The Puffer Forum

In a previous thread it was recommended to keep a pair of figure 8's in a 90 gallon.
Is a 4' tank big enough for a pair of carinotetraodon lorteti, or is more space required?

I have two tanks right now with a pair, and a pair plus a smaller juvenile.

One is a Red Sea Max 2' cube, and is planted but still has some open space. The male and female spend their time hiding in different areas and not interacting much. (They are not as large and colored up as the other puffers so maybe they will get much more aggressive with time.)

The other tank is a 30 breeder, 30" tank with roots and plants throughout. The male is active, the largest female always hides from him as he really attacks her when he finds her, and there is a smaller juvenile that isn't yet sexable which the male is not as aggressive towards. Possibly because they have been in the tank since the beginning, or because it isn't yet visibly a male or a female. The large female he bullies was removed from the other tank mentioned because it was getting attacked and had nowhere to escape to.

The 30" tank is definitely not enough space for this particular female to avoid this particular male. Would a 40, 55 or 75 be enough extra space for this to be possible, or is even more space required, something like a 72" 120?

IDK where you saw a pair of F8s need a 90g. It's 15g for the 1st one & 10g more, for each added F8.

A lorteti pair should be fine in a heavily planted 20g. See all puffer profiles, in our Pufferpedia.

Of course, as always, the larger the better!

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34072
"I do not operate any 90s, but when I have set for multiple F-8s in a tank I have used a120 or a 180. I have never set a 75 with more than 3 F-8s. I honestly doubt that the tank (or a 90) could handle more. "
This was written by RTR, he does then say that his opinion is to give them more room than is considered neccessary by most.
I had borneensis and irrubesco in small tanks with no problem, and of course there are so many books and experts (probably all of them) who recommend 20-30 gallon tanks for lorteti while still warning of their aggression.
I wonder what the actual amount of space for a male to have a territory and a female to be able to avoid him completely is.
I saw a Japanese account of Borneensis in the wild and it said their territories were 3 meters!

That's odd... Pretty sure RTR keeps singletons in a 15g.

Lol 90g is a bit excessive! At least to me... Wish I could see all these puffs everyone else seems to find! I only see dps, gsps, f8s, and the occasional fahaka :/

The lorteti are from Wetspot, they're still listed on their website right now.

http://www.wetspottropicalfish.com/

Hairy Puffer Tetraodon baileyi 2-2.5" $70.00 1 ONLY
Pea Puffer Carinotetraodon travancoricus .5" $5.00 6 for $24.00
Red Eye Puffer Carinotetraodon lorteti 1" $8.00
South American Puffer Colomesus asellus 1.5" $20.00
Sumatran Red Eye Puffer Carinotetraodon irrubesco 1.5" $10.00

pikehead wrote: "I do not operate any 90s, but when I have set for multiple F-8s in a tank I have used a120 or a 180. I have never set a 75 with more than 3 F-8s. I honestly doubt that the tank (or a 90) could handle more."

This makes a lot more sense if you treat the numbers are LITRES rather than GALLONS.

90 litres is about 23 US gallons. 90, 120 and 180 litre tanks are standard UK and European sizes (and probably standard metric sizes elsewhere, too).

As science teachers always have to point out to students: units matter!

90 gallons for a single Figure-8 puffer sounds insanely generous!

Cheers, Neale

Yes, except RTR lives in the US--he'd never use liters.

Pufferpunk wrote:Yes, except RTR lives in the US--he'd never use liters.

Perhaps. My point was merely those numbers made sense in litres, and so (without the units being given -- which is EXTREMELY bad writing, RTR's or anyone else's) there's ambiguity. Ideally, RTR should fix that article if it's an important source of data.

I write for websites and magazines both side of the pond, and always make sure to give the units (often both). While most of the planet assumes you're talking about litres when discussing aquarium sizes, one of the former British colonies insists on using the mother country's antique system of measurements instead!

Cheers, Neale

RTR is basic basically blind now. He doesn't come here anymore...

Nice to see nmonks on the forum, read your stuff everywhere. Units are important, over here buying tanks is very different to most other countries. Luckily I have an idea of each measurement, many don't unfortunately.

Neale is one of our Mentors! I PMed all of them linking to with this post, because I found it so interesting & wanted to include our puffer-scientists on this.

Wasn't a name I see often here, every fish google brings up his name somewhere tho lol. Good to see so many pros have links to the best forum on the web!