Figure 8 Puffer Emergency

[didz04]

Hi, i brought this f8 puffer 4days ago, hes been eating properly until yesterday, he just wont eat a thing. is this normal behavior?? ive been feeding him frozen blood worms.
he's been kept with 5 small cichlids, pictus catfish and sucking loach.
He hasnt been bullied at all and is very active.


Just to note that he was bought in a freshwater aquarium from viscum in doncaster.

Any help will be great...thanks

 

[nmonks]

Figure-8 puffers need brackish water, and sooner or later usually "go wrong" kept in freshwater tanks. I assume you have read up on this fish before buying it, and the reason he's in a freshwater tank is because you're cycling his brackish water aquarium. While he can go without food a week or two without harm, you will need to move him to his new brackish water home sooner rather than later.

Cheers, Neale

 

[didz04]

Thanks for your reply, i know they are brackish fish, but i was told they will need to be put into brackish when they get bigger as he is quite small at the moment.
but if this is not the case i think im going to give it to some one who has a brackish tank.
any ideas how i could get it to eat for 2nite and tommorow
I really love puffers and always wanted to have a chance to have one in my tank. can you consider any freshwater that will be suitable with small cichlids?


Thanks

 

[nmonks]

There really aren't any.

Pufferfish are generally kept alone, which is why keeping brackish water species is no big deal; indeed, ick and velvet won't occur in brackish water, and fungal infections are much less common. Salt also detoxifies nitrate, which provides a major benefit when keeping puffers, since they're very sensitive to nitrate. This is why all the puffers that became established in the hobby early on where brackish water species -- they were easier to keep. And for beginners, these remain by far the easiest puffers to look after.

While there are some good freshwater puffers, none make sense with cichlids. I have kept South American puffers and Carinotetraodon irrubesco with things like kribs and acara, but the cichlids do get nipped, and conversely, the puffers and cichlids do fight over hiding places. It's just not a great combination. Much better to concentrate on a puffer species you like, and then research what, if any, fish go well with them. In the case of figure-8s, it's bumblebee gobies that seem to work best.

Cheers, Neale

I really love puffers and always wanted to have a chance to have one in my tank. can you consider any freshwater that will be suitable with small cichlids?

 

[divegirl]

I posted a reply in the emergency section....but you have recieved perfect advice from Neale.
I have 3 F8's....my first foray into Brackish water, they are an absolute joy to keep. If you can't keep your Puffer in a Brackish tank you really should re-home him to someone who can....preferably not back to the LFS if they sold him as freshwater!

Lisa x

 

[didz04]

I posted a reply in the emergency section....but you have recieved perfect advice from Neale.
I have 3 F8's....my first foray into Brackish water, they are an absolute joy to keep. If you can't keep your Puffer in a Brackish tank you really should re-home him to someone who can....preferably not back to the LFS if they sold him as freshwater!

Lisa x

yeah that's what i thought that i can't take it back to the LFS shop, they have night gobies in freshwater aswell which normally they are brackish.
I know some people and read also people have kept figure eight's in freshwater and almost fully grown up. I checked my ph which was fine at 7.4/7.5 and it was my nitrate that was almost at 10 so i have been doing constant small water changes and he is doing fine and even eating. Can these puffers go into full marine which i have read? Because I have a relative who has marine which i could put him into, however if it is best not to, he said he a 90l fish tank which he can make into brackish. I will have to wait for the water to be fully cycled.
The puffer seems fine at the moment so it is not too much of an emergency to say that he has been in freshwater all his life.
Thanks for the help from people who have posted and the ones in advance.

 

[nmonks]

Can these puffers go into full marine which i have read?

No; while it's sometimes mentioned, I wonder if it's actually confusion with Tetraodon fluviatilis, which has quite similar markings.

The puffer seems fine at the moment so it is not too much of an emergency to say that he has been in freshwater all his life.

These puffers are certainly healthy in clean, hard, basic freshwater for weeks, months, even a year or two in some cases. But like all brackish water fish they are simply not as healthy in freshwater as brackish, and their lives are shorter. Since this species can't be kept in a community tank (loaches, catfish, etc. are all likely to nipped eventually) switching it to its own aquarium is going to be necessary anyway. So the fact it needs brackish water is neither here nor there. A specific gravity of 1.003 at 25 C is adequate, and that's only 6-7 grammes of marine salt mix per litre, so isn't at all expensive to do.

The "all his life" statement is a bit misleading. In many cases brackish water fish enter freshwater when young, and as they mature, they move into brackish water habitats or even the sea. So while juveniles may be fine in freshwater, the adults are not. To be fair, in this case, Tetraodon biocellatus likely moves in between freshwater and brackish water habitats all its life. But still, it wouldn't spend its entire life in freshwater, and sooner or later it would swim into brackish water for at least a while. It's also worth mentioning the juveniles being sold are only a few months old, certainly yearlings. Properly kept, specimens in brackish water tanks have lived for over ten years.

Cheers, Neale