puffer in 20g

[tanhql]

i currently have a brackish guppy tank(sg 1.005), only with 5 remaining very small guppies. it a 20g tall, with moderate decorations (fake plants, a small piece of driftwood), filtered by a canister filter. i'm planning to add a f8 puffer in it, letting it finish off the guppies (they were fries i got from a female). then, i will feed it with feeder shrimps, and try to get some feeder snails to reproduce to feed it. does f8 like to jump? do they have to be underwater all the time in case they 'bloat', even when catching them? here's some pics of the tank at present:

is it good enough for a single f8? the tank is around 15"(L) x 15"(B) x 20"(ht of water).

and of course, will the puffer bite me if i perform maintainance on the tank? (like gravel vacuuming, rinsing prefilter etc)

thanks.

 

[Sir Pufferfish]

HI,
20G is fine to house just one figure 8 but i would not add amymore.
my only experience of "jumping" was when my Green Spotted Puffer which gets scared of the lights turning out once darted about so quickly it managed to jump out of my rio tank, through the little hole cut out near the back of the tank and fell to the floor !!
Lucky for me i was in the same room on my pc and could hear a strange noise then all of a sudden it doomed on me that my little Penelope may have jumped out :idea:
so i turned all lights on, managed to squeeze to the rear of the tank and noticed my little Penelope all bloated up ( full of Air ) and full of dirt :sad:
Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr
I picked her up with both hands, picked off the dirt then very gradually still in my hands merged her into to water where she could easily release the air build up ( Air build up can be fatal if they cant release it properly )
4 mins later, i released and she fine from there.
I never use a net on any of my puffers do the the potential damage on the pectoral fin ( side fins ) and they will probably bloat up too which could cause problems for bigger puffers.
As for your last question regarding biting, they are very fascinated by new things and will always try and bite your algae scraper, vac, fingers.
if young, it will just be a little nip, even at full adult size the chances of getting a bite and drawing blood is remote.
I have full adult size figure 8, GSP, South American puffers and none have drawn blood although they nip at me every time my hand goes in

Hope it helps.

 

[fishy_sue]

I have a fig 8 that jumps during water changes. It's funny - a little copter trying to take flight. I have a kid watch him so he does meet the carpet.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I have lost 2 F8s to jumping.

 

[tanhql]

if i'm not supposed to get the f8 out of water, so how am i supposed to :
1) get him out of the lfs tank into the bag?
2) get him out of the bag into a bucket?(maybe by pouring?)
3) get him from the bucket (after drip climating) into the tank?

 

[fballguy]

if i'm not supposed to get the f8 out of water, so how am i supposed to :
1) get him out of the lfs tank into the bag?
2) get him out of the bag into a bucket?(maybe by pouring?)
3) get him from the bucket (after drip climating) into the tank?

Use a net to herd him into a cup, then keep the net covering the cup so he doesn't jump out. You can tell your LFS to use a cup or something, they may grumble at you but they will do it to seel a fish.

Be careful with jumping. My f8 jumps alot. Everytime I turn on the lights he gets scared and jumps. When I do a water change or re-arrange the tank he jumps. So just be very careful, and good luck!

 

[tanhql]

will f8 rearrange the tank for me? ie, will it move unsecured fake plants as it swims pass/onto them?

 

[Pufferpunk]

My 2 have never moved anything in their tank..

 

[tanhql]

ok, i've bought the f8, and am drip-acclimating it. i suspect the lfs tank is freshwater, so i'm going to drip acclimate it over three days. meanwhile, i've added stress/ammonia reducer and seachem paraguard. does this looks good? i suppose i don't have to feed it; it might be stressed up from all the things to eat.

 

[tanhql]

ok, i've went to my lfs today, and gotten 4 pond snails from their plant tanks (for free, good thing i'm on good relations with them ). i put them in a small bucket, fill with water and grossly overfeed with spirulina flakes. how long will it take for them to over-populate the whole bucket? also, do f8 eat mealworms? the lfs also sold mealworms and earthworms, but i wasn't sure if i can safely feed them to the f8. but they ran out of feeder shrimps, so i have to go to other lfs to find them ...