A Puffer Adventure

[Redwings]

It's almost as beautiful as you!

Looks nice and almost done )

[Obsidian]

Okay it showed as almost cycled yesterday and fully cycled today. However I am not believing the tests as it is cloudy and clearly in a bacterial bloom after adding shrimp last night and pulling it today.

Yesterday I did an 80% water change due to the numbers being so high earlier in the week (yesterday was the quickest I could get to the change). On Wednesday I believe it was the readings were ammo 0 nitrite 2 and nitrate 80. I pulled the shrimp from the tank and did the w/c yesterday. After the change the numbers were ammo 0 nitrite .25 and nitrate about 8.

I added the shrimp back in overnight and tested today: Ammo 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10. But it is cloudy today as well so I don't really believe that there is no ammo or nitrite. One of them must be there.

So for now I am going to thaw out some shrimp (I have been just putting them in there frozen and it is possible that the cloudiness is just coming from the shrimp itself as it defrosts in there) and put in just pieces of it overnight to keep it fed and keep the nitrates down. If it continues to show these numbers then I will know it is really cycled. I would expect some creep in the nitrate which is fine. I will do a large w/c prior to putting the fish in.

I am going to hold it cycled like this for at least 2 weeks before I order the puffers. That should tell me that the tank is stable before they arrive.

[Obsidian]

Okay I asked my LFS to order the puffers. I am doubtful this will happen anytime soon because of how long people have been waiting for the lazy owner to actually put an order in. She keeps saying "next week" and then never doing it. Then she wonders why her customers don't come back. Doh.

So I have a Q: Is tropical fish distributors on AquaBid a trustworthy place? They have 6 dwarf golden puffers that I could get if I wanted. Also I cannot find a "dwarf golden puffer" I have found golden puffers and dwarf puffers but never that description. I do not want 6 golden puffers. Does anyone have any idea if they are actually dwarfs? No scientific name is given. They are butt cheap so it would really only be paying for shipping.

[jones57742]

Originally Posted by Obsidian So I have a Q: Is tropical fish distributors on AquaBid a trustworthy place?

Obs:

I have ordered from them once several years ago and had good luck.

They are a wholesaler who occasionally post on AB.

I would verify shipping costs before ordering.

TR

[hXcChic22]

Perhaps they are just Dwarf Puffers with a fancier-sounding name? Everything I've looked at says they are known by a million different names but are all generally the same thing.
We bought a pair of them from a Care-A-Lot and they are mean little things. One disappeared over a vacation and we took the other one to the LFS because he didn't seem to be doing well.

[bmlbytes]

Do they have a picture? Why not ask the seller what they are.

[Obsidian]

Yeah I thought I had an account open with AB but it turns out I did not. I have gone through their process now so I should be able to ask that. One of my tasks for the day. I hope that they are a good distributor.

[Obsidian]

Okay there is an end to the story at last! I was leery of the tropical fish distributors puffers and when I sent an e-mail seeing clarification they never once responded.

My LFS held true to form and never actually ordered the fish.

My friend has been checking out stores in Phoenix and we were down there last weekend. One of the stores, Fish Inc, had dwarf puffers! I now have 5 of the little buggers swimming around in their tank. They are not full grown yet so I am not certain of sex, but I have a few males at least from what I can tell. I am hoping there are more females than males. If not I fear for the females.

The store appears to be a really good one and they had the most awesome dog faced puffer in their SW section. And they had a sign saying they refused to sell to anyone whose tank is less than 300ga. That was a good sign. The guy my friend and I spoke with was very knowledgeable. I look forward to more fish from the store once I can get my QT cycled again. I had it cycled but stopped feeding it so I have to restart. This store had a lot of choices, rows of tanks that were all very nice and well kept up. Obviously they care.

I will post pictures when I get a chance. The tank has some algae in it but I don't mind. One patch of it on my log is really pretty. I do want the algae on the leaves to go away though, it is not letting the plants have the nutrients they need. Overall I am not algae phobic

just how big are these fellows? i have had some experience in keeping them. typically you should be able to sex them at about an 3/4th of an inch and tbh, am hoping you are considering a species only tank for the sake of your other fish.

[Obsidian]

The tank is a puffer tank. Lots went into it. They are in a planted 20L. I am not seeing the darker chest on any of them but I am seeing what could be a solid line down their sides. They are also spotted so I am not experienced enough to say which one is spots Vs which one is a line. I haven't had a close enough look at the eyes to see if there are any wrinkles but I think one of them does have that. I think 2 were puffed up at each other yesterday. They are not quite an inch and already hunted down every snail in the tank LOL. I am feeding them frozen blood worms, beef heart, and an omnivore mix. They seem to like the plants and to have staked out territories It would be really cool if they decided to spawn but I am not sure the fry would have a chance before being dinner.

sounds like ur all set. yea these guys are really mean for the size they come in. but very pretty fish. you should be able to start sexing them when they start approaching the 1 inch mark and the wrinkles are prob the best way since the chest line is not always visible. breeding them would require you to have a fairly fast moving water setup seeing that they come from a fairly fast moving river. you could try shrimps....but if they figure out they like the taste of shrimps then thats the end of the shrimps in the tank.

[jones57742]

Congrats Obs.

TR

[Obsidian]

I have thought of otto cats.

I am not certain that they are eating anything but the blood worms. I have been dropping it all in frozen. Should I defrost it then dump that in there?

websites say Otto's will work but imo they are best left by them selves.

[Obsidian]

I am fine with them by themselves but I am thinking I might try something before saying no way they have to be by themselves. They are little brats for certain!