The Puffer Forum

I plan to get a 120-125 gallon tank as a long term home for my fahaka puffer.
My fahaka Taco is in a 40 gallon breeder and I'd say he is now 7-8 inches. He is lovely and so cute!

We do not feed him a large mount of food each time but he does eat 1-2 times a day mostly blood worms and we manage 50% water change on most weeks. After switching to a much larger tank I do not plan on as large of a change at one time so I will have to figure this in.
Current maintenance practices:
I test the water occasionally, and vacuum some poo from his tank in between feedings.
I talked to a local fish shop with a good reputation that longer run so that he can swim more freely is probably better for him than one that is compact.
There a 125 gal aquion that is 21 in x 74 in x 54 in at pet smart. This is the best deal I've found for tank, top, stand and lights.
https://www.petsmart.com/fish/tanks-aqu ... 48563.html
A 120 gal.(roughly in feet 2x2x4 ) that is more compact ... wider and deeper but not as long that could go where his current tank is.
It is more expensive though and would have to be ordered or something as well.
The long one is also spread out over more floor joists. Not sure that matters.
Will he actually use the extra length? Am I missing the diagonal. I should compute this for both. What I got for volume on the 125 was 135 given dimensions. Dimensions on petsmart are for tank + stand! Bizzare! so gave very wrong results. ([24, 24, 48], 58.787753826796276, 119.68831168831169) ([72.5, 18.5, 23.375], 78.38935275278142, 135.7217261904762) , Anyway diagonal difference is less than the difference between lengths as I suspected.

New equipment: 2 300w heaters and a Fluval FX4 filter. ambient temp in winter is 64. in the summer there is no AC! There is where the tank is now. Is this i an issue?
I am currently using a Penn Paxx cascade 700 and a Marineland internal black polishing filter.
I had planed to set up the new tank with the new filtration introduce jump start bacteria then move Taco over and move his old filters with him.
After about a month or two I plan to then phase out the old filtration and depend mostly on the new filter.
I could alternatively move the ceramic filter media from the old filter to the new one and intermix it with new media.
I am now thinking I should get the filter first, move the old biomedia to the new filter and get it running in the old tank. Hopefully an FX4 on a 40 gal won't create a major vortex! lol
I have not decided on substrate for the new tank. I want to do a mix of sand and gravel and also to have an end of the tank used for most feedings and filter intake to be mostly bare of substrate. This is how his current tank is set up.
Is it good/ok to use the crushed coral or other buffering sand for a fahaka or will this make Kh high and make the tank water alot different than incoming water during water changes?
What can I do to make water changes smaller? I am overwhelmed with the prospect of 60 gal changes!
Thanks for your help!

I had fahakas in both sizes. Filbert lived in a 125g for 17 years & when I moved to a house with my own fishroom, I was able to move him over to a 180g & he LOVED it! He lived another 2 years in there. Good thing he was fine with tank mates. I still have those other fish in the 180, so my new guy, Frodo (not as nice), is living alone in a 120g. I feel guilty about that but he's only about 5-6" right now.

I'm not sure why you would need crushed coral in there?

Move the biomedia over the same time as your puffer. Or add the old filters to the new one & run alongside the new filter for 4-6 weeks.

I do WC on 7 tanks with a Python I toss out the window to drain. Hubby installed a sink to my fishroom for filling.

Better plan to move media! Thanks!
He was aggressive even when quite young. I think it's best he not have tank mates.... but he is rather board playing with and attacking his reflection alot. I wish he could have a big pond.

Fish don't see their reflection.
library/puffer-care/alone-but-not-lonel ... fers-solo/

Pufferpunk wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:22 am Fish don't see their reflection.
library/puffer-care/alone-but-not-lonel ... fers-solo/

Certainly that's not true for all fish, hence the mirrors used with for example apisto's or beta's to make them flare up for pictures. I've done that myself with a betta male for example.

Matts wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2020 11:27 am

Pufferpunk wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:22 am Fish don't see their reflection.
library/puffer-care/alone-but-not-lonel ... fers-solo/

Certainly that's not true for all fish, hence the mirrors used with for example apisto's or beta's to make them flare up for pictures. I've done that myself with a betta male for example.

You're missing the point of the article. The point being that fish don't recognize their own reflection. My own puffers will react to their reflection with aggressive behavior. Most puffers are solitary predators that don't need companionship of their own kind or any other. My own barely tolerate me looking at them for any length of time and once their limit has been reached and breached they will let me know that I am no longer welcome in their territory. Their territory being whichever room in my house their tank is in. Pufferfish have excellent vision, BTW. Estimates are 30'-40' from the glass walls that contain them. That means that they can see EVERYTHING that goes on in the average room. And as far as they're concerned, that room is theirs! Your male Bettas or Apistogramma will also be better off without another male of his own kind in his presence. The problem with puffers is that outside of a few species, they show no sexual dimorphism. Imagine having a couple of hairy or Congo puffers that cost $200 apiece. How tight is your behind cinched up when you decide to try putting them together hoping they do more than just "get along"? It's really a crap shoot when breeding puffers. They might make babies; they might kill each other. Unlike bettas or Apistogramma, you probably won't even know if they're male or female until you try to breed them. If you do, you hope you're right because if not...

I should have stated it better: Fish don't see their reflection in GLASS.

@DDR2: I wasn't commenting on the contents of the article, I don't have experience with the species mentioned in it, so I'm in no position to refute anything said in the article.

English isn't my first language so I might have misinterpreted Pufferpunk's reaction. I read it as saying fish are unable to see any reflections at all. But maybe it was indeed besides te point.

Pufferpunk wrote: ↑Sun Mar 08, 2020 12:32 pm I should have stated it better: Fish don't see their reflection in GLASS.

I've seen my schoutedeni flaring at the glass, but off course I have no way of knowing what it exactly they are seeing.