new mbu puffer

[cassie750]

I bought a mbu puffer last week and I just have a few questions...

He/she is currently 4" and in my quarantine tank, feeding happily on whole mussels, bloodworms, crabsticks, whole shrimps and prawns, snails in my tank and whole cockels and he/she is very active and seems to be doing well.

I know that eventually he/she will need at least a 6x2x2 tank or preferably 200 imp. gallons but it seems a bit impractical to put a 4" fish into a six foot tank, so he will have an intermediate home that is four feet and 350 litres which I think will be fine for him until he is a bit bigger, correct me if I am wrong about this.

My questions:

1) I have been reading that malaysian trumpet snails are no good for dwarf puffers because the shells are too hard but what about for my mbu? I have some mts and some regular aquatic snails in my tank but he can't seem to manage the bigger mts since he is still quite small. Do I need to remove them or should I leave them in there for when he is big enough to manage them? In the meantime will he do himself any damage trying to eat them?

2) How often should I be feeding? I have been feeding two small meals a day and after eating his belly is nice and bumpy and before feeding it is always nice and slim again. Is this okay as I have read that some people only feed every other day. I always thought that small regular feeds were better than one big feed infrequently and he is still a growing juvenile...

3) How long can I keep him in the four foot tank? Or rather at what size should he be moved from the 80 imp. gallon to the 180 imp. gallon?

4) I cannot find much information on this fish anywhere... I have read one small puffer book which wasn't very helpful and I have read everything that came up on the internet search I did on yahoo but everything seems to just tell you very basic information. For other specialist fish there is info like what symptoms to look out for common illnesses specific to the fish and what signs to look out for that signal that the fish is stresses or unhappy. I have read that the fig 8 has a grey stress line on its white belly but what about the mbu? How do I know when it is stressed or ill (except for the obvious syptoms of course)?

I have read so many posts on the net where people have lost their mbu very suddenly for an unknown reason after a few months of it being quite happy. This has made me a little paranoid about killing this fish which obviously I don't want to do as I am already quite attached to him. What can I do to ensure his well being except for the obvious common sense things? Any tips on keeping this great fish?

All I know so far is good water, regular water changes, crunchy shelled foods, don't overfeed, caves for hiding places, dim lighting, no dried flake foods etc... what else? All of this is common sense and I haven't found any information anywhere yet that isn't fairly obvious so I thought I would have to pick your brains.

I am new to puffers so maybe a mbu wasn't the best first choice but I do know about fish. While he is in the small quarantine tank he is getting water tests daily (all fine) and 25% water changes daily. When he moves to the four foot tank I will do 15-20% water changes every other day because I have to do the water changes in my discus tanks anyway so I may as well do him too. He will be the only fish in the tank and it is fully cycle using the fishless cycling method.

Sorry for the lengthy post but I want to get this right. Please settle my paranoia and give me some information on how best to keep this fish.

TIA

Cassie

 

[Puffer_freak]

Hi there,

I'm very glad to see that someone actually knows about their mbu before buying it!

Now, I'm not a mbu expert, because I don't own one, and seriously can't ever plan on doing so, but I will try to answer your questions as best as possible.

1) I have seen a large, almost fully grown mbu, and their teeth are huge and strong. I think that they would be able to eat just about anything, however, because yours is small, I'd just stick wiht using normal aquatic snails if I were you.

2) Not sure.

3) Change him as and when he needs to be changed, perhaps at around 8 inches or so? you don't want him too big or he'll be a pian to move.

4) Again, not sure, but most puffers get the grey stress line. I would think that he would become more sluggish than usual if he was ill, basically look out for the classic signs.

Hmmm...I wouldn't havesaid you need to change the water that often to be honest, but if you want to, it's fine by all means!

HTH,

Puffer

 

[Paul_MTS]

It looks like your pretty much on top of things.

you have a great size tank for him to grow up in which is actually 560litres, 125UK gallons going by your sig and he should be find in there for quite a long time i would say up to around the 16-18" mark, of course when he gets to these kinda of sizes you may realise yourself that he needs a bigger tank.

your feeding seems spot on, feed him on demand. with my fahaka if he shows a certain interest when I'm aorund the tank I go and get a prawn or mussel for him.

whole prawns in the shell are his favourtie which he gobbles down with glee.

the bigger the tank the better really, your large discus tank would do him very nicely for example!!

when un happy you will notice, they will fold there dorsal fin down and curl there tail around to sit in a ball.

if anything you may be caring too much with the wter changes, see what the nitrates test out like, disturbing the tank too much won't be a too good thing.

 

[cassie750]

Okay then, that puts my mind at rest a bit and yes it does seem that prawns are his/her favourite as well.

I was going by the theory that with discus, more water changes = better growth so I thought it would be the same for a puffer...

I realise that most people would probably want to slow the growth of a mbu or at least not try to increase the growth rate but I don't like to see stunted discus and I don't see why it should be different for my mbu. I think that optimum growth by natural means is best as long as you can provide suitable living space for it.

The big discus tank is remaining a big discus tank I'm afraid but the plan is that by the time he/she needs the big final home, I would have moved house and he will get his very own 84x30x24. I'm hoping that he can stay in the 4ft tank for three years but obviously if he grows quickly I will have to upgrade sooner than that.

With discus it is thought that frequent small water changes is better than one big one so I thought it would be the same for him but if you think it is too much then maybe just 20% twice a week?

These really are very fascinating fish with so much character and I can't believe how attached to him/her I am already

Thanks for the advice,

Cassie

 

[Opcn]

you dont want to slow your fishes growth at all, no, healthy fish grow quickly, what you do want to do is monitor the water quality and only do stressful water changes when you have too.

seeing as how you have one little fish alone in a fairly good sized tank the waste products wont build as quickly, especially if you have good lighting and airation.

Mbus are cool fish

 

[Paul_MTS]

just keep your nitrates below say 60ppm, do water changes to suit.

I have a 8inch fahaka puffer eatiung 2-3 prawns atleast every day in a 4x2x2 and i water change this once a week. I don't even need to do it this often really but with all the crap gather on the sand i need to really. when ic hecked the water before last weeks change nitrates were about 15ppm. admitidly this is VERY well filtered with a sump, about 30 litres in total of biological media and being turned over by a 3000lph pump.