My Biocube 29 Setup

[Sarn1]

Here is my 29 gallon BioCube setup.

I've never had puffers or a planted brackish tank but the plan is to have 2 figure-8s & maybe 5 or so bumble bee gobies, I don't know if I can have a couple night gobies but I'd like to try if possible.

The aquascape is a mess, so far all I have is some anacharis. java moss & some flat slate rock. I've ordered hornwort, dwarf hair grass, pygmy chain sword, anubias lanceolata, & java fern. I will re-scape everything when the plants come in, should be this week.

The sg is currently at 1.001, I'm going to ramp it up to around 1.005+ once I get the plants in.

Please help with any suggestions/critique, I don't really have a plan & feel a bit unprepared.

 

[nmonks]

Knight gobies eat bumblebee gobies, so not a good combination. I personally wouldn't trust figure-8 puffers with knight gobies: the temptation to nip at the long fins of these midwater gobies would be just too tempting. Cheers, Neale

 

[didz04]

Thats really good that you are raising the salinity.
I'm still researching as I'm hoping to convert my tank to brackish, but if someone could correct me on this if i am wrong you should be fine with 2 F8 puffers or 2 gsp and maybe you should stick to 3 bumblebee's since they might not seem it but they are aggressive fish with each other, so you will need lots of cover for them (maybe some shells and caves (also made by rocks) and bogwood).
I have kept them in freshwater successfully and they ate well, but thats what you need to make sure.
Hmm, about the knight goby, I'm not sure about them but I heard they can be aggressive. I am hoping to keep them with gsp and bbg but when I had my bbg in my FW aquarium, I also had 2 purple spotted goby's which look almost identical to the knight goby bodywise. When I put them in they started chasing my bumblebee around and I quickly put in some blood worm which they ate and didn't go after them. Since then they didn't really chase them as I think they was just hungry and tired with that 1 hour & a half drive.
I had another goby really identical to the purple spotted but green but was blue when small, grew soo quick to 3.5" from 2" in 2 months and was bigger than them. When i put the purple spotted in I was excited to see how the old goby would react with them as he hasn't been with his own kind for ages, and he followed them about but since he was bigger they were both scared of the goby.
After a few days of following it annoyed the green goby (unidentified) as they were swimming away and the green goby just chased them around but this time more aggressively.

When it came to selling the bumblebee goby's (3) all three were alive with no damages and since the tank was big enough they swam by them selves but even got together near the rocky plants, like a gathering lol.

Sorry for blagging on about my experience, but hope there has been a little help there for you & hope you get more replies with advice.
Keep us updated

 

[iliveinazoo]

Didz04: Only 1 GSP could be kept in a tank that size and their salinty requirements don't match that of the other fish as they require a higher salinity as they mature.

Sarn1: I've found that plants will grow/survive much better at SG1.003 than SG1.005. Have you looked at the plant list at the top of the forum for brackish tolerant plant species?

 

[didz04]

Thanks for the correction, will 2 be suitable in a 4ft 40g tank?
If you have seen my other posts you will know that I am all over the place trying to find the right fish to stock and to get as much information as possible.
Thanks

 

[Sarn1]

Didz04: Only 1 GSP could be kept in a tank that size and their salinty requirements don't match that of the other fish as they require a higher salinity as they mature.

Sarn1: I've found that plants will grow/survive much better at SG1.003 than SG1.005. Have you looked at the plant list at the top of the forum for brackish tolerant plant species?

Ok, no knight gobies, just bumble bee & the figure-8s.


Fish Fanatic: I have checked the above posted plant species, it looks like all the plants I've listed will go up to at least 1.005. My concern is I don't want the figure-8 in water less than 1.005, from what I understand they like a sg of 1.005 - 1.008, so 1.005 would be the low end & to play it safe I should be around 1.006 or 1.007 to account for error & evaporation but at those salinity levels I may be hurting the plants, not sure what to do about that, hopefully the plants will be ok.

 

[nmonks]

Figure-8s are absolutely fine at SG 1.003 at 25 degrees C. Overall water quality, plus hard, basic water chemistry, are more important than the precise salinity.

I would aim for 1.003 as has been stated by iliveinazoo, and actually would start off a shade lower, perhaps SG 1.002, until your chosen plants become settled and obviously happy. Once they're growing, nudge the salinity up a little to 1.003 via water changes.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Sarn1]

Thanks Neale that's good news about the salinity.

I'm still waiting on the hornwort, dwarf hair grass & pygmy chain sword, then I will totally re-scape.

However, I'm noticing something troubling, the anacharis is starting to look translucent and the leaves are shredded looking, the photo really doesn't show well but its looking kinda bad. Today is also the first day I'm noticing small snails, which will be good once I get my figure-8 puffers but I wonder if the snails are eating the anacharis. Attached are photos:

 

[iliveinazoo]

Many plants go through a bedding-in period where they appear to die off, this could be due to different water conditions or the retailer has been growing them emersed. Pull off the dead leaves as they will cause an ammonia spike and wait for it to recover.

I believe that anacharis is a fast growing plant, if so then you may need to supplement with fertilisers and a CO2 source to keep it at its best, just look out for defficiencies.

Snails generally eat algae and deaying plant matter, you can always supplement their diet with cucumber or blanched lettuce.

 

[Sarn1]

Here is what I have so far, I'm a little worried I'm crushing the hornwort in the back left corner, I may have to move some rocks away or the hornwort up. I have a bunch of unused slate that I may add to make more caves. Keep in mind I'm planning on keeping figure-8 puffers & bumble bee gobies, so hopefully the aquascape is conducive, please help with any suggestions/critique.