The Puffer Forum

I'm starting this post mainly as a reminder to myself that our beloved brackish fish dont live in the same water conditions all year round, and i feel we should vary their waters salinity to match the seasons of where they are from... that being said, where exactly are they found/caught and brought over to us from?? specifically im looking for figure eight, but i think all brackish water tanks can benefit from this sort of salinity alterations through out the year.

admittedly i have not done all that i can do to find this info. I know they come from the Indonesian area, but there are LOTS of rivers flowing into the ocean there. I've found several mentions of estuaries as well, but i cant seem to find specific information on the salinity of the waters through out the season, only that it varies... duh

so, i plan on adding to this as i find more info, and i hope that the responses keep coming in (cause i get an email each time reminding me to look deeper ) and maybe we can give our friends as much comfort in their lives as they provide us.

"Brackish fish" come from a variety of places. However, here's a good place to start your research: http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/aquaria/index.html

Personally, I don't see the need to vary the salinity.

It's pretty easy to raise the salinity slowly though. Just don't top off the tank for a while and the salinity will go up. If you let 1/4 of the water evaporate you will change the salinity by a factor of 4/3. Then to decrease the salinity, just top off very slowly with a dosing pump of some sort. Or use a clamped airline tubing and drip siphon water back into the tank.

I don't see much of a point to do this either. Unless you are brave enough to attempt a try at breeding brackish puffer, which have been rumored to spawn in lower salinities.

A while back, one of our previous Mentors did a decade-long experiment on F8s. His results proved that keeping them at 1.005 resulted in the longest lifetime for this fish. He suceeded in keeping one 18+ years!

Be very careful with fluctuating SG. You may crash the biological system.

I understand the problems with salinity fluctuation ( no more than 0.002 per week) and i dont mean to go to the extreme here. just some fluctuation following the tides of their home waters. i've read works you speak of, PP, and i understand what he's found, which is why our tanks are at 0.0045, but i still cant help but think they might benefit more from a flux in salinity. obviously the last thing i want to do is hurt my fish, and i suppose i should have pointed out that i do not recommend everyone just start varying their salinity.

that being said, maybe we should have a "testing" discussion area on the site. i have not done what im proposing yet, and had not planned on doing it until i brought it up here first. i truly value all your opinions, and dont want to lead someone else in the wrong direction. i believe there is always room for improvement though.

Personally, I try not to "test" unknown situations/treatments/etc. with my fish. I don't have the experience, capacity or equipment to try controlled, scientific studies and, therefore, its not something I'm inclined to do.

I can understand that Boxermom. i dont like to think of "testing" my fish, but i was told they couldnt live with anything at all due to their temperament, and have found they are fine with bumble bee gobies, and a few "feeder" guppies as well. also they had no issues with our red claws, aside from losing some food now and again. the point was more that we're willing to try something new that may not have been done before, but fits with where the puffers are found. again, im not suggesting that everyone do this, hence the "testing area", but more of a search for finding a habitat that is as natural as possible for our friends. so far, i must admit, these arent the responses i was hoping for. im not trying to undermine, complicate or confuse anyone here, im merely trying to re-produce the closest form of living conditions that our brackish fish grew up in... aside from the attacks of birds and other various creatures.

since we've started keeping puffers, we've lost numerous fish, and each time it hurts a little more, because we tried to help them with their aliment and some times it just wasnt enough. as with any living thing, some are just more hardy than others. i'd love for my fish to live 18+ years, and infact, thats what i plan for, but the reality is, that may not happen. be it the fishes health before i obtained it, or negligence on my part for not knowing enough. no matter what tho, i want to do what i can to keep it in the best conditions as possible. personally, i believe that to be replicating its natural habitat as closely as possible. personally, i dont think altering the salinity of the water to match the seasons of the rivers they are found in to be that big of a deal. i already have to test this for water changes since we own fresh, brackish and salt tanks.

again, i wholly suggest that people follow the moderators of this site for information, as it will lead to a long happy life of their fish. but if there is more i can do, im willing to devote my time, efforts, and i suppose my fish to finding that. in the long run, it seems very catch 22, i must say...

With figure 8's, it's moot to try and vary SG to their natural conditions anyway. They're a freshwater fish in the wild, they just seem to stress from water condition issues relieved by use of brackish water in captivity, and they are considered brackish because they thrive best in captivity that way.

We were kind of having this discussion the other day. I think it would be possible to vary the salinity levels quite a bit IF the tank was very very understocked and had huge water changes (to counteract any bacteria die off/tank crash). But trying to get home aquaria to reach ocean/lake/river stocking levels is something we are not likely to be able to reproduce. Nature simply doesn't allow things to get that crowded (except maybe at spawning times).

If you had a system with multiple larges sumps at different salinities with bio filtration in each sump, then you wouldn't have to rely on the main tank for the bacteria. You could then slowly flush the tank with water from the corresponding sump and thus changing the salinity of the tank to that of the sump. This would have to be a large system but it would be interesting to see if it is possible to get brackish puffers spawning.