Puffers and Tankmates

[PrettyFishies]

What kind of puffer do you have? How large is it? What other fish do you have in there with it? How large are they? How large is your tank? How much salt do you add to the water?

Thanks for the input

 

[loganj]

Mine is a Green Spotted Puffer. He's about 3" long right now and shares the tank with a pair of moray eels and several hermit crabs. The SG is 1.025. These puffers tend to do better in full salt water than brackish or fresh water. www.pufferlovers.com is a great resource for puffer info.

 

[PrettyFishies]

Thanks for the info... Does the puff nip at the eel?

I was intending to stay away from an all out saltwater tank. I have an emperor 280 and a 20W actinic light fixture...gravel, of course a heater... If I went full salt, would my filter be sufficient? Would I need to change the substrate? would I really need a skimmer? and powerheads?

 

[loganj]

Mine are in a 29 for now. I'll have to provide larger accomodations later as they grow though. 2x20w NO lights...one Power Glo and one Marine Glo. One MJ900 PH and a Seaclone skimmer is all the tank has. I do about a 25% water change every two weeks and nitrates, ect... stay very low. I have about 4 1/2" of aragonite sand for substrate and maybe 35lbs of LR in there. GSP's will do better in full salt. There are some FW puffers, but I don't know much about them.
My puffer is usually on the receiving end of the nips...the morays snarl at him if he tries to steal their food...which he always does...he's cute, but not real smart.

 

[Guest]

I have 2 bumblebee puffers (forget scientific name offhand), straight fw. Very small, I'll be lucky if they get up to 2 inches. Aggro little buggers! They nipped the heck outta a 1.5 inch green sunfish, I had to put him out in the pond! However for some reason they are leaving my SAE alone, no damage at all. They chase each other a lot, but I've seen no damage on either of them. I haven't been able to get them to eat anything but snails so far, but considering I have an endless supply of snails, I don't see this as a problem.

Seriously considering making one of my tanks brackish so I can get a larger type puffer!

 

[Madame_X]

I have a South American puffer, also freshwater (not brackish). In a 12 gallon tank, he nipped one of my platies' fins pretty bad (she's recovering) so we moved him into a 29 gallon tank with four pearl danios. He doesn't seem interested in messing with the danios at all, and sometimes they get right in his face. I don't know if its the size of the tank since he now has much more room to move around or what.

He loves to hunt, so we've added snails and ghost shrimp to the tank periodically to give him something to peak his interest. We've only had him for about three weeks but so far he seems happy and healthy. I've heard of others who had a hard time getting a new puffer to eat but that hasn't been a problem for us. This guy loves his food!

Here's a picture of my little guy stalking a piece of freeze dried krill :

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1544&password=&sort=7&thecat=500

 

[PrettyFishies]

Well today after so much planning I made my decision. I had the water tested at my LFS to verify my results... O Amm 0 trites 25ppm of trates ... Good to go...

I got a 1.5" Figure 8 puffer and a 2" Columbian Shark.

I also got a floating hydrometer... The reading was 1.001 at best... I see that with my first water change I have to do something. I'm thinking, mix the water (with Instant Ocean marine salt) at 1.008 (my goal) and change 20% weekly till it get's to 1.008 in the tank. Sound like a stressfree approach?

Also.. I'd like to keep live plants... Java Fern to grow on my driftwood and create snails... I have a 20W actinic, and a 20W full spectrum... The actinic is on the tank now because I have flourescent decorations and such (I scrapped the natural look), but I guess I can sacrifice the cool factor to have live plants. If I need a 60W bulb (2W per gallon) then do I need a new light fixture? And should I get full white or 50/50 for a low/moderate light plant like a java fern?