I'm an almost 60 years old woman from Sweden and from what I've gathered, I'm a minority in the aquarium hobby. I have a tendency to become quite nerdy when I've developed an interest in something (my husband would use the word manic
). I used to keep fish many years ago and thought I knew what I was doing. I didn't. Not enough to keep African and South American Cichlids anyway. Most of them survived but I contribute that to luck rather than skill. (My neighbor is entertaining me with his choice of music, a bit hard to concentrate. Don't think he likes us much). This time around with getting into the hobby, I had planned to keeps Cichlids again, out goes plants, a bummer, but a puffer fish enthusiast as well as a plant freak, and a guru to me, talked so passionately about puffers, how intriguing they are, odd, yes cute, with huge personalities. I just had to have them - and that meant goodbye to the cichlids. I chose Tetraodon Schoutedeni for several reasons, their size and that they're just a tiny bit more mellow than the other varieties. I have 5 and that was also a plus for me, that they like to be in groups. As with Cichlids it is the interaction I'm mostly interested in. I wanted some color in the tank and plants(!) Together with the puffers I keep a group of Sewellia lineolata, cardinal tetras and a Silver Flying Fox (Crossocheilus reticulatus). He's very territorial so he decided he didn't need friends, but he's a great algae eater, even hair algae and brown dito.
My biggest problem is the diet since I don't have a local fish store and it's hard to find online stores that send live food in Sweden (not to mention snails!) Until just recently I've had to import both worms and snails from Germany and that makes my puffers food more expensive than my own. I'm trying to breed snails, Ramshorn snails and I've finally been able to order Bladder snails, that I also plan to breed - and scuds. My puffers are captive bred, Germany, and I hoped that maybe maybe they'd accept some frozen food but they weren't at all impressed.
Currently I'm treating the tank against Ich. The cardinals started to get spots and it seems like I'm winning the battle. but all together it has all been more stressful than enjoyable this far. It's one thing after another. I hope it gets better when all the routines are in place. The water parameters are great, I check, all the plants are doing their thing, I've even Pothos sucking nutrients, nitrates from the water. Water flow is good, well, big cannister filter and a small spunge filter, air stone. Oh, I forgot. 300 Litres.
![[welcome]](./images/smilies/welcome.gif "welcome")
LOL, I'm 64!