mburton2 Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 OK people.......what ideas do you have?? Whilst my 12(us) gallon tank is cycling, I need to think about what clean-up crew I can put in, that a dwarf-puffer wouldnt kill/eat/mame.....Are Snails resiliant to a puffers teeth? The intention is to get a single Dwarf puffer (Full sixe approx 3")to put in the tank, and being aggressive, the cleanup crew need to be a hardy bunch. What suggestions would you guys make? Its a 12(US) gallon tank, 13lb LR and I think 20lbLS (I think I overdid the LS a bit...does this matter?) Its been cycling for 2-weeks now. oh, and is there a guide-line to how much salt to put in (I mean a quick way).......I've been adding a small amount of salt a couple of times a day, and have been real supprised how much salt it has taken to get to 1.019. So I still have a little more to add. Iam buying a food-quality container soon, to get some more made up for the Water changes ALSO, my PH is still only about 7.8 .......will this increase with time/more salt? or should I be looking for another way to increase the PH?? Cheers, all advise will be listend to! mburton2 Link to comment
zzpw3x Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Dwarf puffers are freshwater and that would be the primary problem. There is much misinformation about puffers, but if you are really looking at the drawf puffer, it is absolutly a FW fish. Read here: http://www.rr.iij4u.or.jp/~kohda/en/en-dwarfpuffer.htm The primary diet of puffers is snails and invertibrates, so I don't think you could find any puffer that would be compatible with a reef tank. I know of one person who has placed Green Spotted Puffers and mushroom together without incident, but I think this is more luck than anythign else. Link to comment
mburton2 Posted January 30, 2004 Author Share Posted January 30, 2004 Hmmm.... I found a couple of LFS that sell what they call Dwarf-puffers......diffent spieces/colours.....all claiming that the fish will not get any bigger than about 3"....And it they were definately SW, not FW..... Maybe they are not real "Dwarf" puffers, but just a type that doesnt grow big?! so there's no clean-up crew I could get that would survive having a puffer in the tank?? Link to comment
Toonces Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 I wonder if it was a green spot puffer or something similar kept in full salt? I've seen that occasionally as well. mburton2: go to fishbase.org or just search for pictures on yahoo and look up Tetraodon nigroviridis and T. fluviatilis and see if that looks like the puffers. Link to comment
Tempest Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Green spotted puffers and neon green puffers (don't remember species names) can be acclimated to saltwater, however, I've seen them grow to be 4-5 inches in length (in a LFS). Not suitable for a 12 gallon tank in my opinion. They will eat snails, most decorative shrimp, hermit crabs and possibly go after brittle stars as well. Link to comment
lunchingfriar Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 In my FOWLR tank (which isn't, really) I have a blue-spot puffer together with a couple of skunk cleaner shrimp, a fire shrimp, an emerald crab, a brittle star, a turbo snail, and some scarlet reef hermit crabs. I even had some mushrooms in there for about two months. So far Piggy the Puffer (so named for his fat belly and his enormous appetite) hasn't gone after any of the inverts, and they've been in the tank together about six months. He did make a half-hearted attempt to eat the snail once, but the snail just ducked inside his shell and the puffer's teeth couldn't break it. Just for reference this is the puffer I have. Either this particular species of puffer is not as bloodthirsty as they say, or mine is a vegetarian. Or maybe he's just fat and lazy and would rather wait on me to feed him. Who knows. Link to comment
mburton2 Posted January 30, 2004 Author Share Posted January 30, 2004 Thanks for the info Guys........ I'll keep searching. lunchingfriar, thank for that What about my current PH value.....shoudl I be worried about that yet? Link to comment
zzpw3x Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 T. nigroviridis is the GSP, gets about 6" and SHOULD be acclimated to full SW as it reaches adulthood. The T fluviatilis is called the Figure-8, gets to about 2-3" and should be in light brackish water (~1.010). The Figure 8 is among the least aggressive puffers (if there is such a thing) but it would absolutely eat the clean up crew. Also, these are very long lived fish (15-20 yrs), so you will find numerous people saying that they have kept them in FW or full SW for years with no problem. This is misleading because of how long they live, 2-3 years is not an indication of success. -Dale Link to comment
mburton2 Posted February 2, 2004 Author Share Posted February 2, 2004 Thanks for the info guys.... we're still researching puffers.....to find the most suitable.....(both Size/agression etc) not in a great rush, as the tanks only been cycling for a week or so....although the levels seem to have peaked, and are reducing/reached Zero.... I'll keep hunting Link to comment
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