Figure 8 puffer

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Ive had my figure 8 for about 5 years now, purchased from my LFS in pure freshwater. I've raised this guy with group of mono's and a columbian shark, had this sucker in a tank with SG of 1.014-1016 now for almost 3 years, no issues. He is active, a fin nipper, and moving and shaking!
 
They do best at a SG of 1.005. Get back to us when he's 15. Colombians are schooling fish & eventually will be large enough to eat the puffer.
 
How do you suggest i cycle this tank? Its my first tim bw i used sword tails to cycle my fw tank and that did fine. Ive never atempted a no fish way of doing it, but theres always a first.
 
99% of the BW fish sold at shops are in FW. Check with your shop. You can either cycle it as FW & raise the SG over time ore cycle at the SG the shop has them at but you'll need a handful of substrate from their tank to seed the bacteria.
 
Pufferpunk said:
They do best at a SG of 1.005. Get back to us when he's 15. Colombians are schooling fish & eventually will be large enough to eat the puffer.
Click to expand...

Not too sure of how big a threat the columbian is to the puffer, as the puffer has nipped his fins for 3-4yrs now. If anything, the columbian is terrified of him. That said, he is also full grown and shown no intention of eating the puffer.

The puffer just moved to his own 38gallon brackish tank on Sunday with a SG of 1.010, and is now being housed with chromides. I plan on lowering the SG to .07 or .08 for the remainder of this lifespan.
 
Reporting back! Figure 8 puffer doing excellent in his new home since the move. Also a small group of orange chromides in there with him. The SG has been lowered and fluctuates between 1.003-1.005. To my knowledge, I purchased this puffer in January 2006 full grown. Glad he is comfortably past his "5 year" life expectancy (freshwater conditions) and hoping for another 7 years of healthy life :)

Here's a photo from 2 years ago..

View attachment 2011-07-01 18.46.14.jpg

View attachment 2011-07-01 18.46.14.jpg
 
Keeping up with my check in's here. Figure 8 Puffer still thriving in his 38Tall tank and is now somewhere between 10-12yrs old, hard to say. I've had him like I said full grown since 2006. His salinity level varies from .003-.005 and he is active, hungry, bobs his head out of the surface of the tank, and doing great.

:-D
 
This is wonderful news, thanks for checking back so many years later! With your proper care, he can easily live to 20. :)
 
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