Hi ! Newbie to the site here. I am trying to find some help setting up a 5 gal tank for some dwarf puffers. I know they are mainly freshwater but the fish store that carries them near my house keeps them in brackish water. I need to start the tank brackish then bring them back to freshwater. The lady at the lfs told me to use a half cup of Doc Wellfish's aquarium salt for my tank. Is this the right amount ? I plan on having them check the salinity level of their tanks to make sure mine is close before I bring the fish home.
dwarf puffer in brackish water ?
- Thread starter stac
- Start date
not exactly sure how to help you, but i still wanted to say something. real brackish water is a mixture of fresh and marine water (made with a marine salt mix), not freshwater with plain aquarium salt added. if they are simply using aquarium salt, then they don't understand how brackish works. if they are using marine salt and are telling you to use aquarium salt, then i don't think that's very good either. the mineral concentrations are completely different between the two. use whatever it is they are using in their tank. i suppose you should match the level at first, and when you do a water change, only add back about 3/4 of what you took out. for example, if you start with 1/2 cup, then do a 50% change, put in a little less than 1/4 cup salt back.
however - if you are just setting this tank up now, you'll have to go through a cycle. i'm not sure if you know what that is, so i'll go over it. the fish produce waste in the form of ammonia, which is toxic when it builds up. there is a kind of bacteria which eats the ammonia and produces nitrites. these are also toxic. a second kind of bacteria eats the nitrites and converts them to nitrates, which are safe for the fish and need to be removed with water changes at levels over 20ppm.
puffers are very very sensitive to the toxins that are left to float around during the cycling process, which is the time period during which the bacteria establish themselves in your tank and grow to levels that can convert all the waste and keep the water safe. read up on cycling (there is a sticky thread about it in the freshwater newbie forum) and either try to use a fishless method before you add the puffers, or be prepared to do daily water changes (not too tough with a 5gal) in order to keep the fish healthy. it would probably be easier to wait until after you cycle to start lowering the amount of salt in the tank.
however - if you are just setting this tank up now, you'll have to go through a cycle. i'm not sure if you know what that is, so i'll go over it. the fish produce waste in the form of ammonia, which is toxic when it builds up. there is a kind of bacteria which eats the ammonia and produces nitrites. these are also toxic. a second kind of bacteria eats the nitrites and converts them to nitrates, which are safe for the fish and need to be removed with water changes at levels over 20ppm.
puffers are very very sensitive to the toxins that are left to float around during the cycling process, which is the time period during which the bacteria establish themselves in your tank and grow to levels that can convert all the waste and keep the water safe. read up on cycling (there is a sticky thread about it in the freshwater newbie forum) and either try to use a fishless method before you add the puffers, or be prepared to do daily water changes (not too tough with a 5gal) in order to keep the fish healthy. it would probably be easier to wait until after you cycle to start lowering the amount of salt in the tank.
Dangerdoll
Global Moderator
I'm not thinking the brackish environment will be good for the DP's long term. They are one of the very few freshwater puffers. A lot of people can mistake this I guess and assume that they are all brackish and/or marine, but the dwarves just aren't. I would suggest going to the further LFS. Remember that these little guys are sensitive and may not take to feeding right away. When I had mine, they loved blood worms (frozen) and that's how I got them to start eating. Then onto the snails 
