Puffer Fever!!

[Chikadee]

Hey guys!

After reading all the puffer threads on here and going to my LFS and seeing a bunch of green spotted puffers, I am sooooo tempted to start a puffer tank! I don't know if I am ready to handle the responsibility of a puffer tank though, being a busy college student... But here is what I had in mind:

I can get a 30 long with 3 GSP, a small school of tiger barbs and a pleco. I have this really pretty black sand that I am currently using in my 10gal, that I can put in the 30... but I have heard that fine grain sand is a bad idea for puffers, is that a problem even if I keep them well fed? I will take down my 10 gal and use that as a snail tank so I can breed my own food, but I am kind of confused as to what kind of snails puffers eat, mystery snails? MTS? Where do I buy them to get started? Also, how many times does a puffer need to be fed per day? Can they survive a few days without food like community fish if I go on vacation? How sensitive are they to water conditions? How do I go about making brackish water? Do I have to worry about tetrodotoxin in FW/BW puffers? So many questions! :?

If any of you puffer owners out there have any suggestions and maybe some pros and cons about a puffer tank, please let me know! I am soooo tempted to do this but I don't want to get in over my head! Also, are there any good websites on puffers? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

THANKS!!

 

[Patwa]

Hey guys!

I can get a 30 long with 3 GSP, a small school of tiger barbs and a pleco. I have this really pretty black sand that I am currently using in my 10gal, that I can put in the 30... but I have heard that fine grain sand is a bad idea for puffers, is that a problem even if I keep them well fed? I will take down my 10 gal and use that as a snail tank so I can breed my own food, but I am kind of confused as to what kind of snails puffers eat, mystery snails? MTS? Where do I buy them to get started? Also, how many times does a puffer need to be fed per day? Can they survive a few days without food like community fish if I go on vacation? How sensitive are they to water conditions? How do I go about making brackish water? Do I have to worry about tetrodotoxin in FW/BW puffers? So many questions! :?

THANKS!!

well..that's great that you want to setup a puffer tank....after i got my first puffers, i never looked back!

here's my $0.02

(and this is from personal experience...)

- sand is not that great, as puffers might eat it........it won't really do much harm to the fish, as they'll poop it out pretty quickly....but i'd say go for gravel...larger or smaller grain size will be fine.

- as for type of snails....well i'm not too sure of the name..but mine enjoy the tiny little grey/blackish ones that usually are found on plants from the lfs....they're prolly the most common snails around anyways, so you won't have a hard time finding them..

- feeding puffers can vary.....but usually once a day is fine for mine...BUT they will ALWAYS seem hungry...that's the way they are...they're voracious little buggers...just stick to once a day and they'll be fine..and give them a variety of food, especially the snails......and do not overfeed...these guys will eat and eat and eat

- as for water condition....most are either fw or bw.....it depends on what specis you are buying...GSP are bw methinks, and South Americans are fw, just to name a few

- brackish water requires marine salt in the mixture, NOT aquarium salt (aquarium salt tends to be more for medical purposes)

- as for the poison..don't worry about that....unless you have some sort of predatory fish in there.....or you plan on eating these guys...haha

hope that helps a bit,

Zach

 

[deli_conker]

Looks like puffer mania is here. I've been trying to get more info about the dwarf ones. I have a 10 gal already cycled that I might be able to use for that purpose. I was wondering if anybody could point me in the right direction to get some more info on the subject.

Just knowing the type of water they like would be a good start so I could figure out if I could have them or not.

Thanks...

 

[freshwatergal]

do a google search for dwarf puffer. That's where I found most of my info.

 

[puffergirl]

Here is a good site if you have specific questions about puffers.
www.pufferlovers.com
It is another advice forum like this one.

I must say that the Brazillian FW Puffers are very nice. They are not as agressive as others (green spotted, figure eights) and don't grow quite as large. Good luck with your choice!

 

[cowfish7]

I have been asking for snails at the pet store -- they look at me real strange, but I have been able to talk them into scraping out the snails from heavily infested tanks. These are considered nuisance snails. Or buy some live plants - I hear they often have snails.

You mention being a busy student - I have found that doing live/frozen food every day has been time consuming. My puffers are pretty entertaining, though, so it is worth it

Make sure you look up a LOT of references to make sure they type you are looking at is properly identified as fresh or brackish.

cowfish7

 

[cdawson]

Well, I've got a 4" GSP in a marine tank with 5 mono argentus and 2 silver scats. They're VERY aggressive, do not plan to add any other fish because they will eat them. They can only really co-exist with larger fish.
As said above, GSPs are BW fish, but require marine conditions as they get older and cannot tolerate FW to any extent. They require a strict diet of shellfish (snails, shrimp, cockles, etc) and may need their teeth trimmed every so often (which is rare for GSPs). '
Your GSP will be able to last a couple days while you are away on vacation, just make sure you feed it before you go away. Also, make sure if your water change day falls in the middle of your vacation that you perform it before you leave. Puffers cannot tolerate any tardiness on water changes, they are very sensitive to ammonia and nitrites. As well as high levels of nitrate.
As for the sand, I recommend a crushed coral substrate as gravel doesn't buffer the water for akaline conditions.

you won't be able to keep tiger barbs or a pleco with the GSP as they are strictly FW.
If you want a FW puffer there are a couple varieties that would suit you, the dwarf would go perfectly with the tiger barbs and pleco. As would a SA puffer, however you will have to trim their teeth down the road unless you feed snails everyday.

I highly recommend the FW puffers to someone on a college schedule as I know how busy it can be. BW and marine puffers (which is what the GSP actually is) require alot of time and effort.

 

[Sati]

I got 6 dwarf puffers 5 weeks ago. I could just kick myself because I did finally lose one puffer on Wednesday. He was not attacked or anything like that. What happened was I had put a piece of pantyhose over the the filter uptake in my tank so as to be sure that nobody lost their life that way. Well stupid me, not having done this before didn't notice that the pantyhose had netted enough tiny debris to clog and slow down my water movement to a near standstill. I believe that the little puff died because of the water conditions. I am so mad at myself for making such an obvious mistake that I should have caught.

Anyhow, I keep mine in a single species 10 gallon aquarium. I provide tons of rocks and some fake plants so that they have a lot of places to hang out and aren't all on top of each other. So far this seems to appeased their aggressive nature and they do not fight. They were young when I got them so I don't know that they've reached sexual maturity just yet. The worst may be yet to come...

I feed them frozen bloodworms twice a day. I have a vase that I raise snails in. I keep a piece of romaine or spinach held down by glass marbles in there and they chow through the stuff. They lay eggs quite often. They're just the typical snails that come in on plants. I bought some for a quarter a piece from my LFS. I do have a couple MTS as well that I'm raising for my loach, but do NOT give MTS to your puffers. Their shells are so hard that they can break the teeth of your puffers.

The puffers are a hoot. They scare my BF (half seriously/half kidding) because they are very active. They all come right up to the tank and stare. He thinks they want to eat him, lol. You can see their eyes rotate all around and catch the light. They're so funny to watch. They move just like a zeppelin

 

[Sati]

Oh, and I left mine for 3 days over Thanksgiving and they did just fine and did not attack each other!

 

[fishstixs05]

Hey Chikadee,
When I had puffers they loved two foods, my malaysian livbearing snails, and earthworms! They went crazy for earthworms, eating them until they looked like they would explode. However earthworms arent a good diet, if you do feed them just do it once or twice a week. As for snails, my snails completely infested my tank, even as a food source. They dont do any harm, just some people find them unsightly, so I like your idea about the snail tank. However, if the look of snails everywhere doesnt bother you, just throw a bunch of snails in beforehand, the breed like crazy! Lastly, tiger barbs actually do quite well in high pH water. I have heard that people keep plecos in brackish water with quite some success, but I have not yet tried it. HTH!!!
-Fishstix

 

[madasafish]

Urg. Sorry to hear it Sati. I think I did warn somebody about that happening a few weeks ago. I use a filter sponge over my intake, and that doesn't stop up the flow as much. I can just take it out and rinse it every so often.

 

[Sati]

I haven't been reading the board much lately, grrr. At least I know better now though!

 

[Chikadee]

I'm gonna do it!! My boyfriend is currently in the process of building me an aquarium stand and I just got a 30 gallon tank. So I'm almost ready to go! I still have a ton of questions though...

- It seems like the general consensus is to get either SA puffers, dwarf puffers or figure-8 puffers. Seeing as it may be difficult to keep a brackish tank. The ones at my LFS are labled Green Spotted (though I'm not sure if that is accurate, they're keeping them in FW), and I think that's all they have there. How do you guys get hard to find fish? I don't know if they do custom orders and I am a bit wary of ordering them online. Does anyone else know of a store in southeastern Mi that might sell puffers?

- When I set up the tank, what should be the first thing I put in? I don't really mind having lots of snails, so could I put those in first and hope they breed? Is it a better idea to have a separate snail tank? Also, I am going to take my 10gal down in order to have a place for snails and a brine shrimp hatchery. I could just move everything (substrate, plants, filter, decorations etc) directly to the 30 gallon, but I've been treating my tank with some antibiotics because 2 of my fish have TB... Is it a bad idea to switch everything over? Should I just wash everything and start cycling all over?

- I hear lots of different things about tankmates for puffers... any suggestions??

- As far as food goes, is there anything else I should feed them besides: snails, brine shrimp, frozen worms?

- Any other important things I should know??

 

[cdawson]

Hey Chikadee,
When I had puffers they loved two foods, my malaysian livbearing snails, and earthworms! They went crazy for earthworms, eating them until they looked like they would explode. However earthworms arent a good diet, if you do feed them just do it once or twice a week. As for snails, my snails completely infested my tank, even as a food source. They dont do any harm, just some people find them unsightly, so I like your idea about the snail tank. However, if the look of snails everywhere doesnt bother you, just throw a bunch of snails in beforehand, the breed like crazy! Lastly, tiger barbs actually do quite well in high pH water. I have heard that people keep plecos in brackish water with quite some success, but I have not yet tried it. HTH!!!
-Fishstix

Bad idea, keeping fish in un-natural conditions is BAD for their health. It weakens their immunes and makes them very susceptiple to disease and infections. Feeding MTS is also a very bad idea as their shells are too hard and can break a puffers beak causing infection.

You also cannot keep Fig-8s in FW they're brackish water fish as well.

 

[cowfish7]

whaaaat? I read a whole bunch of posts saying to feed snails. Are the MTS the ones I have been scavenging from the tanks at the LFS? I have looked at some pics and I guess that's them. Now that I think about it, I can see that their shell could be harder than other snails. Eek, now what?

What other snail options are there? I have seen 2 other types: ramshorn and some other one in my (unfiltered) pond.

I have been trying to get the snails to breed....I think mine have actually died, though, little buggers!

cowfish7

 

[cdawson]

Use ramshorn or common pond snails, but NEVER use MTS. Their shells are much harder than the others and can easily break the beak of large BW puffer. If you can get ahold of them, try using ghost shrimp as a feeder. Gut load them with algae discs before feeding them to your puffer. Although it seems like ghost shrimp are extinct these days, I never see them anywhere anymore.

 

[Chikadee]

How does one "gutload" a ghost shrimp??

 

[cowfish7]

I did pick up some ghost shrimp - I never even noticed them at the LFS before. Haven't used them as food yet, though. Hopefully my ramshorn snails will reproduce.

 

[cdawson]

Keep your water quality good and neutral and they should breed. A tank just for the ramshorn is also required for them to breed, they're egg layers and require 2 snails to breed. Unlike the MTS, who can breed on their own and bear live young.

As for gutloading, just feed your ghost shrimp algae wafers constantly (not over feeding). Feed them shrimp pellets, anything you'd feed an invertebrate.

 

[PK Tester]

Ghost shrimps almost non-esixtent? Pet Supplie Plus has about 5,000 of them . I plan on getting some but had some quick cure in my tank..and I have plans to wait a few months intil im almost postive its all out.