Puffers

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ghostknife

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I have recently purchased a 60x30x30cm (UK12 gallon) aquarium what kind of pufferfish could i keep. I was thinking of (only one of these species):
-Figure of Eight puffer
-Topaz puffer
-South American puffer
-Congo puffer
-Dwarf puffer
-Red Eye Puffer (carinotetraodon lorteti)
- Red Eye Puffer

Which of the following specimens would be suitable (i don't like dwarf puffer they are too small)?

My local store says that i could keep two topaz puffers in my tank is this true? or would it be just one? Does anyone have any info on this species eg. FW or BW?
 
if you mean a t. fluviatilis by a topaz then noway hose, they're supposed to grow to about 20cm, will tolerate fw but do better in brackish, need much bigger tank even for a single one.
Fig 8's you could fit one in there at a push but again brackish fish and 12g's quite small to go brackish with
South Americans will get v slightly larger than a fig 8 and are very active, i'd be reluctant to stick one in a 12g but you might be ok with one.
Red-eyes (lortetis); smaller than the above but personally i wouldnt put more than one in a 12g due to intraspecific aggression - i've a pair in a 20g that were fine together at first but the male is now taking snipes at the female when he sees her, its not too bad as theyre in a planted 20g so plenty of room and hiding places but in a smaller tank a pair might be trouble. They both get on fine with the dwarfs that are in there with them though, no aggression at all - and they completely ignore my otos too.

In a tank that small you are unfortunately a bit limited, in your position i think i'd go for a single male red-eye (much nicer colouration than the female) and maybe a couple of dwarf puffers at a push?
 
I have researched the topaz puffer and i found out that Topaz puffers (t. steindachneri/cf. biocellatus) are either a different species or a colour form of the fig 8 puffer. They only get to 6cm and according to fish base and the baensch atlases fig. 8 puffers are freshwater fish and baensch even says that they should definitely not be kept in brackish water.

Two of the shops that i visit are selling them and both are keeping the topaz puffers in freshwater at the moment.
 
Have to agree with chris, Fig 8's are brackish fish. They are often sold as FW though and can handle FW while young but should be in an sg of 1.005 - 1.008 by the time they are adult.

Jon
 
I would say, either 1 or maybe 2 SAP's. Or you could have 2-4 Red-Eyed Puffers for they only grow to 2.5". The SAP's however grow to 6" but usually only 4".
 
ghostknife said:
I have researched the topaz puffer and i found out that Topaz puffers (t. steindachneri/cf. biocellatus) are either a different species or a colour form of the fig 8 puffer. They only get to 6cm and according to fish base and the baensch atlases fig. 8 puffers are freshwater fish and baensch even says that they should definitely not be kept in brackish water.

Two of the shops that i visit are selling them and both are keeping the topaz puffers in freshwater at the moment.
theres loads of different names that are used however a topaz and a figure 8 are definitely different fish. Figure 8's are biocellatus, topaz are fluviatilis. all the info ive read states both will tolerate freshwater (they are usually caught as juveniles in freshwater and hence arrive at the LFS in fresh) but do much better in brackish - fig. 8's in mild brackish and topaz increasing in salinity at adulthood. The topaz's that a lfs had in fresh for a couple of months were very ich and fungus prone - i'd imagine keeping them in fresh long-term would result in similar ongoing problems. Figure 8's will get to 6cm, but topaz's will get much much bigger - i've seen juvenile topaz's in a LFS that dwarf my figure 8's and i definitely wouldnt put them in a 2ft tank. You need to take another look at these topaz puffers -if they have an eyespot at the base of the dorsal fin then they are biocellatus, if theres no eyespot then i'd suspect theyre fluviatilis and are gonna get biiiig.

If you could stretch to a slightly bigger tank id highly reccomend a pair of figure 8's though as theyre great, active, interesting little fish

edit. also i cant comment on irrubescos but i definitely wouldnt keep 4 lorteti red-eyes in a 12g - im happy keeping 2 in my 20g because its well planted and the smaller female can keep out of the aggressive male's eyesight, and he doesnt pursue her to attack her unless he can see her. IMO i dont think a 12g would give 4 red-eyes the teritory or space to keep out of each others ways.
 
Gimli i was reading your signature so what is a dragon puffer i have never heard of one?

I went on an internet site (www.the tropicaltank.co.uk) and the person who runs it has a pair of red-eyed puffers with a trio of dwarf puffers but i can't remeber how big the tank was. Could i do this?
 
STOP!
red eye puffers need
10g each & dwarfs 3g (u.s)
do not mix puffers without experiance with them & a spare tank I sugest getting a single specimen. they are active & full of personallity.
I keep sevaral fully cycled spare tanks for my puffers
3 sap's
5 dp's
1 fig8
 
whenever you hear about an unusual combination of fish, don't immediately assume that it can be replicated. or that is even necessarily a sucess. always ask these questions:

(1) how long has this been going on? a lot of people insist that their oscars and minnows are overjoyed to be living together based on just a couple of weeks' experience. oh for sure oscars and feeder goldfish can get along just marvelously -- for about 10 minutes. a general rule of thumb is 6 months, and then it might be considered a semi-permenant state.

(2) under what circumstances was the combination entered into? actually, the answer i'd prefer to hear for this one is ignorance. i have a rather pleasent puffer who doesn't do much besides shake snails. i found this out by putting him with some guppies and a khulii loach when i didn't know any better. i wouldn't have done this had i done any reasearch beyond looking at fishbase and foster&smith. i wouldn't trust the opinion of anyone who has flown in the face of all experience and guidance to do just whatever they d### well please. this is mainly because their attitude and desire to be "right" are going to color their interpretation of events. things that happen by accident are generally less biased than any situation entered into to prove something.
 
who me
I keep all my fish in correct conditions the f8 is in a separate brackish tank.
they live in a 40g my other puffers.
I am not an ignorantpuffer keeper I have had great succsess for over a year now,
Before you pre judge me find out whatI actualy do.
 
Fish00 said:
no, not you. :rolleyes: you gave great advice. i'm giving a general warning really.

there's nothing quite like reading someone's post "oh i'm keeping such-and-such together, no problems, everything's great..." and then two weeks later they ask "hey, what ate all the fins off my angels? and why do my dwarfs look so fat and happy?"
 
pica_nuttalli said:
i wouldn't trust the opinion of anyone who has flown in the face of all experience and guidance to do just whatever they d### well please. this is mainly because their attitude and desire to be "right" are going to color their interpretation of events. things that happen by accident are generally less biased than any situation entered into to prove something.
what, you think i put the combination of fish together just to prove a point and say i was right?? c'mon i got better ways to amuse myself!! i put the two together after hearing from people who had had success with this combination - fish00 included - and was ready from the start to move either to other tanks if problems arose - and still am. In hindsight maybe this wasnt the best thing to advise to someone new to puffers, however i've found it an interesting combo that has worked for me so far.
 
:D thnks for sharing that info!! i actually wasn't talking about you either and can't remember what your adventure consisted of... but thanks for filling in the background.

there are people out there who don't have good reasons for their combinations and who would try something without being prepared for it to go wrong. these are generally the same people who crow success after only two weeks trying.

its so easy to give and recieve advice in a vaccuum, especially via the internet. my main point was that we should not just to accept advice or reccommendations at face value only, just as we shouldn't give advice without references. my example of the dwarf puffers vs angels is loosely based on something i read on this very forum! someone said they were keeping dwarfs in a community setting and everything was great, you should try it. then not even four days later, they were asking what should they do about their dwarf puffers, which they had had for two weeks, attacking things in the tank.

that's mainly the sort of advice i'm warning against, the sort of advice that puts 4 lortetis with dwarves in a 12 gallon. i really was not fussing about anyone in this thread in particular, but it does seem i hit a nerve. i'm sorry if anyone was offended, but i think those two questions are important to ask when you're contemplating a potentially volatile arrangement. and i also think those sorts of questions don't get asked often enough.

--edited for silly grammar mistakes--
 

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