Post #13
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Member No.: 21261
I bought my first T. Ocellatus about 12 months ago. I placed it in a 40 gallon high tank, in the corner of my dining room. After the purchase I did my research(cart in front of the horse right) I found little info and even less good news about the future of my new fish. Well, being completely new to puffers i figured i would just do the best i could. I fed beef heart, chicken livers, live feeder fish, snails, and some of my convict cichlids that just wouldnt stop breeding. After 3 months of success i bought a second. each one was about 2-3 inches when purchased. Well anyway, a year later i have 2 of these puffers, and a convict that was apparently too aggressive for them to eat in the tank. The water is somewhere between fresh and brackish, i dont pay close attention to salt content, sometimes i add some, and sometimes i dont. I do water changes about once every 2 weeks, not religously, occasionally they will go a month. the 3 fish will easily wipe out 100 feeders a week if you let them. I limit them to closer to 50. The Puffers are about 6 inches now, very active, and seem fine. They nip each other a little bit if i dont feed them often enough. there diet is now primarily feeders. I supplement in some beef heart, and some bloodworms on occasion. I havent had any beak problems yet, I think they wear them down on the shells in the bottom of the tank or perhaps on the drift wood thats in there. its a moderately planted tank, and is filtered by a marineland 330 biowheel. i keep it about 78 degrees sometimes higher sometimes a bit lower.
From everything i have read, i do everything wrong. And if thats the case i will probably continue to do everything wrong. They are probably my 2 favorite fish out of the 200+ i own.
i will break out the hydrometer in a couple days and let you knwo the salt content if anyone is intersted.
