F8P - the truth is out there?

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Hi all,

I'm interested in knowing the opinions of people on here that have kept Figure 8s as to their best environment.

There is so much conflicting information out there that it is hard to know which version is the truth.

For example another thread on here suggests that they need a pH > 8, but everywhere I look online says between 6.5 - 7.5. Mine are at a steady 7.5 at the moment.

Also there is the BW / FW debate. OK - it seems that the genral consensus on here is that BW is the way to go. But then I read elsewhere that they are FW fish and salt should be avoided. These links both say that FW is the natural habitat, although Ian West's site says BW is considered better by most.

http://aquaworld.netfirms.com/Other/Tetraodon_biocellatus.htm


http://www.pufferfish.co.uk/aquaria/species/pufferfish/types/tetrbioc.htm


Ian also states that the pH should be 7.

And another:

http://puffernet.tripod.com/biocellatus.html


So, I'd be really grateful if anybody that has had success in keeping these fish can share their experiences for the benefit of those of us that are new to the little beauties!

Cheers,
Ade.
 
Good link Pufferpunk, I seem to have overlooked that one. 18 years is a long time!

However this does serve to illustrate my point as his information conflicts with a lot of the other information.

Even fishbase.org has them as demersal FW:

Fishbase.org Fig8Puff

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with anyone, I just thought it would be interesting to hear people's experiences.

Oh, and my next job is figuring (no pun intended) out how to get them into a (cycled :)) BW tank...

Cheers,
Ade.
 
I assume you mean that the fish is in FW at the lfs & you want to get it into a BW tank? If there are no other fish in there, just get the SG to 1.002 in your tank, & acclimate like you had any other fish. You can raise the SG in time. If your SG is higher & you have other fish, put your new fish in a bucket & use an airline tube to syphon a drip system into the bucket. You will have to kink the hose to slow down the flow.
 
No, I mean that the fish are in FW and need changing to BW (although that was not the point of the thread).

I'm not going to go through the story again but I have two f8s in a freshwater tank, I agree they need changing to BW. I understand adding (marine) salt will cause the tank to re-cycle when it hits a certain SG. But like I say that was not the point of this thread.
 
That article was written by RTR--he's a very knowledgable guy, and I'd follow his advice.

To convert your existing FW tank to BW, you'll want to start by using BW for your water changes. Mix the water to the 'goal' sp, and over the course of several water changes the entire volume of water will be raised to this sp. Make sure to monitor the conditions in the tank, and use FW to replace evaporation losses.
 
Like I say I'm not arguing. I respect the opinions of those with more experience than myself (which isn't hard), which is why I'm changing my tank to BW and which is why the original point of this thread was to get people's (plural) experiences of Figure 8s.

There seems to be a lot of interest in these fish so it seemed to me stimulating discussion was not a bad thing. Or maybe we should all read one article and take this as the one word of truth?
 
To me, RTR is a puffergod. The only person I've heard of that has kept puffers longer & may know about the keeping of more species is Dr Klaus Ebert, who has written a spectacular book about them, [\I]The Puffers of Fresh and Brackish Waters[/I] As far as I'm concerned what RTR says, goes. I don't question his expertise against any other site.

Some more articles written by RTR:

http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquasource/pufferreview.shtml
http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/intropuffer.shtml
http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/snailsforpuffers.shtml
http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquasource/ghostshrimp.shtml
http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/sapuffer.shtml

These are just the puffer articles I'm aware of. He has written countless other articles on almost any fish subject you can think of. You can find more in the archives at Tom's Place.
 
There is no one true path. Everyone has their own experiences and interpret those as they wish.

But as you have already found, there is no other group of fish with so much repeated bad info as the puffers. If you want the current best info, you have to leave the web and get Dr. Ebert's book. I do not agree with everything there, but where I do disagree it is matters of opinion, not fact. A review is here:

http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquasource/pufferreview.shtml

Figure-8s do not need high brackish. My feeling (note, personal feeling, not proven fact) is that they need the hard alkaline water more than a particular salt concentration.

If you take you specific gravity up no more than a counple of points per change, and wait 2-3 weeks between water mods (note, between specific gravity changes, not between partials), you are unlikely to read any unoxidized metabolites (ammonia, nitrite). If other bacteria are required or at least functional at those low sp. gr. differences, they will develop sufficiently to avoid fish stress. Should you read NH3/NO2, just drop back to the prior density for a few weeks.

Edit: LOL, double posted w/PP. In any case, I'm no puffer diety, just have a lot of tank-years of puffer keeping. And unfortunately had to learn a lot of things the hard way. These fish were considered FW community in the 1960s - live and learn.
 
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Erm, I'm getting a bit confused about my ability to write in English now.

Please forgive my sarcasm, but why are people defending RTR? At what point did I say he was wrong? In fact I didn't even use the letters RTR in any of my posts. He seems from afar like a very experienced and succesful keeper of puffers and I respect his opinion. I have read most if not all of the articles at aquasource. I will say this one more time: I was trying to get people's opinions and share their experiences.

As far as I'm aware RTR is the only one to have done this so far, so why would I be having a go at him?

Edit: double LOL, double double post!!!!
 
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