost of a proper 'food grade' container, you won't have any nasty surprises

It's fish Used as both singular and plural for a single species. The sentence just needs constructing slightly differently... 'Don't put your wants over the needs of the fish'

This was used as a possessive noun. Hence, the apostrophe s.

I have a 33g Brute garbage can for my SW mixing.

I have no idea what you're talking about, I scraped a grade C at O'level English, so I'll stop trying to be clever

Very similar bin to what we now use

I use the Big Brutes too. I was just wonder if mixing BW was the reason for asking the original question. I figure I'd wait to recommend items to use after the answer.

But on the cheap I use the Big Brute, a $12(on sale) Harbor Freight pond pump and a heater. I have several Python hoses I use too. All in all a good mixing setup could run as low as about $65. Well worth it for the convienence alone. I even do it for my FW. Temp is always right where it should be and no annoying bubbles on everything after a water change. I figure it lets the PH settle as well. Though I don't have a huge difference between my tap and FW tanks.

It's not because im lazy to mix the water I was just wondering as if it was safe i would try to turn my tank into FW but seeing as how people are saying it is not safe then i won't be selfish and put my wants over the fish needs. It's mainly a cost issue more like it. everything in my state is HIGHLY too expensive due to shipping ( i live in Hawaii ) but if i buy salt in bulk shipping is free or at least should be or with minimum shipping costs.

I can't mix my water in a garbage can at least i don't think i can. I keep my tank in my bedroom i Usually just mix the salt into the water after treating it and pour it in. But it is a bit back breaking but nothing i cannot handle. I use a regular 5gal bucket

I used a 5 gallon bucket for 3 years, filling it to about 10 litres, carrying it, lifting it, standing on a chair to tip it in. There's no rush to have everything immediately, especially as you say with the cost of it all. It's much the same here in the UK, and we're all feeling the pinch of the financial crisis.

Same with decor, it's personal taste, but the bare bones will suffice so long as you are doing your best to keep the water parameters as stable as your abilities allow. None of us are perfect, your tank and set-up will evolve over time, as and when you can afford an extra bit of kit - keep an eye on local second hand sales for a 1000 litres per hour pump, stick a bit of tubing on it and no more back breaking lifting, just pump it from the bucket to the tank - then later you may add a bigger bucket and keep using the same pump.

Just go at your own pace and keep enjoying it

I've done something similar.

I set up a 15g BW tank in my bedroom to see if I'd like it up there. I would simply fill a 5g bucket with my premixed water from the mix vessel and take it upstairs. I still used a small pond pump to move the water from the bucket to may tank. While it's transfering the water from the bucket to the tank I would go downstairs and fill another bucket to dump into the first bucket as it emptied.

What I am getting at is if you have or can find a cheap pond pump you could premix your water like you are doing it now, but it would maybe make it a little easier to use a pump to transfer thewater. This is also less disruptive to decor and fish.

I also make a cheap filler and draining spouts out of cheap 1/2" pvc to hang over the tank rim. http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk16 ... filler.jpg


Hope it helps.