A few questions...

[stellablu]

I have a GSP already, but tomorrow I'm adding a F8 and three bumble bee gobies to the family. I'm moving up to a larger tank with plenty of hiding spaces, plants, and caves. Hopefully I've created an environment that can prevent any puffer nipping or fighting. My question is actually about eels.

My LFS says the peacock can manage well in light brackish and also hold up to the puffers, yet they aren't a threat. Does anyone know the truth behind this, or have any experience with them? I believe they are peacocks, I could be mistaken.

I am also trying to get my snails to reproduce, with no luck. I have several different kinds that I've scavenged from LFS's and while they seem to have problems with severe reproduction in their tanks I simply cannot get mine to mate. Suggestions? Although getting them from the LFS is free and they are more than happy to give them to me, I'd rather house them myself. I go through too many. I have my feeder guppies, snails, and ghost shrimp in a 2 1/2 g tank to "grow" my own puffer snacks. Should I be giving the snails a certain food or resource that helps them breed? Sorry if it's a stupid question.

Also, anyone have luck getting ghost shrimp to breed?

Thanks for your patience, haha
Kimber

 

[OrionGirl]

I wouldn't mix eels with puffers. Puffers tend to take out eyes in eels.

For snails--overfeeding is usually the key to over-population. In a mixed setup, this can cause problems for the guppies. Snails are very tolerant of poor water conditions, so a 1 gallon jar that stays at a stable temp (ie, not in a window or near a vent/door) will work just fine. However--it can be tough to keep enough of them to feed hungry puffers, especially as the puffers grow and need larger snails. I supplement my snail population with snails from the store--just easier.

Ghost shrimp will breed--there are several decent articles on the process. Google should find them for you.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I really don't suggest keeping a low-end BW, mild mannered fish that grows to 3" ( F8), with a high-end BW-SW, very aggressive fish, that grows to 6" (GSP) in the same tank.

 

[stellablu]

See comments like that confuse me because I know of two people who have successfully done so. If I hadn't seen it done I wouldn't be attempting it.

I'm sorry, one of them has a ceylon in with two GSP. The other has three F8's and 1 or 2 GSP. The latter tank has been up with those puffers for over a year without any problems that I've been informed of. I believe he keeps his at low end BW. Each person I have known with GSP's have kept their fish in low end brackish as adults. The tank with the ceylon is only maybe 5 months old. I don't know how they are balancing everything out.

I have read other people saying it isn't recommended and that from personal experience it isn't a good idea. However, I have those tanks that show me that it's possible. :/

I guess all I can do at this point is inquire more about their monitoring secrets and maintaining a mutual salinity. Worse comes to worse I seperate them and set up my 20 g.

 

[RTR]

Five months is no test - those puffers live into their teens, and a year is likely still not an adult fish. There are folks around who keep them in FW also, but that will not get them a normal fish or a normal lifespan from it. Ceylons are fairly mild fish for puffers, but get pretty big and should be full marine as adults, GSPs are quite aggressive generally and should have high BW to full matine as adults. F-8s live longest in light BW for me. GSPs and F-8s are not compatable as adults due to differences in aggression levels and similarities in feeding (the F-8s lose out).

If you are really interested in puffers, you should get Dr. Claus Ebert's Aqualog book on puffers - it is not large and is not cheap, but it has more realinfo in than everything else in my bookcase combined. The web is a poor place for puffer info in general, most of it mistaken to out-and-out wrong. The best exception to that is The Puffer Forum,

http://puffer.proboards2.com/index.cgi

There are a number of folks there with long-term experience with puffers.

HTH