The Puffer Forum

Hi!

I'm new to the forum and I'm unfortunately starting off with a bit of an emergency.

To cut a long story short, I have come by two fish recently which REALLY can't go in with the rest of my large community tank.

The first is a fish which was sold to a friend as being "okay" with other fish, within a week it had killed of 3/4 of his tank and was attacking fish much larger than itself. It took it in so that it didn't get flushed. From what I can tell, it appears to be a very angry Jewel Cichlid approximately 6cm (2 1/2 inches) long. Given its terrible reputation, as you can imagine I haven't dared put it in with my other fish. The second was a rather sorry looking Green Spotted Puffer again about 6cm (2 1/2 inches) long. His belly is gray and sunken which I've been told is a bad sign although with some food and in his new home it seems to be puffing out again.

I know that it's bad practice to take on fish unprepared but it was either that or they got flushed.

For the moment, these two are in a 50L tank and actually seem to like each other. They swim along side each other and don't seem to mind the company oddly enough. I've been feeding him boiled prawns and winkles which are cheap where I live. Is this a viable way of feeding him? As I said, I always boil them beforehand to make sure there aren't any parasites or bacteria hitching a left. . Before people get on my back: THIS IS A TEMPORARY MEASURE! I'LL HAVE ANOTHER TANK IN A FEW DAYS!

From my research, I know that Puffers require brackish water after a while but a lot of my reading indicates that Jewel Cichlids could maybe cope with it as well. Any thoughts? I can't find the specific salinity tolerance anywhere. I found a tank but I'm not sure about the size its 96l (25 gallons) which is on the smaller side. Knowing that I can only get one tank, should I get this one or wait until I can find a larger one?

Thanks a lot for your time and sorry to be starting with such an emergency,

Jewel cichlids may tolerate a "salted" tank, but certainly not the high BW conditions your puffer will require. Most of us keep them in marine conditions. I highly suggest treating them both for IPs.

Ah, okay. I'll see what I can do. Having given the little guy some food, his belly is now white and puffy (like in all of the photos). There was about a dozen tiny snail shells in his tank when I got him, granted I don't know how long they had him but it didn't seem like a lot. They also said that they have him bloodworms "every other day". Is it possible he was just starved? I'm taking it that a 25 gallon will be too small for him when he's an adult.

It is possible they were just feeding him flakes, which he won't eat.
I'm sure he'd prefer a nice 55g marine tank with live rock tunnels & caves to swim around in!

Okay. Thanks for your replies. I'll get him as big a tank as I can. About live rocks, I've always liked coral reefs but my reading seems to suggest however that Green Spotted Puffers tend to eat coral so it wasn't a good idea to get any. Is this true or does it just depend on the fish?

Personally I'd rehome the jewel or if you like it give it another tank. The chances are 0 of that working out.

I'm currently working on a SW setup for gsp's now. I raised the sg .002 a week until I achieved 1.005. This is where I'm keeping them until I get my SW tank going. Then I will acclimate them SW with a slow drip. Unless someone has new info saying no.

You could raise the sg .002 per week by mixing up 50% batch of double the sg you want. For example:
If your at 1.000 (fw) and you want to achieve a sg of 1.002 next week then do a wc of 50% adding back water with a sg of 1.004. This usually gets you really close. There's a stalling point I believe around .010 where you need to wait longer before upping your sg so your bacteria can adjust.

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