[New Species Tank. Dwarf Puffers!]

So far so good. They don't seem to be eating much (picky???). Although I did watch one hunting a snail, so I don't know. I have tried frozen Daphnia, Brine Shrimp, and some small flake. I need tog et some live food asap. Or more snails.

They should eat blood worms, it just may take them a while to get back to eating in a new tank. I know it took mine a few days

[Native Marine question]

Thanks a lot for the replies! Greatly helpful

The tank I have planned will not be large, only around 70 litres. I know it's better to have a larger tank, but I really don't have the space available, and it will make it harder to keep cool (without a chiller).

I agree keeping it cool will be one of the larger challenges I'll have..

I've had a couple ideas about keeping it cool (due to money and space being in short supply, a chiller isn't really an option), one was mounting a fan or two above it and another was keeping the tank to the side of a window, so if i opened it there would be a cool air flow circulating over the tank. Feedback would be appreciated!

Another challenge will be the water quality!

I can source some natural salt water fairly easily, but any specialist marine equipment, I think even just marine test kits/phosphate removing media will need to be ordered in from HFF or the like, since Nelson has ZERO Fish stores with marine support. :evil: I think the most I can get is a marine rated aqua one bulb!

Any stock will include rock pool inhabitants and any very small fish that i am lucky enough to catch and are legal to take.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

[Native Marine question]

I was thinking about setting up a native marine tank, and I was wondering if I'd need all the fancy expensive normal marine equipment for it, or just the basic filter/light/tank/sand. And the only differences from tropical is it being cold and saltwater!

No live rocks, corrals and stuff like that.

I have a limited knowledge of marine (limited being basically zilch), but I do know it's VERY expensive to set up a classic reef marine tank. Hence this option! Plus I'd quite like to have something different

So please, share your knowledge

edit: sorry wasn't sure if I should put this in natives or saltwater, hope it's OK here D:

[New Species Tank. Dwarf Puffers!]

I purchased a couple of Bumble bee gobys as well. So fingers crossed they all get along. I have Indian fern and hairgrass, plus some driftwood in the tank, so with any luck, they all stay happy.

I've got 2 gobbys with 2 dwarf puffers, they all get along well

[Koura sure do love slugs!]

id like to see it eat one like this

........

[puffer tank layout]

Put your heater suction cup up higher, so it's not holding the heater on the element section.

[Dwarf Puffers and Bumblebee gobbies]

Yep they get frozen blood worms, snails and when i can be bothered hatching them, baby brine shrimp. They chase them around for hours. Also tried them on some raw frozen shrimp, a couple had a nibble but they didnt seem to thrilled.

yeah the tank im moving my puffers to has had a serious snail infestation building >;D

Do the gobbies eat the blood worms? I read that they'll only eat live food, hoping that's not the case :lol:

[Dwarf Puffers and Bumblebee gobbies]

We have 3 dwarf puffers with 3 bb gobies in a 60L tank (freshwater). We asked the same questions to staff at hff and they thought dp would not tolerate brackish conditions. They seem to get along very well. Things can get a bit nasty at feeding time so its best to make sure you add more than enough to go around. This is just my experience, ive also heard of people getting nasty little sob's which cause havoc.

Haha yeah, my d.puffers are evil little things!

What do you feed that tank? Frozen blood worms?

[Dwarf Puffers and Bumblebee gobbies]

dont need salt but will do better with salt- i cant answer about dwarf puffers and bb gobies but ive heard dwarf puffers can be very aggressive fin nippers. i have kept a fig 8 puffer with bb gobies before n problems. as for bb gobes being grumpy well they are territorial so need planty od hiding spaces then it will be fine to keep more than one togrther

Cheers

Yeah I got a shell for my gobbie to claim, hopefuly he/she'll like it and move in :lol:

[Dwarf Puffers and Bumblebee gobbies]

Dwarf puffers don't need any salt in their water and will be fine with the goby.

BBGs dont like other BBGs though. Grumpy tards. :lol:

Was more a question of will the gobby need salt and if he does will the puffers be OK with the salt

[Dwarf Puffers and Bumblebee gobbies]

Today I found a bumblebee gobbie in a LFS in Nelson.. Which is rare since Nelson very rarely has any... Interesting fish in the LFS, so I asked the LFS owner about them and she said she had been keeping them in freshwater, I thought it was strange since I thought they would only live in Brackish water. So I of course bought it! He's currently sitting in my little tank with some glass cats and albino cories, water was already a bit salty, I added a bit more but not too much because I know the cats will hate it

I read here (http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/bre ... obies.html) that this (Brachygobius xanthozona) species of gobbie can tolerate fresher water, compared to Brachygobius nunus, so I was wanting opinions on keeping him in a less than fully brackish tank, say.. Half (+-) recommended salt mixture, reason will be later.

I know that brackish puffers are OK with gobbies, and I was wondering if dwarf puffers will be fine with them too, or will the dwarves go batshit on the gobbies, like everything else they've been in a tank with

And lastly, will dwarf puffers tolerate the same salty mixture (0.5-1 Tablespoon salt/Gallon)

/Walloftext

Thanks :lol:

[Favourite Substrates/colours?]

try get some river sand, looks really nice and natural

[Stocking tool! check this out]

You have glass cats in a tank that size?

Ya, very happy glass cats!

[Query about an oddball fish]

They don't grow lightning fast. I would think it would take a number of years to get to be 8-10inches, my mother had one that took about 2yrs to get to 15 or so cm. So if you loved him you would have time to upgrade?

I don't want to buy a fish that I'll need to re-home to a different tank or sell because it gets too big.

[Stocking tool! check this out]

# Warning: Glass Catfish is not recommended for your tank - it may eventually outgrow your tank space, potentially reaching up to 7.6 cm.

# Warning: At least 5 x Glass Catfish are recommended in a group.

# Warning: Albino Cory is not recommended for your tank - it may eventually outgrow your tank space, potentially reaching up to 6.4 cm.

# Warning: At least 4 x Albino Cory are recommended in a group.

Recommended temperature range: 22 - 27 C. [Display in Farenheit]

Recommended pH range: 6 - 7.8.

Recommended hardness range: 5 - 15 dH.

You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 131%.Help on Filtration capacity

Recommended water change schedule: 51% per week. (You might want to split this water change schedule to two separate 30% per week)

Your aquarium stocking level is 182%.

Your tank is overstocked. Unless you are an experienced aquarist who can meet the maintenance/biological needs of this aquarium, lower stocking levels are recommended

[Query about an oddball fish]

Red parrot cichlid? Engineered mutant with a smiley face?

"Adult fish can grow to a length of 8–10 inches"

I highly recommend brackish follow link to see what you can put into your tank http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.html

Thanks for the recommendation, will defiantly consider it! Really awesome site, bookmarked it :lol:

[Just some updated pics]

Awesome tank

Btw, what colour lights do you use to grow those awesome looking plants?

[help in heating for freshwater puffer tanks]

I see you're a fan of specific titles.

[I love my lil eel (Pictures)]

Really nice eel! It's awesome how he comes out so much, they are usually so reclusive

[DIY CO2 Lowering PH of tank water]

Ok, thanks! 8)

[DIY CO2 Lowering PH of tank water]

Thanks for the replies!

Arg!!! So much for being something simple and easy to do :lol:

So now I ask, how do I raise the hardness in the water, and will I need to continue raising it every now and then?

:oops:

[DIY CO2 Lowering PH of tank water]

When I first tried DIY CO2 I noticed the PH of the tank water dived, thought it must have been caused by something else and didn't think about it again (I measured PH after adding CO2, and not before). Recently I saw on an article that claimed using a CO2 system with you tank can lower the PH of the water..

I've never seen anyone here mention it, and figured they would have if it was true.

Is this true? If it is, how do I regulate it?

[my new tank]

Tank is great, puffers will be happy as can be

[DP/carinotetraodon travancoricus tank]

must be a pain finding them for photos :lol: :lol:

[Query about an oddball fish]

Not sure you can really do 'oddball' without the bucks, nothing tends to be 'cheap'.

This is true :-?

or a Anostomus anostomus? similar to a Leporinus but a bit easier going and smaller too. used to have one in a community tank with all sorts and no problems. not that oddball I guess though?

Thanks for the suggestion