Well it is officially a Pea Puffer tank! They are lovely and fun little beauties. We went to buy them on Saturday and the whole family is enamored. We got a dozen Dwarf Puffers but I can only see maybe 8-9 at any one time, they hide well.
I had wanted to wait for my plant shipment which is set to arrive Wednesday but that didn't happen. We just couldn't wait knowing they were there, so at least we get to watch them without much in the way.
The LFS said the puffers were trained to eat both frozen and dried bloodworms and I shouldn't spoil them with snails every time just occasionally. So I'm hoping to keep that going. I also bought the API General Cure and Erythromycin to treat them. I was told they are Farm raised but I have no idea what conditions they were really in. They warned me to add the General Cure to their food not just the water.
I moved all the adult snails out of the tank and into a hatchery that is connected with suction pads to the side of the tank. All the snail babies were too numerous and frankly tiny to move so they became part of the welcome home banquet. They loved the snails! You could see them pouncing on them.
It was quite an adjustment. They went into the tank on Saturday morning and by the next day the tank was full of algae galore! I was not expecting that. I had run tests in the water and thought I had a balance of the lights and fertilizer. I knew we needed more tweaking but seriously didn't think I'd need that much... I was so wrong!
Perhaps the plants coming in two days time will help, but in the mean time, I did a 50% water change and manually removed as much of the algae as possible. Then went and bought 3 Otocinclus fish! I knew we'd need help controlling the algae until a balance was found. I read they are schooling fish and 3 was the most I wanted to add so I didn't overcrowd the tank any more than it already was.
We watched the Otos and the puffers meet and interact and it's the weirdest thing but the puffers leave the otos alone. They were curious of course and swam up to them. Then they just turned around and swam away.
