Advice On Puffer Keeping? =]

[lukkylady]

I have an aquastart 500 which hold 65 litres.

Currently has sand and fake plants in, a fluval u1, and 6 zebra danios.

Would really like a puffer for my tank, and plan to update the filter to a U3, and when puffer grows, update to a larger tank.

I dont know whether to stay freshwater, or have a go at brackish? have kept marines before, so have some experience with salt, etc

I have seen in lfs so far, red eye puffers and figure 8 puffers.

Will I have to get remove danios? and is the U3 too strong for this tank?

any other info would be great!

 

[AdAndrews]

Any puffer suitable for that tank will not go with the danios, you have a couple of options:

dwarf puffers or
red eye(or red eye red tail) i think a couple of these may be kept in a tank that size, these are freshwater.
possibly 1 figure 8(im unsure as ive never kept it, but i belive your tank would be too small) plus this species is brackish and will require a specific gravity of 1.003-1.005

puffers are messy fish so will require strong filtration. they are also highly intelligent and will get bored easily in an plain tank, you will need to provide intrest, plants, rocks, wood etc, will provide this.

Adam.

 

[nmonks]

I have kept Carinotetraodon irrubesco with danios, Danio choprae to be precise, and they seemed to get along fine. However, I will make the observation that when I kept a pair of Carinotetraodon irrubesco in a relatively small tank (I think 60 litres) all they did was hide among the plants. They weren't obviously unhappy and certainly weren't sick, but neither were they particularly entertaining. As soon as I moved them to a 180 litre tank, they became far more outgoing, even though there were more, busier fish alongside them. I subsequently bought another pair, and the two males in particular now routinely swim up to the top of the tank where they can beg for food. Females, oddly enough, seem to be a bit more territorial and usually stay near their chosen caves or hiding places.

In other words, while Carinotetraodon irrubesco could work in a 65 litre tank, I wouldn't recommend it.

Cheers, Neale

 

[lukkylady]

thanks for the replies!

i would be upgrading the tank, but maybe not for a few months yet.

would i be better going down the brackish route? and getting a figure 8 puffer? and giving the danios back to the lfs?

then i can put the puffer in a bigger tank in a few months time?

i did have a vision 180, but sold as thought was giving up fish for a while

that didnt last long!

 

[nmonks]

would i be better going down the brackish route? and getting a figure 8 puffer? and giving the danios back to the lfs?

Sure. But I'm not convinced a single figure-8 puffer would be much fun in a 65 litre tank. Bear in mind they don't mix with much, and a small tank with one puffer gets boring, fast.

then i can put the puffer in a bigger tank in a few months time?

If it were me, I'd get the Carinotetraodon irrubesco as and when you can (they don't turn up often, so are worth grabbing) and then upgrade the tank within the year. They're nice fish, and reasonably easy to keep alongside barbs, loaches and other fast-moving fish. They're also good with South American puffers.

Cheers, Neale

 

[lukkylady]

so can i put 2 red eye puffers in? or one?

and will a fluval U3 be ok for this tank?

 

[jennybugs]

I have kept Carinotetraodon irrubesco with danios, Danio choprae to be precise, and they seemed to get along fine. However, I will make the observation that when I kept a pair of Carinotetraodon irrubesco in a relatively small tank (I think 60 litres) all they did was hide among the plants. They weren't obviously unhappy and certainly weren't sick, but neither were they particularly entertaining. As soon as I moved them to a 180 litre tank, they became far more outgoing, even though there were more, busier fish alongside them. I subsequently bought another pair, and the two males in particular now routinely swim up to the top of the tank where they can beg for food. Females, oddly enough, seem to be a bit more territorial and usually stay near their chosen caves or hiding places.

In other words, while Carinotetraodon irrubesco could work in a 65 litre tank, I wouldn't recommend it.

Cheers, Neale

so can i put 2 red eye puffers in? or one?

I would listen to Neale's recommendation above tbh. I had a pair of C. irrubesco in a tank your sizee and like Neale I found them to hide all the time. I also had (unwittingly) purchased two males who fought like tooth and nail getting them home as the LFS put them in the same bag together. They then gave me a new male when one died from the wounds and that got battered too so I took them both back vowing to wait until I had a bigger tank and could get male and female pairs.

If it were me with your tank I'd either wait until you get the bigger tank and set it up specifically for your chosen puffers or get the danios out and get hold of 3 or 4 dwarf puffers and make the tank look like a jungle with loads of tall plants in to break up the line of sight. I'd go with the first option if you don't want to lose your danios though

 

[kterens]

hi. hope u wouldn't mind of small interruption.

have a similar situation like lukkylady (65l with vision of 180 within max 0.5y) but instead of danios have 3 green bottle puffer babies (or other kind of auriglobus i'm not sure, were sold as green puffers but they're certainly not), 5 orange chromides and mentionned above 2 irrubesco (due to the large crew tank is overfiltered). all of them were sold as barackish and temporarly have 1.002-1.003 gravity, but since started of googling i see they do not really fit each other (worried that i i'll have to give up with some of them).

since irrubesco is rather fresh water and tolerating barackish for short time would ask you a question parhaps you see any suitable solution in my case? i'm rather convinced to give up with green bottle ones since they're to big even for 180 and extreamly not polite as they grow up. what if i had gravity let say monthly oscilating from fresh to slide barackish? could irrubesco like it?

thanks

 

[jennybugs]

I'm pretty certain that irrubesco are 100% freshwater puffers so keeping them in low end brackish may well not be very good for them at all.
I am sure someone will verify that, but I kept mine in freshwater and not brackish like my figure 8's.

Auriglobus sp. are feshwater puffers too.

 

[kterens]

I'm pretty certain that irrubesco are 100% freshwater puffers so keeping them in low end brackish may well not be very good for them at all.

right, shouldn't cheet myself. means no chance to have my orange friends with irrubescu inside one tank as lfs expert convinced me to.

Auriglobus sp. are feshwater puffers too.

this topic seems not so easy neither for me -similar thing like to differentiate lorteti from irrubescu or even worst ( http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/309202-torpedo-puffer/ ). here the main problem for me, is not to have the "dexter fish" together with other tankmates, than not to put the cow inside the matchbox that i am not sure if i didn't.

thanks for help

 

[lesleyanndunn]

in the end i went for 2 dwarf puffers, and the danios were far too fast in the tank, the puffers went and hid!

so i gave the danios to my mum, and its just the puffers in the tank, they are settling in well

just to get them to eat now

 

[jennybugs]

I'm glad to hear your puffers are in a tank on their own. They will be much happier like that

It is not unusual for new puffers to stop eating for a while. What are you trying to feed them?

They love live bloodworms and will often eat frozen ones too along with enriched brine shrimp, snails the same size as their eyes, mysis shrimp, tubifex worms, blackworms etc.


Are they looking nice and round of the belly like they have swallowed a pea?

If they refuse to eat for some time, try soaking their food in a little garlic juice for a while before feeding. This can tempt them in to eating again.

Is your tank very very well planted? Remind me of the tank details again if you can. Just wanted to check it's big enough and that you have enough filtration in place

 

[lesleyanndunn]

well... been a slight change

i took the dwarf puffers back to lfs as wanted a larger puffer.

i did a 75% water change, and today went back to lfs and got two green spotted puffers

what a difference, they are just over an inch long, and ones nice and fat, other is a bit thin

but both eating bloodworm straight away and are exploring tank

i know the tank is 65litres, but will be upgrading to a much larger tank in the next few weeks

i have a fluval U3 filter on my tank, and will be doing 50% weekly water changes to keep water condition good

i have several caves etc in tank, and it is well planted, with open swimming spaces as well

will be slowly going brackish over next couple weeks as well

any info/advice i need?

have krill, and will be getting snails as well

 

[jennybugs]

Check out the brackish section as there are loads of threads and advice about them there