Figuer 8 Puffers

Subject: Figuer 8 Puffers Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:11 pm

Does anyone know if figure 8 puffers are fresh or brackish water? My girlfriend loves these guys and I want to get her one for christmas but I cant get a stright answere on if they are fresh or brackish water fish.

Subject: Re: Figuer 8 Puffers Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:33 pm

When I managed the fish stores, they were always sold as freshwater, unlike the more common spotted which is definitely brackish. Mine always did well in pure fresh, but the only ones I'm positive are freshwater is the dwarf or pea puffer.

Here's a pretty good link:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/otherfish1/p/figure8puffer.htm

Mark

The Turtle Whisperer Posts : 1930

Freshy fresh, yo. Wink

I had 3 of the vicious little bastards here over the summer. They're mean, nasty and did I mention mean? Don't put them in with *anything* you don't want eaten. Also don't expect them to eat flakes or pellets or anything that isn't live. They liked little worms and the small snails and minnows. Comets were a bit too big for them, so they'd just rip them apart which was kinda gross.

Subject: Re: Figuer 8 Puffers Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:50 am

Woah I didnt know that I'm Glad I asked! Dont they need to eat snails to keep there teeth from over growing?

Subject: Re: Figuer 8 Puffers Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:54 am

They sound like vicious little buggers...but they are puffers!

The Turtle Whisperer Posts : 1930

I'm not sure about the teeth thing. I only gave them snails since the fish store by me had a metric ton of those little tiny pond snails, and they used to fill up quart containers of them for me to take to feed everyone.

The puffers would go nuts when I'd dump a big handful in the tank for them. Look around some, maybe they make some sort of pellets that they'll eat, but I never found any. I didn't look all that hard tho either.

Subject: Re: Figuer 8 Puffers Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:12 am

I know the green spoted puffer is brackish but do they have the same aggression prob as the figure 8?

The Turtle Whisperer Posts : 1930

I don't know. The person who took the 3 of them had a number of other puffers already (in different tanks) and had made it sound like all the varieties were all fairly aggressive and even more so if they were hungry. Smile

Definitely do some more research or at least ask Mark. Mine were all rescue, so I don't know if they were totally trained on live food or if that's just completely normal. My only experience is with those three. Maybe Mark knows something good you could keep with them safely.

I'd say that if you went with the dwarf ones the damage it could do would be minimal to a larger fish, but then I've seen what mantis shrimp do, and they're itty bitty. Smile

Subject: Re: Figuer 8 Puffers Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:31 am

I'm going to keep on reading. Thanks saint and mark!

Subject: Re: Figuer 8 Puffers Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:41 am

If you need snails for them, I've got a MASSIVE number of Malaysian Trumpet Snails (the other MTS Twisted Evil

) if you need some.

Mark

The Turtle Whisperer Posts : 1930

Do they reproduce easy? I'd be interested in setting up a small tank to let them go to town in to scoop off for the turtle hatchlings now and again.

Subject: Re: Figuer 8 Puffers Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:36 am

saint_felony wrote:: Do they reproduce easy? I'd be interested in setting up a small tank to let them go to town in to scoop off for the turtle hatchlings now and again.

My problem is that they reproduce so fast that they jam the impellers on my HOB filters. Mad

I plan on going Loach shopping tomorrow. I'll try to figure out the shipping cost and make a post in the For Sale Posts.

Mark

The Turtle Whisperer Posts : 1930

Cool. I'll keep an eye out. I got a 6g that may work out perfect as a starter breeding ground for em.

When I had a good tank of the pondies going, I had to put some nylon window screen around the intake. It did a good job of keeping them out of the intake at least.

I don't know much about other loaches but clown loaches will make very short work of a snail infestation.

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Figuer 8 Puffers

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