freshwater tankmates
- I've had a F8 puffer for a little over two months now. He's in a 15g tank with a few guppies and a small pleco. There was a rainbow shark in there with them, but when the shark hit full size it turned very aggressive and attacked the puffer to make it drop the shrimp pieces. (Sorry shark, you have been voted out! Bodyslamming your tankmates is not acceptable behavior.) Otherwise the puffer's body language is happy and active and he doesn't bother his tankmates. Watching him chomp down on shelled food is adorable, with puffs of ground up shell coming out the sides of his mouth.
- —Guest enthusiast
Two F8s doing great!
- I have two F8's, in a tank that has a lot of decor, but is much smaller than recommended so I'm not gonna tell you how big it is b/c I don't wanna be flamed. Gu and Ru have been with me for 6 months and seem happy and healthy ... I keep them in brackish (around 1.008) water with a filter but no heater. I vacuum the gravel and do a partial water change every week or two. They love to eat bloodworms, little shrimp, big shrimp (the kind I'd eat ... they attack it, breaking thru the shell), and also they eat any flies that fall in the tank :-). They seem to have eaten one ghost shrimp I bought, but it made me sad to send it to its death so won't do it again. My experience with puffers in a community tank was bad - many beta fins were eaten! So now ... separate tank. Gu is much bigger than Ru and sometimes Gu lunges at Ru when food is added, and Ru hangs back and shyly waits for leftovers. I wonder about the tetrodotoxin ... try to wash hands after contact. I love my F8 puffers!
- —Guest amy bug
happy and well with others
- I have had a figure 8 puffer for a little over a week now and he is in with a guarami, two sword tails, two dwarf cichlids, a green cory catfish, and fresh water goby. He is doing great and loves his tank mates. It's one hell of a tank but I did it and they all get along!
- —Guest happy
f8 has died
- hi i bought two f8 fro the same shop and one died within hours of bringing it home and sadly the other one died the day after they never ate anything i tried everthing i could think of. please can some one help
- —Guest dona
My F8 Puffer
- I bought my puffer at Walmart four-five months ago. It was the last one left and I felt bad because all the others ones had died due to the conditions of the tank so I brought him home and put him in a ten gallon tank. I fed him dried baby shrimp, and snails. I tried giving him ghost shrimp but all he did was terrorize them until they died then he didn't want anything to do with them. So now I stick to a few snails a week and his dried shrimp. I didn't think he would last this long so I've recently bought a 36 gallon and filled it with a few plants and logs for him to explore, and I got him a gold chinese algae eater to try to keep up with his messes from eating which I do say is helping a lot. I've only seen him go after the algae eater once which I think is because the algae eater was just too close for comfort. I've named him Jairo and he's doing very well in his freshwater. He greets me when I come home, and his favorite thing to do is chase his reflection! :)
- —Guest Shaylyn
brackish and happy
- Ok. So I have 2 male betta, 7 feamles, and a GSP all I one large tank.. I know right, never put bettas together bla bla bla... but I use to have my males in little bowls and they just sat there sad and unhappy so I slowly introduced them all together... wellllll they all have thrived in the large aquarium, and they love the brackish water! You should see how huge these bettas are now and their colors are freaking amazing! I have never had and bites or fights from anyone either. They have lived this way now for months! The tank is big, so everyone has room to themselves and stay happy and it well planted and "caved". I feed my puffer gohst shrimp (10 per week, always in the tank), snails, small earth worms, and freeze dried blood worms. The bettas eats golden pearls, betta bio gold, and blood worms (plus the left over chuncks from the puffes meals). My fish are all happy and healthy.
- —Guest brit
They're like puppies!
- I have two f8's(Dobs and Enrique) that I've had in a 75g tank with 4 Bumblebee Gobies and a few red clawed crabs. I have seen Enrique try to attack the crabs, but he usually lets off after a while and the occasion is rare. The crabs eat a lot of the gunk off the mangroves and clean up the leftover shrimp. The reason I only have these many fish is because half the tank is beach. I've been looking for mud skippers since November with no luck! >:(
- —Guest Littleanry
My two puffers
- I have had my puffers for about 3 years now. They are the first fish I have had great success with. I do next to nothing with them. I do a partial water change once a month and every couple of months I add a handful of salt. They are fed once a day on a cube of frozen food. Tried live snails and they did not eat them. In fact my external filter is now overrun by them. The only problem I have is one of them gets long teeth. I have trimmed them once but I must admit they have grown back odd, but they eat well and seem very happy together. I am about to overhaul the tank and have ordered lots of plants and have just fitted an air pump which goes into the tank, motor and all. It is very loud. The puffers seem to love lots of movement and when I had my old powerful filter they would spend forever swimming in the current of the spray bar. Long live Mr. and Mrs. Bogart.
- —jennyknight
New puffer
- I just got my puffer fish, he's in a tank with a featherfin cat, red tail shark, tiger barbs, bristle nosed plec, rock shrimp and a pair of platys and so far he's fine, the water has an unchanging ph of about 7.6 with no salt, I didn't want to add any salt because I didn't know if this would effect his tank mates, I've fed him with bloodworms and snails so far
- —Guest Mister2tanks
These are freshwater
- I used to live near the source of Phetchaburi river in Thailand. Figure of 8's occurred in these waters, both before and after a dam (as in a physical barrier) which suggests they can live their whole lives in freshwater. They also grew to about 4 inches. Hope this helps.
- —Guest sheepinthailand
Just got a f8
- Got a f8 on Sunday fed him a cockle that night he happily shared it with my Guppies, Platys, Mollies, Silver Shark, Red Tailed Shark, Gouramis and Pleco. He had a little aggression towards him from the Pleco but all has been fine. I have a well planted tank with a lot of tank buddies including snails which I'm sure he will eat and may even treat him to some snails and krill from time to time to keep his teeth down. I'm just hoping he lasts longer than my mates. His only lasted 5 days... I will deffo look out for signs of him being unhappy and will add sea salt if he looks worse for wear :D
- —Guest fran
Judi-F8 puffer
- We have had our F8 for a week, started with flakes which he did not eat,went back to store rec frozen krill or prawns. Tried both but don't think successful. Having to remove food so tank does not get dirty. We have other fish, Mollys and Guppy type, no probs yet but can't see him eating. Help, any advice? We have a 19 litre tank, is this too small for him? We have 19 other fish but they are all smaller than him. At the moment he is staying at the top of the tank by him self alot. After reading other comments I am now a but bothered that this is not working out. We really like him and do not want to take him back to the store but after reading the comments on this page think this might be our only option.
- —Guest Judi
So lost but so fun
- Okay so my roommates and I are just starting with our puffer adventure and cute as they are..... not one store informed us that they can be a headache. But in the long run they will be well worth it. BTW does anyone know why they are not eating the minnows that we had put in their tank is it simply because they are too big?
- —Guest jaythepuffer
Picking up a puffer on the weekend
- Picking up a puffer on the weekend. Does anyone have any last minute advice.
- —Guest Anthony
Freshwater or Brackish
- I've had 2 fig 8 for a year in my total freshwater tank housed with 2 striped Raphael catfish. Never have problem with ick or any kind of disease. I got them when they were about 1-1.5 inch (very young). Now they are roughly 4 inches they seem to do fine in freshwater housing in 37 gallons with marineland c-220 filter and the eclipse3 hood filter. Change water 50% every two weeks. My tank are heavily planted. I only feed them live blackworms, ghost shrimp and snails. I culture my own blackworms and breed my own ghost shrip so I'm sure my food source are clean parasite free. They eat a lot, I feed them 2 times a day bunch of worm and 5 ghost shrimp in the morning and some worm when i came home. I get snails for free from my LFS from time to time just like a treat since I dont want any parasite in my tank and I cant risk infecting it with one, so 10 snails a month. My fig8 are calm never bother with the catfish since my catfish always hiding and never bother them. Good luck with your tank thank you
- —Guest iamyot
