tropicaltree2
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2016
- Messages
- 4
Hello everyone,
A bit of back ground from me, I am not entirely new to tropical fish keeping as I used to own a 40 litre tank about 15 years. I kept neons, rainbow fish and roaches.
I am now thinking about buying a tank for my partner and I to enjoy. I am purely just planning at the moment with what I would like to achieve and the factors involved.
So I am very intrigued by the Puffer fish. Its an amazing fish with its fluttery fins and big round eyes. This being said I have been researching many sites and there seems to be conflicting information which is clouding my judgement.
I thought I would ask the expert community on this forum for a consensus of advise. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
1) I have been searching for puffer fish that are fresh water as I would ideally want to avoid the issues with salinity in the water. Research shows that there should be mild salinity that grows greater as the fish matures. However Dwarf puffers and Amazonian puffers can be kept in pure fresh water?
2) To avoid the puffer fish starving from its beak growing too long it is required to feed hard shelled food such as snails etc. I have also read that this is not sufficient and manual beak cutting is required several times a year, is this true?. Personally I am a little concerned trying to cut a beak on such a small creature!.
3) Nearly all puffers are not ideal for community tanks, but the most docile and friendly of fresh water puffers is the Amazonian puffer, it may be possible for a community tank if you have fast moving fish with no long fins and tails, is this correct?
4) I would like to set up a tropical tank but with the ascetics of a marine tank, so sand substrate, porous looking live rock. The LFS said a company is shortly releasing a new product that is a sand blasted rock that imitates live rock but without releasing any toxins deadly to the fish. To imitate the shimmer effect within a tank is it more necessary to have a variation of blue and white L.E.Ds or more to have a larger water displacement? Do puffers react well to shimmering lighting or is it preferred as a solid white light?
5) LFS advised if sand is to be used in a fresh water tank then it would need to be very fine sand. This causes a problem when cleaning as the cypher may suck up sand, in addition as the sand particles are so small they may go into the filter and eventually block it. Does anyone have any good ideas on how to clean fine particle sand and avoid filter blockages???
Many thanks for your input
A bit of back ground from me, I am not entirely new to tropical fish keeping as I used to own a 40 litre tank about 15 years. I kept neons, rainbow fish and roaches.
I am now thinking about buying a tank for my partner and I to enjoy. I am purely just planning at the moment with what I would like to achieve and the factors involved.
So I am very intrigued by the Puffer fish. Its an amazing fish with its fluttery fins and big round eyes. This being said I have been researching many sites and there seems to be conflicting information which is clouding my judgement.
I thought I would ask the expert community on this forum for a consensus of advise. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
1) I have been searching for puffer fish that are fresh water as I would ideally want to avoid the issues with salinity in the water. Research shows that there should be mild salinity that grows greater as the fish matures. However Dwarf puffers and Amazonian puffers can be kept in pure fresh water?
2) To avoid the puffer fish starving from its beak growing too long it is required to feed hard shelled food such as snails etc. I have also read that this is not sufficient and manual beak cutting is required several times a year, is this true?. Personally I am a little concerned trying to cut a beak on such a small creature!.
3) Nearly all puffers are not ideal for community tanks, but the most docile and friendly of fresh water puffers is the Amazonian puffer, it may be possible for a community tank if you have fast moving fish with no long fins and tails, is this correct?
4) I would like to set up a tropical tank but with the ascetics of a marine tank, so sand substrate, porous looking live rock. The LFS said a company is shortly releasing a new product that is a sand blasted rock that imitates live rock but without releasing any toxins deadly to the fish. To imitate the shimmer effect within a tank is it more necessary to have a variation of blue and white L.E.Ds or more to have a larger water displacement? Do puffers react well to shimmering lighting or is it preferred as a solid white light?
5) LFS advised if sand is to be used in a fresh water tank then it would need to be very fine sand. This causes a problem when cleaning as the cypher may suck up sand, in addition as the sand particles are so small they may go into the filter and eventually block it. Does anyone have any good ideas on how to clean fine particle sand and avoid filter blockages???
Many thanks for your input
