New Fahaka - the best Fahakaing puffer ever!

[hart24601]

Yay, today he ate just the cut up worms! Will be nice to mix it up. He loves crayfish but not krill. I might have to try the snail mixing trick with those as well. i think he is over 4.5" now, he was posing nice for me against the glass.

One thing that worries me, he likes to swim right up to my hand when I am messing in the tank and watches my fingers move. Gets him all excited. I touched him to see if he would swim away and he didn't. I am concerned when he gets 18"+ he is going to be dangerous to have my hand in there. I realized it was possible, but didn't expect so much for interest with him being a baby still!

 

[Fat Homer]

^ take this advice with caution, but my girl used to be like that, and when young was always watching my hands in the tank when i was working on stuff and was never phased by me...

And even after having her for over 5 years at the time she never ever went after my hands... It would seem she would recognize who was infront of her tank, and act based upon that...

Basically i was the only person who could reach into the tank without her going after my hands, anyone else who tried it would be hit or miss...

 

[Chub_by]

He is looking great! I'm so jealous, Fahakas are top of my want-to-keep list right now.

 

[hart24601]

Thanks, he has exceeded my expectations for a neat interactive fish. Especially after having some discus which were skittish and seemed really dumb to me (but pretty!) I am sure happy with him.


Good to know it's possible he will ignore my fingers, but I'm keeping a close eye on him!

 

[thomas79]

I agree with you on Fahaka being a neat fish. I've kept all types of fish before from Discus, Giant Gourami, Arowana, and Cichlid (flowerhorn, vieja synspila, red devil) and so far, i am very happy with my fahaka (3"). He's currently in a 190 g and every time I came to the tank, he would greet me and swim around like crazy.

 

[adamsfishes]

Sweet tank you've got there. A+ all the way.

 

[hart24601]

Thanks!!

I was cleaning off some of the plant leaves...

He got me right on the finger tip! Wasn't all that hard, no blood, and after he found he couldn't eat my finger (yet) he wasn't quite as interested, but he did still chase me around.

 

[Fat Homer]

^ in that case, maybe you'll need to watch your fingers in the future as well, since i dont think i was ever tagged by my puffer even when she was small...

 

[hart24601]

Bit of an update. I don't think I put this already. Sorry if I glanced over it. So I moved away from tap water for the daily drip. I was doing 70% daily wc with tap, but our tap here is at the legal limit of 10ppm nitrate and at least 1ppm phosphate. Gets higher during farm season, with who knows what other organics. Even with water lettuce and pothos in back still have quite a bit of brown algae on the plants. Really even a great water change setup with our tap is just eh. So I moved to a smaller but cleaner w/c system. Plumbed 2 44g brutes together and fill them with RO/DI water and have a pump change 9g per day. Runs 30min, off 30. Repeat. I put demineralization powder in the batches of water and bought a 2nd RO membrane to run on waste water so can have 1:1 waste ratio.

I am also trying some tankmates. Just little fish! If he eats them it's ok, but the water lettuce covers the tank and has long roots for hiding and the other plants give hides. He also has been a bit of a fussy eater with me having to train him on clams and worms. So in went 100 zebra danios, 25 white clouds, 6 guppies. He has just been kinda pouting about it, doesn't chase the fish. Hope the are fast enough! I am hoping to add some oto cats and BN pleco after he gets used to the other fish. Still having growth on old Anubis leaves. If he slowly eats all of them no biggie, won't be his main diet since he can't get them well! He can't even get the ghost shrimp, he just isn't a good hunter yet.

 

[hart24601]

Another month gone. I can't tell very well, but I think he is around 5" give or take. Right around 1" of growth this month, down from 2" last month! But he is getting thicker. I am thinking about ordering some frozen crayfish.

Water lettuce grows fast!! Great nutrient export. Also the pothos have settled in and have a great deal more leaves and roots. This is the largest amount, but I took two more handfuls after this and there is still water lettuce over the entire surface!