First Time Bracker

[myenigmaself]

Hey Everyone,

Well, I have (had?) vast plans to setup a freshwater setup that look like they will most likely be derailed by going brackish. I recently purchased a 55g/29g setup with stand and all. I have plans to turn the 29g into a sump, and I'm investigating options for stocking. My better half and I had decided on some species of puffer, and that's about it. As of this morning I had picked out South American Puffers and I was investigating options for tankmates. My search kept bringing me back to figure 8 puffers (and these were suggested by some other forum members, thank you!). Sooo, I'm thinking I might do it. I've never setup a brackish tank before, so bear with me (also I have at least a couple weeks before I need to make any concrete decisions).

55g:
Figure 8's (not sure how many, maybe 2? I'm not sure how many can be kept peacefully. I saw one guy with 4 in a 55g but that sounded like playing with fire)
Bumble Bee Gobys (again, not sure how many, ideas?)
Sand substrate
Lots of driftwood to break everything up
I was also thinking about a moss wall on the back, but I'll probably do that later

29g (refugium):
Ghost Shrimp Breeder tank (does anyone know if they'll breed in brackish water? how many I should get for optimum multiplication?)
Lots of plants (any recommended species?)

10g:
I also have another tank I'd like to breed snails in (for the fig 8). Any suggestions?

From what I've read I should be keeping the specific gravity at 1.005 (I saw this for the 8's, is it good for the gobys too?). I should be avoiding anything metal. Am I really going to need a protein skimmer (I'm thinking no, as the recommended salinity is still pretty low)? And I should use crushed oyster shell as my bio-media in the sump?

I've started going through nmonk's faqs, but it's going to take me a while to get through all that great information What am I getting myself into???

So thanks for any tips or tricks you can give me! I feel like I'm a complete noob here

 

[myenigmaself]

Oh yeah, one other thing. Are there any other gobys that would go well with figure 8s? [URL="http/www.liveaquaria.com/"]http/www.liveaquaria.com/[/URL] has figure 8s, bumble bee gobys, and ghost shrimp, so I'm thinking I'll probably just get them all from there, but I'd like to know a little more about my options. Thanks!

 

[nmonks]

In a 55 gallon system, I'd actually keep a decent sized group of Figure-8s, maybe six. That way the odds of bullying are much lower. They aren't an especially territorial species, and generally behave themselves when kept in groups.

SG 1.005 is fine for a wide variety of brackish water species. Really anything that doesn't need near-marine conditions should be fine. A skimmer won't work at SG 1.005 though; you need 1.010+.

Most small gobies should be fine with Figure-8s, but I'd avoid anything slow, like violet gobies. Awaous and knight gobies should be okay, but this does seem to vary.

Cheers, Neale

 

[iliveinazoo]

I'm not an experienced keeper by far but i can say that an SG of 1.005 will be fine - I have 2 figure 8 puffers, 4 bumblebee gobies and a halfbeak and the salinity has varied from 1.003 - 1.007 (majority of the time it is 1.004).

Some of the plants began to suffer once the salinity rose above 1.005 - the hornwort almost vanished. My plants include:

Cryptocorne Wendtii - after settling in has done fine although has not grown much.
Java fern - very successful
java moss - very successful
Apongenton Crispus - successful
Bacopa Monieri - successful
Hornwort - successful
Vallis (can't remember what type) - successful

All of the above apart from the vallis grew profusely when i dosed with easy carbo however it kills Vallis so i stopped doing it and have kept the salinity low since then. Lighting is 1.5W per USgallon.

My experience with figure 8's is that they are placid however other people say that they should be kept in a species only tank.
A lot of the freshwater shrimps are brackish like amano and cherry shrimps but i'm not sure about ghost shrimps.
try to breed snails with a soft shell - if you are going to use freshwater snails then pond snails will do.
Skimmer won't be necessary.

 

[nmonks]

Interesting. I wonder if you had a pH crisis? Vallisneria is usually very tough, but one thing it hates is a rapid drop in pH. Since CO2 by definition lowers pH unless you take steps to prevent this, it's possible pH dropped in your tank.

Cheers, Neale

All of the above apart from the vallis grew profusely when i dosed with easy carbo however it kills Vallis so i stopped doing it...

 

[iliveinazoo]

Interesting. I wonder if you had a pH crisis? Vallisneria is usually very tough, but one thing it hates is a rapid drop in pH. Since CO2 by definition lowers pH unless you take steps to prevent this, it's possible pH dropped in your tank.

Cheers, Neale

I don't think so, I do use RO water as my tap water has nitrates around the 50ppm mark so to make the water harder and keep the PH up i dose Mg and Ca normally with a bit of potassium carbonate for good measure. The hardness and PH will obviously fluctuate so it might be a case of that but all plants did well except the Vallis which noticeably died off.

 

[myenigmaself]

Thanks guys! I'd heard of larger groups to keep down aggression in cichlids, but never in puffers before. Good call! The more the merrier.

I got a hydrometer, test kit, and some gravel for the refugium this afternoon. I also got my tank back from the glass driller today. I'm ready to kick things into high gear this weekend!

 

[jennybugs]

Hooray another F8 puffer convert

I have two F8s and 9 bumblebee gobies in a 140L metre long tank and I LOVE it! It's a basic tank with low lighting (1xT8 bulb) and it started off with valis, java fern and anubias in with moss balls. I couldn't keep the plants flourishing with such low lighting so I now have a fake mangrove root and silk plants with the moss balls. Works a treat as there's nothing that can die in there (even though I'd much rather have real plants)

I hear real mangrove plants are good for refugiums

 

[myenigmaself]

Yeah, I've heard the same thing about mangroves. They grow vertically pretty quickly though. I'm not sure how I feel about constant trimming. Has anyone had experience with mangrove and can speak to that?

Also, all my parts are shipped and on their way, so we're good to go. My last issue is finding snails. I was hoping to have an established snail tank by now. I think this weekend I'll have to check out some of the fish stores on the west side of the city, but they're basically clones of the ones on the east side so I'm not holding my breath. Maybe I'll get lucky though. Wish me luck!

 

[seffieuk]

I have two f8s with three knight gobies in a 180 ltr tank - really wish i had bought a group of fig 8s though, it is my one regret! Bing and Bong get on well with the knight gobies, never been any problems at all Did try bumble bee gobies but lost every one of them

Been keeping a space for some yellow chromis, but never been able to source any

Seffie x

 

[myenigmaself]

Hi seffieuk. Did you loose your bumble bees to disease or predation? I thought they were a pretty hardy fish.

 

[myenigmaself]

FYI, I started workin' on the tanks:

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=276116"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=276116[/URL]

 

[jennybugs]

Bumblebee gobies can be notoriously hard to feed (so I have heard) but I must be doing something right as mine are all little fatties

 

[iliveinazoo]

Bumblebee gobies can be notoriously hard to feed (so I have heard) but I must be doing something right as mine are all little fatties

Apparently so but mine ate like little beasts from the start as well.

If you notice that they aren't feeding though try live food like brine shrimp or daphnia, that should perk them up a bit.

 

[seffieuk]

I don't know why I lost them, tank was mature and under stocked, I have never had any disease nor do I think they were predated, tank stats were all good, and they seemed to eat well - it was a mystery!

I have never tried another group, maybe I should

Seffie x