Dwarf puffers In!!

[Rudy2860]

i placed an order for 5 dwarf puffs and today they came in! they're so cute , i have 5 of them in a 20g and they seem to be doing great


but get this, the lfs was insisting that the were brackish!!!!!
i tried to tell them that they're fresh water but they just didnt seem to listen

poor guys
i aclimatized them by adding little amounts of FW to their lfs bag and released them into the tank after about an hour and a half of doing this.


I'm guessing tail curling is a sign of stress becuase they all seemed to be doing it when i added them and while they were in the bag
now that they're in the tank they seem to be doing it less and less and are starting to explore!

 

[jread]

i placed an order for 5 dwarf puffs and today they came in! they're so cute , i have 5 of them in a 20g and they seem to be doing great


but get this, the lfs was insisting that the were brackish!!!!!
i tried to tell them that they're fresh water but they just didnt seem to listen

poor guys
i aclimatized them by adding little amounts of FW to their lfs bag and released them into the tank after about an hour and a half of doing this.


I'm guessing tail curling is a sign of stress becuase they all seemed to be doing it when i added them and while they were in the bag
now that they're in the tank they seem to be doing it less and less and are starting to explore!

Congrats!!

Yes, they were probably curling from the discomfort they felt of being in brackish water... poor things. LFS's are so ignorant sometimes Over at the Dwarf Puffer Site, we have many people whose LFS's told them they were brackish.

 

[Rudy2860]

they seem to be doing great
they're even hunting some of the baby snails that have gone wild in the tank

 

[Lithril]

Congrats on the puffers, I'm sure they'll do fine, keep us posted.

A lot of people have different views on water conditions that puffers live in, Figs of 8 for instance are often sold as FW, which maybe the case when they're babies, but as they grow up in the wild they move into slightly brackish water. Dwarfs will tolerate some salt but will definately not be happy in the long run. It can be handy though when fighting ich.

 

[myenigmaself]

How about this from the LFS. When I first bought my puffers I was told (when I asked) that they were explicetly fresh water and would eat anything (normal frozen/dried food). When my puffers weren't eating for a few days I was worried so I went back to the store. I was then told that they were to be in a brackish setup (they had recently gotten some brackish puffers, so I think the woman was confused). I didn't have the room to set up another tank to be brackish so I did my research and discovered that they were supposed to be in fresh water, and that they only ate live food. Thanks for the info LFS! At a later date I got another larger fresh water puffer, who wasn't getting along well with the other puffers, nor eating. After a few days I went back to the LFS to ask if there was anything to do or if I should be worried. The man at the LFS said no, it's common that puffers won't eat for a week or so when introducing them into a new tank and that it was nothing to worry about. The puffer got tremendously skinny and died four days later (anyone with dwarfs know that they get a little belly when they eat, and this puffer had none). Not good experiences with puffer information from the LFS.