Puffers and gurus
I'm trying my hand at puffers again, and so far, this one is doing much better. He eats ghost shrimp and freeze dried shrimp, and there doesn't seem to be any sign of internal parasites. However, he's come down with a nasty case of ich. Good thing he's the only fish in the vase... though it's not like anything else could survive longer than 5 minutes.
I'm keeping the vase heated through the winter. Temp stays around 79-80. Not high enough to effectively burn out the ich, but it moves its cycle along fast enough and there's enough salt in there to kill even the most jacked up strain.
Been doing a 90% water change every other day. I have a new method for doing almost 100% water changes on the vase... I use some airline tubing and syphon it out, so the fish can remain in the vase and consequently they are much less stressed over the process. This also saves the plants some wear and tear.
I use a special syphon valve to regulate the flow so I don't have to mess with knotting the tubing. This makes drip acclimation much, much easier.
Before I move on, one more note on puffers.
I post pretty regularly on a somewhat popular internet fish forum. Lately a guy's been getting thrashed by a lynch mob because he dared to post that he was keeping a green spotted puffer in a ten gallon tank, and that he was confused by all the conflicting info out there on various puffer fish. I'd link to a couple of the mob's assaults on the guy, but I don't want to lend it any credit or send more traffic to the thread. Needless to say, it's quite nasty, quite one-sided, very typical of people's judgmental attitudes and outright hypocrisy, and also pretty darn funny, if you get a kick out of reading flame wars like I do.
Ok, now to my point... I have kept a green spotted puffer in a ten gallon tank with 4 juvenile kribensis for nearly 5 months. The assertions that puffers are messy and need daily or semi daily water changes to "live" and "not be stunted" is complete, unadulterated horseshit. I changed out ten percent of the tank's water once every two weeks, and nitrate never got over 40. Not once... and this is with a "messy" puffer and 4 ravenous kribensis cichlids.
And I also kept the fish in freshwater, with 2 tablespoons of aquarium salt to make it slightly brackish, though the aquarium salt didn't provide the necessary trace minerals for true brackish systems. The puffer was growing and was very alert and alive. I gave him and the kribs to a store when I started my reef tank, so I can't say for certain how the fish would be now, but I'd wager it would be fine.
Seems like a lot of Internet a-holes keep puffers. The loudest voices always scream that green spotted puffers and figure 8's are brackish fish, the GSP's requiring full marine at adulthood, but at best that's controversial and spotty and at worst it's completely wrong. While most tend to agree that green spotted puffers are brackish, different opinions exist about figure 8's. Check out all the different ways of keeping them in the links below...
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_puffer2.php
http://snipurl.com/lnmz
http://snipurl.com/lnn1
Also check out fishbase.org and get the skinny from fish scientists who actually collect these things from the wild and know their native habitats.
I believe puffers can tolerate a wide range of salinity conditions. However, for figure 8 puffers, I think they will likely do as well in freshwater as they would in brackish. No one has supplied me with a decent argument stating it's untrue figure 8 puffers are found only in freshwater conditions.
Ok, back to fish forums and flaming, and I'm done. My red flags go up whenever some hardliner shrieks theirs is the only way... this is so rarely true in all things in life, and it's definitely not the case in fish keeping. As I continue to learn, I discover there is not one way or two ways but multiple different ways of keeping fish alive and healthy. Also, I've learned to instantly distrust and take with a grain of salt any pushy or rude advice which says this way is the only way, and I also examine the person along with what he or she is saying. How someone handles himself and presents his information goes a long way, especially on the Internet.
Now I'm done. :)
J
http://joshday.com
I'm keeping the vase heated through the winter. Temp stays around 79-80. Not high enough to effectively burn out the ich, but it moves its cycle along fast enough and there's enough salt in there to kill even the most jacked up strain.
Been doing a 90% water change every other day. I have a new method for doing almost 100% water changes on the vase... I use some airline tubing and syphon it out, so the fish can remain in the vase and consequently they are much less stressed over the process. This also saves the plants some wear and tear.
I use a special syphon valve to regulate the flow so I don't have to mess with knotting the tubing. This makes drip acclimation much, much easier.
Before I move on, one more note on puffers.
I post pretty regularly on a somewhat popular internet fish forum. Lately a guy's been getting thrashed by a lynch mob because he dared to post that he was keeping a green spotted puffer in a ten gallon tank, and that he was confused by all the conflicting info out there on various puffer fish. I'd link to a couple of the mob's assaults on the guy, but I don't want to lend it any credit or send more traffic to the thread. Needless to say, it's quite nasty, quite one-sided, very typical of people's judgmental attitudes and outright hypocrisy, and also pretty darn funny, if you get a kick out of reading flame wars like I do.
Ok, now to my point... I have kept a green spotted puffer in a ten gallon tank with 4 juvenile kribensis for nearly 5 months. The assertions that puffers are messy and need daily or semi daily water changes to "live" and "not be stunted" is complete, unadulterated horseshit. I changed out ten percent of the tank's water once every two weeks, and nitrate never got over 40. Not once... and this is with a "messy" puffer and 4 ravenous kribensis cichlids.
And I also kept the fish in freshwater, with 2 tablespoons of aquarium salt to make it slightly brackish, though the aquarium salt didn't provide the necessary trace minerals for true brackish systems. The puffer was growing and was very alert and alive. I gave him and the kribs to a store when I started my reef tank, so I can't say for certain how the fish would be now, but I'd wager it would be fine.
Seems like a lot of Internet a-holes keep puffers. The loudest voices always scream that green spotted puffers and figure 8's are brackish fish, the GSP's requiring full marine at adulthood, but at best that's controversial and spotty and at worst it's completely wrong. While most tend to agree that green spotted puffers are brackish, different opinions exist about figure 8's. Check out all the different ways of keeping them in the links below...
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_puffer2.php
http://snipurl.com/lnmz
http://snipurl.com/lnn1
Also check out fishbase.org and get the skinny from fish scientists who actually collect these things from the wild and know their native habitats.
I believe puffers can tolerate a wide range of salinity conditions. However, for figure 8 puffers, I think they will likely do as well in freshwater as they would in brackish. No one has supplied me with a decent argument stating it's untrue figure 8 puffers are found only in freshwater conditions.
Ok, back to fish forums and flaming, and I'm done. My red flags go up whenever some hardliner shrieks theirs is the only way... this is so rarely true in all things in life, and it's definitely not the case in fish keeping. As I continue to learn, I discover there is not one way or two ways but multiple different ways of keeping fish alive and healthy. Also, I've learned to instantly distrust and take with a grain of salt any pushy or rude advice which says this way is the only way, and I also examine the person along with what he or she is saying. How someone handles himself and presents his information goes a long way, especially on the Internet.
Now I'm done. :)
J
http://joshday.com
posted by Josh Day at 12:26 PM
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