Dwarf Puffer sitting on gravel
Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:24 pm
Last week I bought 6 pufferfish. I didn't add the puffers until after 4 days of just leaving the tank on with the filter running. I have a new 100L tank for them. Inside the tank there is: 3 live plants, 3 plastic plants (which will be removed once the live plants are established and have grown), 2 pieces of driftwood, a floating rock, stones and gravel. I have ordered a granite cave for them as well and will add that once it arrives.
I have one DP that likes to hide under one piece of driftwood all the time and another DP that, for the past two days, has taken to just 'sitting' on the bottom of the tank and they are trying to hide face down in the gravel.
I did a water test (a kit for freshwater that tested nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, PH, high PH) a couple of days ago and everything is within acceptable measures (I didn't write it down but checked the results against the caresheet). The temperature is sitting at around 25/26 - my thermometer is at the furthest end of the tank so closer to the heater it might be warmer. I leave their light on for 7-8 hours a day.
The other 4 DPs seem to be doing absolutely fine though there is one DP who is much more active and eats a lot better than the others. I am feeding them frozen bloodworms and have tried them with mysis shrimps twice (they weren't fans) and I feed them by thawing 1/3 a cube in water and then I use a plastic syringe to distribute the bloodworms. After about 5-10 minutes I use tweezers to remove uneaten food to try and keep the tank clean.
Am I doing the right thing? I don't want to lose any of the puffers. I am quite worried about these two that hide as I don't see them eat a lot. The big DP eats very well by sucking up the bloodworms and then spitting out the see through 'casing' and the others just nibble. Where I live, I can't get live bloodworms but I am waiting to get some snails for them to munch on.
edit: I feed the puffers once a day. I didn't cycle the water. There are only 6 DPs in the tank.
From memory my numbers for the tests were: PH 7.6, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0.25
I have one DP that likes to hide under one piece of driftwood all the time and another DP that, for the past two days, has taken to just 'sitting' on the bottom of the tank and they are trying to hide face down in the gravel.
I did a water test (a kit for freshwater that tested nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, PH, high PH) a couple of days ago and everything is within acceptable measures (I didn't write it down but checked the results against the caresheet). The temperature is sitting at around 25/26 - my thermometer is at the furthest end of the tank so closer to the heater it might be warmer. I leave their light on for 7-8 hours a day.
The other 4 DPs seem to be doing absolutely fine though there is one DP who is much more active and eats a lot better than the others. I am feeding them frozen bloodworms and have tried them with mysis shrimps twice (they weren't fans) and I feed them by thawing 1/3 a cube in water and then I use a plastic syringe to distribute the bloodworms. After about 5-10 minutes I use tweezers to remove uneaten food to try and keep the tank clean.
Am I doing the right thing? I don't want to lose any of the puffers. I am quite worried about these two that hide as I don't see them eat a lot. The big DP eats very well by sucking up the bloodworms and then spitting out the see through 'casing' and the others just nibble. Where I live, I can't get live bloodworms but I am waiting to get some snails for them to munch on.
edit: I feed the puffers once a day. I didn't cycle the water. There are only 6 DPs in the tank.
From memory my numbers for the tests were: PH 7.6, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0.25
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