The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone.

I have been reading for a couple of weeks but thought I should jump in and say hello.

My name is Sooz and I am just about to get a couple of puffer fish (gulp!!)

A bit about me then, I am self-employed (craft teacher and maker of craft kits) and I love all animals, except feathers, I don't do feathers. I am from Cumbria in the UK which is right on the border of England and Scotland (I am on the English side) and the gateway to the famous Lake District. I am in my 40's with three grown up kids and a not so grown up Hubby.

I got a bargain 60L (sorry don't work in gallons I am afraid) Biorb tank for just £20. So the plan was to move over my Tropical fish - neons, barbs, corys etc... and use the 23L tank for Puffer Fish. I should explain we have a very good LFS (Local Fish Shop) in the area, and a not so good LFS one. The not so good one is all about how nice everything looks but the people that work there seem to talk through holes in their posteriors. The stuff they come out with sometimes is stupidly funny, or rather it would be if real lives weren't involved!! So, I admit, I was stupid when I believed that you could happily keep two small puffer fish in a 23L tank.

I visited the good LFS and they said to leave the tropical where they were and use the 60L tank for puffers. He suggested GSP, but I have been doing loads of reading (a lot on here) and from what I can gather that is not enough room for those fish, and F-8's might be better?



The tank is set up with a brackish water, I need to go and buy something to test the salt level today - hydrometer is it? But what else should I test? I only have the strips that you waggle about in the water then read the colours, are these suitable to get a good test?

My daughter has a couple of goldfish (Lenny and Morris) and a pair of Axoloytls (Patrick and Philip/Penelope(she laid eggs)) so we have a few tanks around the place.

Does anyone have any views? Happy to listen to all sides of all arguments And I thank you for taking the time to read.

I've just realised that I have typed all this in the intro part and perhaps I should have posed it as a question elsewhere, feel free to move it Mods

Hi and welcome. The bi-orb is not suitable for puffers, you need mass filtration to keep the water in check. Please read up in our library about cycling a fish tank. I would suggest purchasing a liquid test kit and starting from scratch on the puffer tank. A gsp will need about 120l min. Read through our library there is tons of info on the puffers you are interested in

Why are your : Tropical fish - neons, barbs, corys etc... in BW?

Jeni, I think she left the tropical fish in the smaller tank and the new one is going to be brackish.

Welcome Sooz! The dip strip test kits are.. ok. I prefer the liquid test kits where you put drops into a test tube of water if you are starting a new tank. When its established and running and you're just checking for nitrates, then the dip strips are really nice and quick. But they aren't very accurate.

I would first look around and see what puffers are actually available to you. Then check what their tank requirements are in the Pufferpedia: http://www.thepufferforum.com/PufferPedia

If the tank has no fish in it, its not "cycled", as in there is no healthy bacteria. In that case, you'll want to read up on how to cycle it.. you do have a few options. One of which is to "seed" it from your freshwater tank as freshwater, get the bacteria established, then slowly raise up the salinity if you end up going brackish (too fast will kill the bacteria). But, lets say you end up going with dwarf puffers, or find some irrubescos, they are freshwater, so you wouldn't need to worry about salt at all then. You'd still need to cycle the tank, but it would go a lot faster and easier staying freshwater and seeding from your existing tank.

Anyways, welcome to the forum, be sure to look under the "learn" tab up top and read some articles about cycling the tank and the different species, and shop around to see what is out there that will fit in your tank. Have fun!

Myaj wrote:Jeni, I think she left the tropical fish in the smaller tank and the new one is going to be brackish

Correct

Thanks for the info guys.

I've put a quick start solution in it & it has lava rocks. My LFS tests water for free so I'll pop a sample up this week & see how it's looking.

Off to have a look at tat link now

Test strips may be okay if individually packaged in airtight envelopes and properly stored, otherwise they need to be routinely (daily) calibrated against more stable tests (liquid-based or electronic). To me that means that they are effectively worthless to most hobbyists. Inaccurate data is far worse than no data.

Quickstart or Safestart? It makes a HUGE difference, as Safestart contains LIVE nitrification bacteria of the correct strain. Other products to NOT. Also, this product MUST be added directly to your filter, immediately before adding fish. Most BW fish sold in stores are kept in FW, so it's best to cycle the tank in FW & slowly move the SG up within a few months to a year. Please poke around our library for TONS of great info!

Bonjour et beinvenue.