Puffer or Cool oddball for a 20 long?

[linuxrulesusa]

Why the low water level?

Man, it must be an MCA thing.  Everyone comments if the water level is not all the way to the top.   

Basically, it was after midnight when I finished WCs and changing out the substrate from black to tan/white sand, and I didn't feel like hauling one more bucket.  Also I wasn't sure if I was putting in any more decor that would displace water, so I didn't want to have to take any out.

[linuxrulesusa]

Revised tank layout at home.  Looks empty because I still need to add in some dwarf sag from another tank plus I'm getting a nice piece of Hygrophilia from another friend for a centerpiece plant.  The plastic decorations I moved to the work tank in case I go brackish or just to save hassle.



Current tank inhabitants in the 20 long at home:

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Pic of 20 long at work (2nd puffer tank, either for a Figure 8 or a SA puffer if I can find one).  The divider will come out after I deliver the brevis and/or if I move them to a different tank.

20130711_091114_zps5673584c.jpg

[Ron]

Why the low water level?

Keeps the frog from jumping out! 

[linuxrulesusa]

Why the low water level?

Keeps the frog from jumping out! 

How did you know? 

[linuxrulesusa]

Well, we went to Fins today to pick out some puffers.  I got some birthday money recently and wanted to try something new. 

First we checked out various tanks.



We met up with John (BigDog) there at Fins to get some plants.  Gary (gvsailor) was my source for the other plants.

Then we looked at different types of puffers.

Arrowhead puffer:



Dragon puffer:



Hairy puffer:



Braeden liked the dragon puffer the best of those three.

But I decided to start with a 'beginner' puffer and grabbed a Figure 8 in addition to six dwarf puffers.  Also snagged some pygmy cories...if they don't work with the dwarf puffers they can go to one of my shrimp tanks.

So we got home and I put in the plants.



Then added the dwarf puffers.





And the pygmy cories.



Then I set up a slightly brackish temporary tank for the Figure 8 (going to be home until Tuesday when I will take him in to the 20 long at work).

The kids liked him.  Especially my daughter.  She's 1 and has nicknamed him "Puff".





Puff investigating a snail.



Puff's future home at work.

[four_by_ken]

How are the puffers doing?

[linuxrulesusa]

Quick update, since I forgot to post back here (just on GLA). 

The Figure 8 is now in a 10g with three bumblebee gobies (upgrade from the 5g bowfront).  I left the water level low so people could comment on it as needed. 






The pea puffers are eating well (alternating mysis with smaller sized NLS) in their 20 long with the six pygmy cories, a harlequin rasbora, and an otto. 


At work, my green spotted puffer seems to be fine in the 20 long, exploring the deco.  I need to get him some snails to crunch up because I doubt he was getting any at Pet Supplies Plus where I picked him up.

[linuxrulesusa]

Quick closeup of one of my bumblebee gobies.




And, I fed the GSP at work some snails today.

Eying the food.



Closer...



Closer...



He strikes!



Also two videos:



and

[linuxrulesusa]

Major bummer.  Puff (the Figure kicked the bucket this evening.  My wife says he was fine earlier this afternoon...now he's stone dead this evening.  I feel bad - my kids are going to be disappointed.  I put a towel over the tank while checking the water, etc, so they wouldn't notice.

I tested the water.   Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate under 20, looks like 10ppm.  Water should be slightly brackish (about 1 tbsp/gallon, same salinity as they were keeping him in at Fins when I picked him up).  I can't measure low salinity the best right now because my hydrometer is inaccurate...I now know how much for SW and am working on getting a refractometer. 

As far as diet - I've been feeding a mix of live snails maybe once a week, and for a staple food Mysis on alternate days, and then NLS on the other days.  He's seemed perfectly healthy.

The even weirder thing is the three bumblebee gobies in the tank are perfectly healthy, best I can tell given they are a new species to me.  So I'm almost convinced it was some kind of diet problem for the puffer.

I wonder if a Malaysian trumpet snail snuck in with the sand (which I moved from another tank) and he ate it and it caused a blockage?  Only thing I can guess might have happened.

Any other suggestions?

[Ron]

Sorry to hear you lost the figure 8.

I missed your prior post as well - nice picture journal of the new setups and puffers. Some of them looked really small. Are they hard to feed when little or are they like malawian cichlid fry (easily fed)?

[linuxrulesusa]

Sorry to hear you lost the figure 8.

I missed your prior post as well - nice picture journal of the new setups and puffers. Some of them looked really small. Are they hard to feed when little or are they like malawian cichlid fry (easily fed)?

Thanks.

The really tiny ones - pea puffers - don't get much bigger than that.  About 1-1.2" max.  They are not hard to feed per se, other than gauging quantity and making sure each gets enough without fouling the water.  I've added a power filter to help with this and have to do a minor water change mid-week to get rid of uneaten food.  I also have a crew of 6 pygmy cories that does a good job with uneaten pellets or Mysis.  I feel like I'm getting better at gauging how much to feed.

I suspect (based on what I've been told) that the problem with the Figure 8 was a combination of stress + adding too much salt too quickly.  Hard to say.  Water quality was really good.  I really need to get a better salinity measurement tool (refractometer vs. hydrometer, as I've been told they're more accurate plus you can easily calibrate them).  I also plan to add an Aquaclear 20 this weekend to the 10g to overfilter it.

[linuxrulesusa]

More pics.  We got a new Figure 8 puffer tonight.  The new one's name is "Puff" (2.0 - but then Spiderman and all those guys reboot like every other year, so I'll drop the 2.0 for now).  The kids were quite excited to get him.  I picked him up from Fish Drs. in Ypsi.  So far he is quite active in the tank.  I changed out about half the water and added in fresh only to get the salinity down around 1.003 or so.

In the bag:



Watched by Maggie:



Watched by Braeden:



Conflict with the neighbors (1 of 3 bumblebee gobies):



Eating:



Eating again - notice the unique pattern, like a broken figure 8:



And again:



And one more:



Full tank shot:

[linuxrulesusa]

Well, I'm still having a hard time getting the dwarf puffers to eat.  I've tried mysis, snails, and various pellets.  The other puffers are doing great - vacuuming up NLS of various sizes as well as the occasional snail.

For the dwarf puffers, I may have to go for bloodworms or brine for a bit to get them fattened back up.  Hoping they don't have IPs, which I read can be common.  They seemed healthy at Fins and I've been trying to do weekly 50% WCs so hopefully water quality is not an issue.

I moved them to my desk at work where the only competition for food is RCS, instead of the pygmy cories probably cleaning up any extra food.  I realize they may eat some of the RCS which is fine.  We will see how it goes.

[linuxrulesusa]

Updated pic of the dwarf / pea puffers and their tank.  Over all they are eating better.  I did euthanize one because it was just too skinny and was afraid it might be passing something on to the others.