Adding 1st Fish

[Infidel_Uk]

ok well, my tanks now FULLY cycled , and has some scenery in , its totally ready for fish , or is it ?

i have NO plants, at all ! will adding a pair of f8 puffs be a major problem with NO plants ?

please have a look at my tank and help me decide ?

i could buy a plant while im at the lfs i guess ?

many thanks

 

[lilacamy931]

hmmm... I am not an expert at F8s never had them myself, do know they need lots to explore. The tank set up looks really nice though I wonder if the line of sights are broken up enough? The other thing also is you may get a pair that are fine together you may get a pair that dont get along. If they don't get a long they need to be able to get out of each others sights and have good hiding places.

Hope someone with more experience can give comments soon!

 

[Infidel_Uk]

well the lfs only had 2 on thursday , they got along fine , but they may have sold them, as far as line of sight goes, all i can do , for now , is hope that they are busy enough not to keep *seeing * each other , but then if they get along, its all good

itll be fine, but i dont know about straight away ....

 

[lilacamy931]

hmmmm...you may have to play it by ear. They may get on fine at the LFS but the problem when introduce them to your tank is they start to set up territories. I love the look btw

Just be prepared to change the look of the tank by adding more, separating them or taking one back

 

[Infidel_Uk]

im tempted to just go buy them, but , im just not sure if their new home is quite ready

 

[lilacamy931]

It is really tempting I know. I have four dwarf puffs, I know not much about F8s but here is my story. I got four, 2 turned out females and 2 males. I did not know this at the time as young but as they grew the males started to fight. Everyone said to take one back or separate. i tried to add more plants at the time but when I came home from work they would both be almost white with no markings! When the older male stopped eating (this happened over a couple of days) got a small 5g set it up and went through a mini cycle with him separated. It was not the best of things but after 5 days of mini cycle and me changing the water twice daily he is now a very happy little man. It is just to give an idea that we can't always plan things and you may need to act quickly if the tank turns out too bare for them.

I have to say I am jealous you are getting F8s, they are reall cuties, not too jealous mind as getting me a GSP at end of August, ohhhhh the wait!!

 

[Infidel_Uk]

well the only alternative for me then is to go ahead and get the bumble bee gobys , trouble is my lfs dont have those, so itll mean travelling , just to see if i can locate some , its not a huge problem there are about 6 or 7 stores locally , 30 mile radius , i guess i could do that and add some plant life over the coming weeks, then go from there , perhaps add the f8`s later on ?

your story has a good ending, lets hope i don't suffer the same fate ....

 

[lilacamy931]

You seem to have a caring attitude, I am sure you will be a great mum to the F8s when you get them (I travelled 1 hour each way to get the DPs as no where local - mad I know )

 

[Infidel_Uk]

lol @ mum , thanks tho , by the end of the week ill have fish

 

[Wills]

If you can find a plant named hornwart it is a ridiculously fast growing plant if you got say a 30cm stem and cut it down to 6 5cm stems they would reach the surface in 2 weeksish I personally like it as a background bush but others hate it but I think if you could get hold of some of this it is usually cheap and pad out areas of the tank untill you get it planted how you like it I think it would be easy to accomodate your fig 8s

 

[Infidel_Uk]

ok coolio, ill ask about ....

 

[Infidel_Uk]

ive looked about , found a few sites with hornwart details , sounds ideal, but where do i buy the bleeding stuff, lol