ALL DWARF PUFFER OWNERS: Inside Please
- Thread starter jread
- Start date
the two puffers, and that's it. Even that's pushing it, I'd just go out and get a bigger tank. A 10g is only $12 canadian. Even then you could only keep the two puffers. Besides, the equipment you have on the 5g is probably actually fit for a 10g seeing as there isn't much equipment out there for a 5g. However I'd check.
All-in-All ditch the 5g, it's more of a glass coffin for fish than a fish tank. The only thing you could really keep in there is a betta and I wouldn't even do that. When your water evaporates the nitrates, and maybe in your case ammonia and nitrites don't go away (because it doesn't sound like your tank is cycled yet if you bought your fish on saturday). That's why you change your water weekly, and the small the tank the less room for error there is. That means more water changes and more tank maintenance. I have to do more maintenance on my 10g planted than I do on my 135g SW.
Also, when stocking a tank you have to take into consideration the ADULT size of the fish, not the current size. Especially when dealing with smaller tanks. You also need to research the tempermant of the fish. You really shouldn't be keeping anything with the dwarf puffers, puffers are very territorial and aggressive at times.
Sorry to put you through all this, but keeping fish isn't like keeping a cat. There's lots of little details involved, ones that are very important and I didn't want to see someone who's enthusiastic about the hobby spend alot of money and get discouraged. pet shop employees actually like seeing people like that because they come back time and time again and spend their money.They also don't know as much as they should. If you need to know something about fish, come to these forums, it's where you'll get the best answer 100% of the time.
All-in-All ditch the 5g, it's more of a glass coffin for fish than a fish tank. The only thing you could really keep in there is a betta and I wouldn't even do that. When your water evaporates the nitrates, and maybe in your case ammonia and nitrites don't go away (because it doesn't sound like your tank is cycled yet if you bought your fish on saturday). That's why you change your water weekly, and the small the tank the less room for error there is. That means more water changes and more tank maintenance. I have to do more maintenance on my 10g planted than I do on my 135g SW.
Also, when stocking a tank you have to take into consideration the ADULT size of the fish, not the current size. Especially when dealing with smaller tanks. You also need to research the tempermant of the fish. You really shouldn't be keeping anything with the dwarf puffers, puffers are very territorial and aggressive at times.
Sorry to put you through all this, but keeping fish isn't like keeping a cat. There's lots of little details involved, ones that are very important and I didn't want to see someone who's enthusiastic about the hobby spend alot of money and get discouraged. pet shop employees actually like seeing people like that because they come back time and time again and spend their money.They also don't know as much as they should. If you need to know something about fish, come to these forums, it's where you'll get the best answer 100% of the time.
No, it doesn't count. Carbonate (which usually effects pH indirectly) Magnesium (effects gH) and calcium (which effects gH also) do not evaporate. So, they just make your water get harder and harder.
I am not positive, but I don't think Nitrate evaporates either, so your nitrates are still always building up.
Weekly water changes, 2X a week being even better, in tanks smaller than 10g is essential to fish health.
HTH
PumaWard got it exactly.
Topping off has absolutely nothing to do with relacement. With topping off nothing is removed from the tank, more is added.
With a partial water change, all the minerals present are being reset closer to the levels of the source water , and materials generated in the tank (nitrate being the one we use as indicator of general pollution in unplanted tanks) are being removed and reduced by the percentage factor of the partial. In other words, do a 25% change, you have reduced nitrate and other pollutant concentrations by ~25%.
Add 10% make-up water without removing anything, you have increased the mineral concentration by ~10% and have removed no pollution.
HTH
Topping off has absolutely nothing to do with relacement. With topping off nothing is removed from the tank, more is added.
With a partial water change, all the minerals present are being reset closer to the levels of the source water , and materials generated in the tank (nitrate being the one we use as indicator of general pollution in unplanted tanks) are being removed and reduced by the percentage factor of the partial. In other words, do a 25% change, you have reduced nitrate and other pollutant concentrations by ~25%.
Add 10% make-up water without removing anything, you have increased the mineral concentration by ~10% and have removed no pollution.
HTH
1. Where did you get your dwarves? LFS
2. What size tank are they in? How many are in the tank? 40 gallon tank, moderately planted. Currently just one. 3 succumbed to a feeding mistake on my part.
3. What is the male/female ratio? Current one is a male, I'm looking to add 3 females enevtually
4. Fake plants or live plants? Live!
5. What foods do you give them? Blood worms, frozen community formula, brine shrimp, snails. Lots of snails.
6. What tank mates do they have (if any)? 3 SA puffers, 1 rainbow shark, kuhli loach colony, bristlenose.
7. What tank maintenance do you perform? Weekly water changes.
8. What temperature and other water parameters do you maintain? pH about 6.8, temp around 78-79, hardness 7.
9. Any unique experiences you would like to share? I have had them puff on me--not a fun experience. They should not be removed from the water, as they can not expel air. Juveniles will sometimes refuse anything but live foods, and should be kept in a larger tank with a large supply of snails. While their beak growth is not as impressive as with other puffers, it's still important to provide them with crunchy foods as a stable in their diet.
2. What size tank are they in? How many are in the tank? 40 gallon tank, moderately planted. Currently just one. 3 succumbed to a feeding mistake on my part.
3. What is the male/female ratio? Current one is a male, I'm looking to add 3 females enevtually
4. Fake plants or live plants? Live!
5. What foods do you give them? Blood worms, frozen community formula, brine shrimp, snails. Lots of snails.
6. What tank mates do they have (if any)? 3 SA puffers, 1 rainbow shark, kuhli loach colony, bristlenose.
7. What tank maintenance do you perform? Weekly water changes.
8. What temperature and other water parameters do you maintain? pH about 6.8, temp around 78-79, hardness 7.
9. Any unique experiences you would like to share? I have had them puff on me--not a fun experience. They should not be removed from the water, as they can not expel air. Juveniles will sometimes refuse anything but live foods, and should be kept in a larger tank with a large supply of snails. While their beak growth is not as impressive as with other puffers, it's still important to provide them with crunchy foods as a stable in their diet.
Civic Chick (I also drive a Honda Civic...I usually love that car, but the air just broke on it and it's 100 degrees outside 
) - I'm sorry for the tone that was used, a tone like that is no way to educate someone.
When you're "topping off" water, you're not doing any water changes, because what's evaporating out is pure water. All of the wastes stay in the tank, and in fact get more concentrated over time, as the pure H2O evaporates. In order to actually improve water quality, you need to change water weekly - not just add water back that has evaporated. In a tank as small as a 5 gallon, your best bet is to take a container like a big yogurt container, and just scoop out the water into a bucket. You have to change about 2 gallons a week.
A Chinese algae eater really has no place in a 5 gallon tank - check out how big they get! 200-280 mm = 7.87 inches to 11 inches.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/gyrinocheilus-aymonieri/
I'm not sure who told you they don't count - of course they do They eat food and produce waste, and as you can see they'll get much larger than your puffers. I hope you haven't been told that "fish only grow to the size of their tank" business either, because that's completely not true...
If you need an algae eater, olive nerites are probably the only ones that fit in a tank this size. I don't know how they would work out with puffers. They're pretty big so the puffers may not try to eat them, but you'd have to research this further if you're interested - I don't keep DPs, but I do have olive nerites and none of my aggressive fish have bothered them, from convicts to red tailed sharks.
I would put the guppies in Craigslist or your other local classifieds...people are always looking for free fish!
) - I'm sorry for the tone that was used, a tone like that is no way to educate someone.When you're "topping off" water, you're not doing any water changes, because what's evaporating out is pure water. All of the wastes stay in the tank, and in fact get more concentrated over time, as the pure H2O evaporates. In order to actually improve water quality, you need to change water weekly - not just add water back that has evaporated. In a tank as small as a 5 gallon, your best bet is to take a container like a big yogurt container, and just scoop out the water into a bucket. You have to change about 2 gallons a week.
A Chinese algae eater really has no place in a 5 gallon tank - check out how big they get! 200-280 mm = 7.87 inches to 11 inches.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/gyrinocheilus-aymonieri/
I'm not sure who told you they don't count - of course they do
They eat food and produce waste, and as you can see they'll get much larger than your puffers. I hope you haven't been told that "fish only grow to the size of their tank" business either, because that's completely not true...If you need an algae eater, olive nerites are probably the only ones that fit in a tank this size. I don't know how they would work out with puffers. They're pretty big so the puffers may not try to eat them, but you'd have to research this further if you're interested - I don't keep DPs, but I do have olive nerites and none of my aggressive fish have bothered them, from convicts to red tailed sharks.
I would put the guppies in Craigslist or your other local classifieds...people are always looking for free fish!
ARRRGH! I didn't notice the date....
CaeTheHedgie, I have not seen dwarf puffers at Petsmart at all, and they're not listed here:
http://www.petsmart.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3970431&lmdn=Fish&f=Taxonomy%2FPET%2F3970431&fbc=1&fbn=Taxonomy%7CLive+Fish
Ugh, I can't believe I didn't notice this thread got resuscitated...what a waste of time
CaeTheHedgie, I have not seen dwarf puffers at Petsmart at all, and they're not listed here:
http://www.petsmart.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3970431&lmdn=Fish&f=Taxonomy%2FPET%2F3970431&fbc=1&fbn=Taxonomy%7CLive+Fish
Ugh, I can't believe I didn't notice this thread got resuscitated...what a waste of time
