The Puffer Forum

Well, I started a post awhile ago about a new F8 that I had bought for a fish tank in my office. To make things short, well, he didn't make it. On the Monday following the second weekend after I had got him, his tank had somehow gotten overloaded with ammonia. I think something was wrong with the filter, plus not having the right size tank probably had something to do with it. Yes, before you ask, I had been doing 50% water change-outs.

I know that lack of information is no excuse, but the fish store didn't tell me everything I needed to know about keeping these guys...as I'm sure they don't tell anyone anything, unless they ask specific questions. It's sad really, they just want to make a sale.

Anyways, after this incident, my wife "convinced" (more like forced) the fish store to replace the dead puffer for free because they did a horrible job of informing us of how to properly take care of it. So, they replaced it for free; however, I had setup a new tank in between all this. The new tank is 40 gallons and is using a Whisper filter rated for 30 to 60 gallon tanks (it'll do a little over 9 full water cycles per hour). I measured the pH, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrate before and 24 hours after I added the new fish, and all is well. I've also started the process of getting his salinity to 1.005ish since the fish store keeps them in freshwater.

It's only been a day, but I already notice that this one is acting different than the last one. I have a dozen guppies in the tank, and he loves chasing them. . He likes to swim all over the place and explore, of course, changing to a 40 gallon tank from the tiny 15 gallon or so from the fish store is quite a shock I bet. he's also still quite vibrant yellow, and his belly is still white.

Also, I was a bit more picky when I picked out the puffer at the fish store. I had them get the one that I could tell had recently eaten (man was he a fatty). He was also the biggest puffer in the tank...not to mention that I saw him eating food that was in the tank as well, so I know he'll eat.

This time, if anything happens, it will be completely my fault, but that's not gonna happen.

A new tank is not cycled. Meaning it does not have the bacteria necessary to process the ammonia created by the fish. It takes time for this bacteria to establish itself. In the meantime, ammonia will build up to toxic levels.

Too cycle a tank with fish in it, you really have to do a lot of water changes. 50 to 75% twice a day to keep the ammonia diluted. Also using Seachem Prime to help detoxify the ammonia.

The solution is to either fishless cycle the tank with store bought ammonia and some seed bacteria from an existing tank, or to use Marineland Bio-spira to instant cycle the tank.

The same thing will happen to this puffer if you can't get some bio-spira, or keep up with frequent massive water changes.

It's a good idea to take those guppies out too, as they are just adding to the bio-load of an uncycled tank. Can you get Bio-Spira?

I should have mentioned, the tank has already been bio-spira'd.

Ahhh good news!
Keep an eye on readings, just in case. I would still remove the guppies.

Awesome! bio-spira to the rescue :p

Still keep an eye on parameters incase something went/goes wrong.

I might remove some of the guppies, but they are in there so he can eat them too. A dozen is probably too many at the moment. I'll drop it down to 6 maybe.

I will definitely keep a hawk's eye on the pH, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels though.

cool! good to hear! too bad the last one didnt make it though...

i bet he will love a 40g all to himself, I wish i could do that for my F8, he is in a tiny 10g tank right now, and im trying to uprgade.

If this puffer does well, which I think he will, I will be adding 2 more to the tank (will be removing the guppies at that point).

Well, my puffer seems to be doing great! Yesterday, I decided to try and feed him, but before I could start putting the bloodworms in the water, I got to see him chase and eat one of the guppies in the tank. Yay!

I tried to give him some bloodworms right after that, and boy did he go after them...he wasn't shy at all - took them right off the tweezers I was holding them on to get them in the water.

He's very active, and his colors are brilliant.

Did you get your Bio-Spira at a chain or a private store? If it was a chain which one?

My wife was the one that picked it up, and I think she got it from a place other than a chain-store. Chain-stores don't seem to carry it.

I tried giving my puffer some snails for the first time today. At first, I just dropped them in the tank to see what he would do...he investigated them, but didn't do too much at first. So, I took the snails out and crushed them. After I put them back in, he had a blast eating them. I got it on tape, and as soon as I digitize it, I'll post a link so you can all see my puffer.

cool. Look forward to it.

Well, I got the video up. Word of caution: It's 11MB, but any smaller, and the quality was horrendous. It's WMV format, so almost anyone should be able to view it.

Here is where you go to get the video: http://www.zippyvideos.com/757791155493 ... fishvideo/

Let me know what you think.