freshwater to brackish

[ingo_1978]

I have a freshwater tank containg a figure eight puffer which I would like to turn brackish.

Can anyone help me out with how I can do this and cycle with minimum stress to the fish?

 

[Pufferpack]

First off I hope your tank is already cycled, if not you may want to find a cycled tank to keep the little fella in until yours is finished cycling. Puffers being a scaleless fish usually do not survive cycling a tank, and if they do are usually stunted and sickly.
If the tank is already cycled you can change the water over slowly with water changes, adding BW a bit at a time to raise your Sg with each water change (I believe not more than .002 per week). If you check some of the older posts I think the whole process is described in detail.

 

[ingo_1978]

Yes my tank is already cycled. I did a fishless cycle before adding him.

Sound easy enough, but I thought the salt water killed the bacteria that breaks down ammonia in freshwater and therefore it had to be cycled again.

I will follow your advice and do a search though

thanks

 

[appleblossom]

hey ingo_1978

yes it is true that saltwater (marine) bacteria are different from freshwater, but figure eight puffers like a low brackish salt level (around SG 1.005, nowehere near marine levels) At this low level of salt, the freshwater bacteria will survive and you wont need to cycle your tank again.

Increasing the salt level very slowly will ensure that the puffer is not stressed unduly.

once your tank is brackish you could consider adding some brackish species like bumblebee gobies (im biased of course because i have a tank with fig 8's and bumblebee gobies) depending on the tank size.