Figure 8 Puffers

went past LFS and really liked these guys. pity you cant keep them with much, but 2 of those in a smallish tank looks really good,
will post pics of the full tank, for now a coupe pics of my new guys. the one was quiet badly nipped, I thought he had fin rot but after reading about them they are hectik fin nippers. had them since friday and they seam quiet happy. feed bloodworm only for now. will add some snails soon from my 700L snail factory :evil:.

 

They are sooooo sweet I bought 2 dwarf puffers from my lfs last weekend but sadly one didn't make it. But they are really cool fish with awesome personalities. =-) Congratz on yourz!

 

Those are gorgeous fish! I had never heard about fresh water puffers till lately. what size is your tank?

 

Hey there,

who you talking to? to me or Ammar?

=-)

 

@Lillas aren't those the green spotteds you bought? @Ammar figure eights are awesome and can reach sizes of about 8cm and a tank of around 100l will be good for them. You can add some dither fish with them, at the moment I have a bunch of guppies with mine. Remember these are brackish puffers.

 

@Lillas oops.. both of you haha

 

they are amazing, but quiet aggressive, I threw a handful of snails in that tank and they totally annihilated them, they are brackish so you need to add a handful of salt to your water. @Lillas unfortunately I also lost one of mine, but i think it was already in bad shape when i got it, only noticed when i got home that the fins where quiet badly nipped. you can see in the first pic, the dorsal fin is almost missing. @SterlingAce had them in a 2 foot, with regulr water changes and some plants. they seemed quiet happy. but obviously the bigger the better

 

If they are still small then a 2ft should be fine. So do you only have the 1 left? It is better to measure the salinity of the water and using a good quality marine salt. They are great fish though.

 

see thats where i am probably not being fair on them. I was told a handful of salt will do by LFS, I should know better.

 

A great place to go read up on puffers is here
The Puffer Forum The PufferPedia

 

I got 2 puffers a little while ago as well. Kept them in freshwater with a little aquarium salt for a bit before I started adding marine salt as they came from freshwater in the LFS. Started to raise the specific gravity a little at a time, and its reading 1.0005 at the moment, which is ok as they are still young. As they get older raise it a bit more till you get to 1.0008 - 1.0018. They are awesome fish and can live to 15 years.

 

@dhd666 what kind of puffer did you get? The figure 8's prefer a SG range of 1.005 - 1.008 while the green spotted puffers prefer 1.015 - to full marine. Puffers are really great fish.

 

Hi Ace. I have GSPs. This is my second time around. I had one previouslty that lived for 11 years. Got back into it a little while ago. Slowly increasing the SG as the juveniles I got came from freshwater. My previous one (henry) was in high end brackish salt range. Really rewardig fish!

 

@SterlingAce are your guppies still alive?.I saw some guppies with puffers a few months back at a pet store and they had chunks of their bodies and fins missing.

 

See it is a 4ft tank with 1 very shy and timid figure eight.. I have loads of guppies in there and even more baby guppies. Every now and then I see a nipped fin or him chasing a baby but nothing hectic. I also have 5 female mollies with my 4 green spotted puffers, same case, see a nipped fin but not often (haven't seen any fry though). But the GSP's grew up with the mollies plus the mollies were there before them.

 

That is really awesome to hear yours lived so long!

 

Thanks! I only hope (Hulk) and (Johnny Bravo) live that long too!