# Freshwater puffers



## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

What do I need to know to take care of a figure eight and a green spotted puffer ?


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

do regular water changes, change your filter media regularly as well. I have a gold puffer and a green spotted together and they will eat hikari gold cichlid pellets, brine shrimp, and blood worms. Puffers are a little more sensitive to water quality than a lot of other fish. Also when taking them out or transferring them make sure to use a cup of water or bucket rather than a net. They will inflate themselves with air which affects their bouancy. What other fish will be with these puffers?


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## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

They are in a 5 gal hex tank with white gravel and a small air stone. I thought of adding 3 feeder glodfish my wife has kept with her red eyed tetras.


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

what kind of filtration on that 5g hex. puffers require a little more care when watching the water parameters. I always thought I took good care of my water quality and my gold puffer got Ich and none of the other fish got it. But it did survive


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## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

There are some confusion between if the spotted puffers are BW or FW. I believe there are some spotted puffers that look like real spotted puffers that are BW and are indeed FW. As for fig 8 they are BW. When i had a puffer tank i had all my puffers even the BW ones were in FW. Some great aclimation will do!


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

also for your feeding info, I just tried shrimp pieces tonight and they loved it. They went crazier over shrimp than they ever have over blood worms or pellets. Those little gluttons,


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## rday (Mar 10, 2003)

also- GSPs get about 6", too big for a 5 gal hex. plus they swim around alot, too much for a 5 gal hex. plus they get very nippy towards conspecifics, unless they have a lot of room... you can tell where this is going.


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## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

Yes, more room the better for puffers. I had much luck with my little puffer tank which included dwarf pufferm spottedm fig 8, ceylon and a red eye. But my ceylon ate my dwarf one =( I also forgot to mention i hadded 1tsp/3g of salt with every water change =) best of both worlds! Oh and my red eye ate of my spotted....They are anything from bloodworms to marketshrimp to ghost shrimp and feeders.


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

hmm, I have put rosy red minnows with my puffers and they never showed any interest. And yes green spotted puffers do swim around a lot. I keep my 2 puffers in a 29.


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## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

Both of mine are about 1" a piece. I have only one plant and an air stone. The filtration is a bio-wheel. the 5 gal hex was a kit by Marineland. I feed them freeze dried krill. Got any opinions ?


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## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

Hello. anyone out there ?


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

you got a pump and an airstone.. dunno what else you could need, except a bigger tank if/when they get larger


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

My 2 puffers are in a 29. But could mpdt's puffers go into a 10 for life?


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

BeansAranguren said:


> My 2 puffers are in a 29. But could mpdt's puffers go into a 10 for life?


well if someone would tell us the max sizes, we could say

id bet neither of those puffers exceed 5" when grown, prolly get in the 3" range, in which case a 5g won't be sufficient. Bet a 10g could hold them though... unless they get 5-6", then theyd need a 29g


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## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

spotted are known to grow up to 5-6" max. dwarf grows to 1" max. Fig 8 is the same as spotted. Ceylon is about 8-10" max =)


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

snappy to the rescue!









well then mpdt, you are looking at LEAST a 29g when they become adults.

If you want puffers in your 5g get a couple dwarfs


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## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

dwarfs are mean, at least mine was. That little bugger was bullying around my spotted, fig 8 and ceylons and all of them were at least 4x bigger than the dwarf too. But one day the ceylong got mad and ate him cuz i came him with the head in his mouth =( PUffers rule!!!!!!!!


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## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

Well for now they are fine in the 5 gal hex. But in about a year my wife is going to get a 55 gal to put her 10 gal fish and the puffers in it for life. So let with the tank size I got control of that. Anything else I need to know ?


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

hmmm, nope.


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## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

Well then thanks everyone for your advice.


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## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

hmmm..... it doesnt sound like a good idea. Im guessing within a year your spotted puffer is going to be at least 2-3". Isnt a 5g tank like 6" by 8"? Kinda cramped...... Just start getting a 10g or a 20gl for the little bugger


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## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

It is a 5 gal hex from Wal-Mart. It is about a fooy high and about 5" on each side. It is a good size. Plus there is just a little gravel and 1 fake plant with the small air stone weighted under it.


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## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

They dont need much height but mor width and length


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

mpdt said:


> It is a 5 gal hex from Wal-Mart. It is about a fooy high and about 5" on each side. It is a good size. Plus there is just a little gravel and 1 fake plant with the small air stone weighted under it.


 actually thats not really a good size


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## rday (Mar 10, 2003)

here's something i don't get. someone asks a question for info that could easily be obtained over the internet. they get their answer, plus additional advice from people with first hand experience with the fish. they then choose to totally disregard this advice and do the exact opposite of what's reccomended. don't ask for advice if you're not going to take it into consideration. do a f*cking internet search.


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

I am still in disbelief that a ceylon (gold) puffer gets 6-8". Mine hasnt seem to have grown at all in about 2 months.


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## rday (Mar 10, 2003)

puffers grow very slow. ive had my green spots for about 6 months now and they've hardly grown at all


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## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

BeansAranguren said:


> I am still in disbelief that a ceylon (gold) puffer gets 6-8". Mine hasnt seem to have grown at all in about 2 months.


 Only if i had a digi cam bakc then but i have various poeple to vouh that my ceylons were at least 8". Ceylons are often confused with larger spotted or fig 8 puffers.... Ceylons are seasonal thererfore pretty hard to get a real ceylon. But as you guys should know, puffers are often mislabeled because they all look a like. If you want, you can confirm this with a guy in predfish that i have talk to a lot about puffers. His user name is "wickedpuffers" He is currently breeding congos i think. He knows a thing or two about puffers







But yeah, as far as i know, i had real ceylons and i paid a good price for them and they were at least 8" and growing. Yes puffers grow slow


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## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

All of you say puffers grow slowly so when we buy our house in the next 6 months and get a 55 gal tank to put the puffers in, I don't see a problem with this. Thanks for all the good advice.

By the way I did do an internet search, but I wanted experienced people who own puffers to get advice from.


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

I am a proud puffer owner.


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## cangus (Aug 10, 2003)

mpdt said:


> They are in a 5 gal hex tank with white gravel and a small air stone. I thought of adding 3 feeder glodfish my wife has kept with her red eyed tetras.


 wont the puffers eat the goldfish??


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

cangus said:


> mpdt said:
> 
> 
> > They are in a 5 gal hex tank with white gravel and a small air stone. I thought of adding 3 feeder glodfish my wife has kept with her red eyed tetras.
> ...


 not unless the goldfish easily fit into the puffers' mouth, which in your case I imagine they do not.


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## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

No, all the other fish are bigger than the puffers.


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## o snap its eric (Feb 19, 2003)

you will see fin nipping


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## mpdt (Jul 16, 2003)

I see fin nipping with my 6 red eyed tetras, so all the fish should be fine.


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## v4p0r (Aug 14, 2003)

Im hopefully gonna be able to find a nice sized mbu soon for my puffer tank. PUFFERS KICKASS


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

are mbu puffers uncommon in the lfs scene. I have seen the whole range from target, figure 8, gold but never that species.


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