My questions about puffer, dragon fish, and brackish set up PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

:help2:I bought two green spotted puffers and a dragon fish (violet goby) from walmart and I need to change it to brackish water now. One of the puffers died because they got ich. The other is fine and gets along well with the dragon fish. I have alot of questions I hope to find answers to.

1. I dont know what else to feed my dragon fish other than shrimp pellets.
(they make so much mess when they break apart). It has to be something that will sink to the bottom because my puffer will eat anything that floats in about 5 seconds. lol I have only seen the dragon come to the top about 4 times. I usually drop a pellet to it through a straw.

2. Should I put sand in there instead of gravel?
I have seen on the net that the dragon fish prefer sand. I worry its hurting itself trying to dig around in the hard gravel. But I also wonder if it would eat the sand because it just kinda sucks everything into its mouth. I was also thinking it may be easier to keep the tank clean with the sand because the shrimp pellets break into tiny peices and get into the gravel. I dont want to have to move them all the time to clean the gravel. Maybe with the sand it will stay on top more.


3. What is the best way to convert it to brackish water?
I dont want to stress the fish. I have looked at many websites and the information varys from one to the next and I just wish I new someone who had to do this before and still has living fish to prove it worked.

4. Also, I want both of my fish to live the longest possible and I know that the puffers are supposed to go to full salt water later in life but I dont think the same goes for the dragon fish. Should I seperate them later?

5. How often should I do water changes, and how much water should I change?

I've seen something about cycling the tank..I have know idea how to do it or if I really need to. They seem very healthy and they have been in there 2 or 3 months now.

I usually check all the chemicals in the tank and I have had them set perfectly for a fresh water tank. I have never seen any test strips for brackish water mine has fresh and salt but Im sure they must be out there somewhere. I have a heater in there and it is between 74 and 80 right now. Any ideas on trusted testing kits for brackish water? I know I have more questions but I cant think of any right now so I will go ahead a post. I hope I get some help and didnt do all this typing for nothing.

ok cool, thanks. Now about the cycling. My fish have already been in there for a few months. I used something to take the ammonia out and used test stips to make sure all the chemicals where in balance. Would doing this be fine? I really want to start adding salt today. I have rocks in the bottom of my tank and Im thinking about taking them out and putting sand for the dragon if its ok for the puffer. The rocks have lots of pieces of shrimp pellets from the dragon fish. When it eats them they break into tons of tiny pieces and come back out of its little gill holes (and sometimes it puffs it right back out of its mouth) I dont know if I should take everything out and go ahead and clean the rocks and start all over or just try to vacuum them oooor start all over with sand. If I did start all over would I have to cycle it or would it be ok to just add some chemicals to level everything out? Im not sure about how well this vacuum will work.

The girl at the pet store acted like I was crazy for buying sand for a brackish water tank. I dont understand that considering the dragons prefer sand and brackish but she got me thinking that maybe it is uncommon for other fish and I know Im wondering if the puffer will mind it.

I should have known more about these fish before I bought them. I made the mistake of buying them at walmart and they did not tell me ANYTHING about the water needing heat or that they were brackish water fish. My boyfriend actually had to catch the dragon fish for her because she had no idea what she was doing and was scared of them. I SHOULD have looked them up and I wouldnt have lost one.

Im confused about how to measure all of the chemicals because everything just says for fresh or salt water or both. I cant find anything that says how much to use for brackish or any test strips that show brackish

Thanks for all the info. And yes I have a heater in there. The lowest the temp will go with it is right above 80 so I think I need another one. This is just one I found in my parents old fish stuff. My fish is starting to scare me now. Yesterday when I woke up it didnt swim right up looking for food as it usually does and I found it sitting in the back corner with its tail curled up next to it and it stomach was dark. (everytime it gets scared it stomach turns dark) I moved the tank out some to get a better look and it still stayed sitting. Then after a little bit it got up and wanted food, its color went back to normal and it swam around all day until night time I found it again sitting under a plant. Its stomach was dark but its tail was not curled up next to it.) it was not spread out either though. Then once I looked at it and put my finger on the tank infront of it it started swimming around like normal again. So I figured maybe it was just chillin. lol This morning when I woke up it was swimming around waiting for food like normal but I just went in the a minute ago and it was sitting under the plant again tummy all dark! What is going on??? its never acted this way before. I dont see any other signs of any kind of sickness. It has been living with that heater in there for awhile so I dont think its the temp. I even thought maybe it burned itself but I dont see any marks. I have kept the little guy/girl alive for awhile now and I really dont want anything to happen to it.