My first puffers, two lil F8s!

Eldonko · Post by **Eldonko** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:21 am

Hi guys, first post here.

I have a fairly new 33g tank which is being used for brackish water. I have been cycling the tank for 9 days now, first 6 with no fish, last 3 days with 2 candy stripe gobys. The gobys seem to be quite happy and I think I have 1 male and 1 female. One is bigger with darker stripes. The main purpose of the tank is for F8 puffers though.

I was at Riverfront today and picked up 2 decent looking F8s. They have been living in fresh water at the LFS so I have them in QT with a drip to get em used to brackish water. The guy at Riverfront was a puffer guy himself, he said he had 9, gsp, sa, f8, fugus, etc. He said he required responses to several puffer related questions before he would sell me any, I thought this was great. He asked stuff like â€œwhich salt do you use, aquarium or marineâ€? and stuff like that. I got all the questions right and got the 2 lil guys

The fish seemed stressed out when I put em in the QT tank, swimming up and down one edge for about 30 minutes. This is prolly normal though when getting new puffers.

I have a bunch of pond snails and frozen krill and bloodworms to feed them. I also picked up a can of meal worms (suggestion from puffer guy at LFS).

One of the two F8s loves the meal worms, he practically jumped out of the water to get it. However the 2nd would not even go near the worms. I dropped in 2 small worms and the greedy lil f8 got em both and the 2nd didnâ€™t seem to care at all. Now I have one big fat puffer and one skinny one =/ How do I go about getting the non eating puffer some food without the 2nd one snatching it? Also is it possible that one puffer likes worms but the other doesnâ€™t? Or is he sick or stressed or something?

My brackish tank is at SG 1.003 and ammonia is at 1ppm, and nitrate and nitrite are at 0. I will likely put the puffers in the tank tomorrow, I donâ€™t think they will like the small (5.5g) QT tank for very long. I donâ€™t see any ich, is there anything else I should be inspecting them for?

Hopefully I can get the non eater to eat some krill or a snail tomorrow and hopefully they donâ€™t beat up the 2 gobys. The 2 F8s look like they will get along ok. They swim around together in the QT tank and do not appear to be aggressive at all.

I gotta think of some names for these guys, other than puffer 1 and puffer 2 lol.

Post by **Myaj** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 3:16 am

Well, for one, the tank isn't cycled yet and puffers are super touchy when it comes to ammonia and cycling tanks, you might have a problem there. Though I doubt your quarentine tank is cycled either... Your best bet is to do daily water changes and use Amquel or Prime to help neutralize the ammonia without removing it, so the bacteria can continue to establish.

Meal worms are pretty fatty and not a great idea for full time use, they'd do better with something like snails. For the non eating puffer, give it a day to settle in and then see if its interested in any food before you start worrying too much. Getting equal amounts of food into the puffers is one of the tough parts about having multiples, try to feed one at one end of the tank (tease him a little if you have to to keep it there) while feeding the other at the other side. If worst comes to worst, they may not be able to stay together or you'd need a tank divider.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 7:52 am

Congrat's on your new puffers...I love my figure 8. Myaj really covered everything, but I just wanted to add my figure 8 was spazzy for nearly the first week before settling in. He was eating the whole time, but he was alone.

A tank divider could be great if he doesn't start eating soon, especially because he could have internal parasites and you'd need to treat with discomed soaked food if he'd eat any. If he won't eat, you'd need to treat the tank and Jungle labs makes these fizzing tablets for internal parasites that might get him jumpstarted so you can then use discomed. I'd definitely wait a few days before thinking of treatment, though, just to make sure he's not pouting or stressed out.

Eric

Woland · Post by **Woland** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 7:56 am

Most small puffers find bloodworm irresistible.
Be sure to thaw them first.
When added they will spread around in the tank and both puffers will have a decent chance of getting their fill.

Eldonko · Post by **Eldonko** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:41 am

My QT tank is cycled, fully, I had freshwater fish in it for a long time, they have recently been moved to another 33g. The brackish tank is not cycled yet but I test the water daily and will do PWC often.

I am not too worried about 1 puffer not eating yet, I am sure he will eat when he gets hungry

Hopefully I get him to eat tonight.

I have a mixed diet planned, 2 days snails, 1 day bloodworms, 2 days krill, 2 days meal worms.

Thanks for the advice guys, I will post again tonight.

Eldonko · Post by **Eldonko** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:11 pm

I transfered the puffers to the brackish tank today. Both puffers eating now, they love krill. The eat from my hand already!

I named them Sammy and Zizi.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:25 pm

They're incredibly cool fish. Speaking of feeding...I need to go feed Hoover now...it's bloodworm night which only happens once every two weeks so it's a treat.

I'm glad both are eating for you. May just have been moody after the move.

Eric

Eldonko · Post by **Eldonko** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:40 pm

I'm glad too.

Guys whats the best way to keep algae under control in a brackish tank. I miss my pleckos

Scrub the sides down with an aquarium sponge and do a pwc? I hate to shell out the coin for a protien skimmer right now.

Eldonko · Post by **Eldonko** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 11:58 pm

Ahh cool, I will get one of those. I didn't think they actually work. How do I get all of the algae gunk offa my plants? Just leave it?

1 more question. If I am doing PWC weekly, how do I keep up with all the salt being lost? Buy a friggin 5 gallon drum? Also wouldn't weekly SG fluctuations be bad?

Heres some pics of zizi, sammy doesn't like cameras, he is too quick! Man it is hard to get decent pics of the little buggers, I will have to sneak up on em when they sleep

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:12 am

Nice looking puffer! Weekly water changes even at 50% (most frequently recommended, but if you're understocked you can probably get by with a smaller %) won't cost you much with the amount of salt needed for light brackish water.

For my 20 gallon tank at 1.005 I used the smallest instant ocean box in about a month and a half to two months.

Algae will calm down with time, especially brown algae. My plants originally had some brown algae, but it's all gone now. The glass is the only thing a manga-float/algae magnet will clean. Pamela hit it on the head, good water, good lighting, and your plants will do wonders for any algae.

Eric

Eldonko · Post by **Eldonko** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:27 am

Hmm. Well if it takes 6.5 cups of salt to bring water from 0 SG to .005 SG and I do a 50% PWC per week, doesn't that mean I need 3.25 extra cups of water per week or is my math totally off?

That's like 180+ cups of salt per year or almost 12 gallons. Sounds like a big tub to me :O

Eldonko · Post by **Eldonko** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:32 am

Got a good light on the weekend, its one of those compact T5 flourescents, 21w per bulb. I have been keeping it on all the time except when I am asleep (which is like 5 hours if I'm lucky). I guess that is too much eh. I will keep it off until I get home from work.

What about those gravel vac things, are they useful or will it screw up my tank cycling?

fatpuffer · Post by **fatpuffer** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 1:27 am

Usually, a cup of salt will bump the sg of 5 gallons of water by .005...so u would only use 2 cups to get it up to 1.005 in a 10 gallon.

for my marine, i use 3 cups of instant ocean salt to raise the salinity to 1.026ish.

6.5 cups for 10 gallon sounds a little too much. check ur hydrometer...are u using marine salts?

js

Eldonko · Post by **Eldonko** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:08 am

Its a 33g not a 10g. So 1 cup per 5 gal = 6.6 cups for .005 SG.

midgetwaiter · Post by **midgetwaiter** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 4:26 am

I was at Riverfront today and picked up 2 decent looking F8s. They have been living in fresh water at the LFS so I have them in QT with a drip to get em used to brackish water. The guy at Riverfront was a puffer guy himself, he said he had 9, gsp, sa, f8, fugus, etc. He said he required responses to several puffer related questions before he would sell me any, I thought this was great. He asked stuff like â€œwhich salt do you use, aquarium or marineâ€? and stuff like that. I got all the questions right and got the 2 lil guys

Look at that, I'm famous!

Actually Eldonko I have to say, you were a pretty good customer. At least half the customer I ask about how they setup their brackish tanks are doing the tablespoon of $5.99 aquarium salt thing. Many of them get rather offended when I start in on "the speech". Thanks for your understanding, I'm glad to hear the fish are doing well.

On the subject of brackish algae eaters, we may be getting some Columbian Algae eating gobies soon. The exporter calls them Awaous Taiasica but they are something else, I found a description in a book once that was close. I just saw them on a list today but we won't be ordering for a while, I hope we can get some.

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My first puffers, two lil F8s!

My first puffers, two lil F8s!