Want To Keep Puffers In Specialised Tank

[jenny6165]

i must admit, ive only had my tropical fish for about a month now, and i take care of them as best i can. ive done loads of research and have spent a fortune trying to keep them happy.

anyway,
ive fallen in love with puffer fish, and from what i understand, they have to live in a brackish tank.

can anyone tell me what sort of tank size you need (in litres please if poss), and how many puffers you can keep together if at all.
also, how long does it take to set up, is it the same as a tropical tank that needs to cycle.

 

[Fella]

i must admit, ive only had my tropical fish for about a month now, and i take care of them as best i can. ive done loads of research and have spent a fortune trying to keep them happy.

anyway,
ive fallen in love with puffer fish, and from what i understand, they have to live in a brackish tank.

can anyone tell me what sort of tank size you need (in litres please if poss), and how many puffers you can keep together if at all.
also, how long does it take to set up, is it the same as a tropical tank that needs to cycle.

What kind of puffers do you want to keep? there are plenty of different species.

 

[nmonks]

Puffers are great fish, and figure-8s have a lovely balance of colour, outgoing personality, and size. They're excellent fish.

Anyway, I'd plan around a 40-50 litres tank for a single specimen, given these fish do get to about 8 cm long and are very active. Scale that up if you want to keep multiple specimens (certainly possible though not without risks). When puffers co-habit, they need lots of hiding places so that each fish can take a break from any aggression in the tank if it wants to. Having three or four specimens will almost certainly be safer than having just two. Fill with lava rocks (or something similar with lots of caves), real or plastic plants, and provide a good strong filter.

Puffers cannot be used to cycle tanks. Your best approach is to take around half the filter medium from the established tank and kick-start the filter in the new tank that way (a process called "cloning" if you want to search the forum for more info). This will mean you can put the puffer in straightaway, because the new tank will effectively be almost mature from the get-go. At this point, the new tank should be freshwater, just like your other tank. Now, each week you do a water change, add brackish water at SG 1.005 to the aquarium. At a 20% water change per week, this will slowly raise the salinity in the aquarium, allowing the filter bacteria to adjust. Your puffer will be just fine in freshwater for a week, and adding only a little salty water at a time will do no harm either. After a month or two you should have a happy puffer in a cycled brackish water tank.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[jenny6165]

i quite like the figure 8 puffers, green spotted puffers, and perhaps dwarf puffers.

i really like the figure 8 ones tho.

Puffers are great fish, and figure-8s have a lovely balance of colour, outgoing personality, and size. They're excellent fish.

Anyway, I'd plan around a 40-50 litres tank for a single specimen, given these fish do get to about 8 cm long and are very active. Scale that up if you want to keep multiple specimens (certainly possible though not without risks). When puffers co-habit, they need lots of hiding places so that each fish can take a break from any aggression in the tank if it wants to. Having three or four specimens will almost certainly be safer than having just two. Fill with lava rocks (or something similar with lots of caves), real or plastic plants, and provide a good strong filter.

Puffers cannot be used to cycle tanks. Your best approach is to take around half the filter medium from the established tank and kick-start the filter in the new tank that way (a process called "cloning" if you want to search the forum for more info). This will mean you can put the puffer in straightaway, because the new tank will effectively be almost mature from the get-go. At this point, the new tank should be freshwater, just like your other tank. Now, each week you do a water change, add brackish water at SG 1.005 to the aquarium. At a 20% water change per week, this will slowly raise the salinity in the aquarium, allowing the filter bacteria to adjust. Your puffer will be just fine in freshwater for a week, and adding only a little salty water at a time will do no harm either. After a month or two you should have a happy puffer in a cycled brackish water tank.

Cheers,

Neale

ah, thanks for that. need to go find the bits about filter medium stuff on the forum, but what i gather your saying is to take half of the sponges out of my current filter and put them into the new tanks filter? or, are you saying take 50% of the water out of my freshwater and put that into the new tank with some of the sponge filter stuff from freshwater?
oh wow i think i just got myself confused

 

[jenny6165]

ok, ive searched the forum and i cant find a sticky on cloning. argh


also, edited to add:

is a brackish tank the same as buying a tropical tank just adding salt? ie, there isnt a specialized type of tank ur meant to buy is there?

 

[BiffMalawi]

Same tank. For low brackish as you are considering there is no specialized equipment required except marine salt and a hydrometer for measuring salt content. Filters, heaters, etc are all the same.

 

[MoMa]

As Brackish "Equipment" I would add a few 5 gallon buckets (depending on the size of your tank) and a small heater for each one.
When you mix the marine salt & water, it takes a little bit for it to dissolve -- don't want it to get too cold.
An air stone in the bucket helps dissolve the salt quicker (but be prepared for some splashover).