figure 8 puffers

[fishygeezer]

Hi all, i.ve not had a tank in a few years but after recently moving i have the space again!!!!
I've bought a 36 15 17 inch 40 gallon with a fluval external filter,heater,twin tubes and sand(childrens sand i rinsed out) i set up the tank yesterday to start the cycling process i'm going to let nature take its course and not add biomature etc.
What i fancy stocking is some figure of eight puffers a nugget plec and maybe a few smaller cichlids,what sort of fish numbers do you reckon i could have??i was thinking 3 puffers 3 cichlids +plec or do u think i could have more?
Also any ideas on a budget way of aquiring some rocks for my tank the fish shop is very expensive!!!
Any advice appreciated

 

[Paul_MTS]

firstly, if you want a puffer your going to have to keep it on it's own basically. The figure 8 is also a brackish species which requires a certain degree of salt in the water which you can't add with the other mentioned fish.

so without the puffer you could stock with a golden nugget and a few carefully selected cichlids. I won't mention any names as I'm not the best on them!

what are you adding to start the cycle by the way? just by leaving the tank running does nothing.

 

[fishygeezer]

I'm going to add a couple of gallons of water out of a friends tropical tank do you think this will be enough to get the cycle started?
Sure i read somewhere you can keep cichlids with puffers i will try to find the site where i found it but i appreciate your opinion,one puffer with a max size of 3 inch seems v small for a 3ft tank!!
I'm aware of the brackish water pufferfish prefer but not sure what other species would make suitable tankmates,i'm in no hurry to stock the tank got plenty of things to keep me busy for a few weeks (plants-rocks etc to organise)and want to try n make sure i have no casulties!
Also thinking about a small tank for snail breeding as it seems to be important for the puffers diet/beaks..

 

[Paul_MTS]

some sites will say that some puffers can mix with others, but in the end your going to have a fat litle puffer and a masacar in your tank!

there's nothing you can really stock with a brackish puffer in that size tank.

your best off thinking up some other stocking options.

water from another tank does basically nothing for your tank. the best way to cycle a tank is to use pure ammonia if you can get your hands on it, if not add a few hardy fish.

cheap rocks such as slate and cobbles can be attained cheaply from a agregates yard or a garden centre.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

I'm going to add a couple of gallons of water out of a friends tropical tank do you think this will be enough to get the cycle started?

the beneficial bacteria live in the gravel and on the other surfaces of the tank. adding old tank water will only contribute ammonia&nitrates.

Sure i read somewhere you can keep cichlids with puffers i will try to find the site where i found it but i appreciate your opinion,one puffer with a max size of 3 inch seems v small for a 3ft tank!!

well, that site is mostly mistaken. it is generally recommended to keep puffers in species tanks, maybe with an algae eater or a bottom-dweller or two. as for one fish in a 3ft tank... welcome to the wonderful world of killer fish.

I'm aware of the brackish water pufferfish prefer but not sure what other species would make suitable tankmates,i'm in no hurry to stock the tank got plenty of things to keep me busy for a few weeks (plants-rocks etc to organise)and want to try n make sure i have no casulties!

not all puffers are brackish. f8s are brackish, but there are many purely freshwater puffers. be warned that very few plants can make it in a brackish environment. and if you're not wanting any casualties... don't put any cichlids in there. only the orange chromide is a true brackish cichlid and again, puffers really shouldn't be kept in close quarters with anything you don't want eaten. (if you don't mind feeding the puffer, all the varieties of mollies like salt in their water. the other livebearers like salt as well, but mollies do the best in high salinity water.)

Also thinking about a small tank for snail breeding as it seems to be important for the puffers diet/beaks..

this is spot on.

 

[Pufferpunk]

If you like F8s you could keep a nice BW tank w/3-4 F8s & a variety of gobies (knights, bumblebees, dragons).

 

[CFC]

don't put any cichlids in there. only the orange chromide is a true brackish cichlid

Actually there are lots of Cichlids which live in brackish waters but they are just not popular in the hobby and so little heard of, there is also a green Chromide which also lives in brackish Asian waters like the orange Chromide.

 

[chris_1127]

i'm sure i read a post recently about kribs doing ok in light brackish water too. still dont think i'd mix them with figure 8's though... think in your situation i'd go with some of the gobies suggested by pufferpunk

 

[Pufferpunk]

The cromides are the only true BW cichlids that I am aware of. Other cichlids use a different kind of salt. Kribs can tolerate very low-end BW but are not really BW fish.

 

[CFC]

Wild populations of Cichlasoma facetum, Geophagus brassiliensis, Pevicachromis pulcher, Oreochromis mossambicus and Tilapia zillii are all found in brackish enviroments and this is just the few i can recall from when i was researching what i could stock my brackish tanks with other than the usual run of the mill brackish fish available in stores.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

while i encountered some of those when i was contemplating my own brackish setup, the information i could find was rather conflicting. my concern would be that while those species are found in brackish waters, they may not be perfectly adapted to them and might suffer if restricted to a long-term brackish environment. the chromides were the only cichlids that i found to be avowedly brackish and suited to a "wide" range of salinities. i suppose what i mostly wanted to point out (and what has since been illustrated) is that not just any cichlid or fish can be kept in a brackish aquarium. the selection is quite limited.

not that any of this matters, since you can't keep cichlids and an f8 in a 30g anyways.

 

[fishygeezer]

Thanks for the advice ppl i've bought a bottle of nutrafin cycle to speed the process up and i'm going to have a good think about keeping puffer/s,i'm going to readup about the other types of puffer ideally a true fresh water puffer that i could mix with a couple other types of fish would be best,i really like the character puffers and he would be the main attraction.
Not sure it makes much diff but my tanks a 40g not 30g.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

erm... there's really not much you can mix with a puffer besides bottom dwellers, feeders and (maybe) more of his own kind.

 

[Erised]

If you really will insist on putting other fish in with them, I suggest you get 3 South American Puffers, 1 bristlenose plec and try to find some freshwater bumblebee gobies (around 5). Do not try to keep anything other than those fish with any puffer, not the SAP either (though they are said to be the most peaceful of freshwater puffers, they can and will still inflict serious damage).

Only do this though, if you have another tank cycled to move the plec and gobies into the moment it goes wrong. Also, keep up with your twice a week water changes, with messy fish like SAP & plecs, you'll need to do this. The SAPs are very very sensitive fish, and do not tolerate any ammonia in the water at all.

--Edit--

Know that nothing, absolutely nothing, will guarantee your fish to be happy or survive when being kept in with puffers. Puffers do not tend to tolerate any fish in their territory, and can, even after years, turn onto their tankmates they were once peaceful with.

Read up on puffers, think very very very well first to make sure you're really willing to take the risk of killing innocent fish, and do not attempt this unless you're certain you can give them the best homes you can think of.

 

[congo dude]

i think it shud b one puffer on his own or no puffer at all