Lennie

In my opinion you need at least three of them to spend their energy and satisfying their chasing behavior within the group. They are like kids playing tag, having one would make it bored or maybe even lead to potential aggression? two would lead one chasing another all the time. Trio must be the minimum for distraction and spreading the chasing behavior. IMO, 20 is too small for them, I wouldn’t keep a trio under 40g

Hello, I think they are New Zealand mud snails. You may look for some identification info to make sure here are some pics:

What medication are we talking about here? Some are known to be deadly meanwhile some others can be okay Is the treatment done? Did you do water changes and run active carbon?

Absolutely adorable. Does it have a name? Looks like an adorable water puppy. Your experience about the graying seems to match with what Ive read on puffer forum too. It explains why some were showing graying/dark colors. Kept in crowded group, transported all the way to here, being in undesired tank conditions at the store... So yea. Probably a good home would also help them reach their actual colors Thanks for the comforting words about my brackish tank journey. Wish you and your lil friend a great life together I guess we cant always replicate what they have in nature. These f8s also can be found in almost freshwater to my understanding, but in a tank environment, they seem to have much shorter lifespan and prone to diseases if kept in freshwater if I am not mistaken. So they advise keeping them at 1.005 for the best long term health. I ordered this salt. The thing is, the price comparison between 20kg one and 2x 10kg one was huge. So I got me 20kg box, it was the last one on stock with this low price. I can also use it for hatching artemia I suppose? The urge of making a nano reef tank with all this salt and hydrometer I have on hand!!! STOP ME

Highly recommend checking the puffer forum. Check out these two links below and many more green spotted puffer topics in thepufferforum. https://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/an-introduction-to-green-spotted-puffers/ https://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/the-story-of-puffy-a-green-spotted-puffer/

Thanks a lot. I have been doing lots of reading and creating posts around but couldnt find any answer really. It was painful and I didnt want to risk putting my fish into risk for nothing by introducing a pure freshwater species to brackish. They are adorable. They must be starved at lfs, you should see them attacking white worms as big as themselves I put for the f8! Today I am ordering marine salt or reef salt as you recommended. How much salt should I order, I wonder. I currently keep them at 50x40x25/50 liters but I may soon take down my 50x50x50cm/125 liter tank which aquasoil and plants already gone bad and I basically have only one f betta and L199 there so I can easily move them to another tank. I read something like 6gr of salt per liter for 1.005 approximately. I bought me a hydrometer anyway but I dont wanna go buy a huge box of 10kgs of salt if it will be a waste. f8 puffers seem to enjoy lower end brackish too. I read a lot of topics and guides in the puffer forum, and I guess 1.005 is the best choice, someone even kept his for 18 years with 1.005! I may start with 1.003 or so and increase gradually, I cant be sure if they have been kept in brackish or full freshwater until now. I directly bought the fish after they arrive to the lfs to lessen any potential further damage, as they are kept in crowded tanks and may hurt each other. Basically none had perfect tails, all had bites and stuff. Everyone seem to have great experience with bumblebee-f8 puffer combination. Mollies seem to lean on a good experience too overall, but some people started having issues after ages from what I understand. I have never tried molly before, and I kinda want some more tankmates for my f8 to not get bored. I loved this guide and many other f8 related experiences in the puffer forum. https://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/

This looks very much like mine I guess @Ninjoma, i dont really know :,) “Brachygobius Ocelot”

That’s actually when I figured out while googling more to read about experiences too! I saw both of their pics and Im like.. waait a minute. Freshwater?? That being said it is said to be very rare in the hobby. And there seem to be so many bumblebees amd very hard to differentiate. I also saw these two and both but mostly the second one, sabanus, also looks like mine. Your bumblebee also looks great https://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/tag/bumblebee-goby/ Also found this https://tanninaquatics.com/blogs/the-tint-1/to-bee-or-not-to-bee-the-surprising-bumblebee-goby

Thank you guys @Biotope Biologist @mountaintoppufferkeeper . I ordered the salinity device and gonna buy marine or reef salt too I spent some time reading many topics on the puffer forum. People mentioned having success of keeping their figure 8 with bumblebee gobies without any issues. So I wanted to give it a try . That being said, I went to my Lfs and got a group of 6 bumblebee gobies today, but I had no clue there were so many different varieties sold as “bumblebee goby”. Now I am very confused if the ones I got are freshwater or brackish, or suitable for both. It is hard to name the exact species so I cant be sure. Also I have seen some stuff like all bumblebee gobies will do fine in brackish anyway but Im not sure. Figure 8 is on the lower end of the brackish anyway. On puffer fish forum, it is said that the longevity was the best at 1.005 salinity for figure 8 with 18 years of a lifespan! can anybody tell what the gobies I got are exactly? I suspect either freshwater goby b. xanthomelas or sabanus. But it can also be something else, there is so many! This is important to figure out if I should keep them in a brackish tank or move them to a freshwater tank. @DansFish I see you had freshwater bumblebee gobies, so maybe you may have an opinion? The pics below:

Hello everyone. I have been considering a brackish tank for a while. My friend wanted to gift me a figure 8 puffer. So I am planning to setup a tank But I need some help while setting up the ideal tank. First things first, I see online that for brackish tanks, we should use Marine salt/reef salt, but not standard aquarium salt due to extra minerals it has. I already use gh+ in my tanks and I have montmorillonite clay powder for gh and minerals. Can I just use regular aquarium salt I have and dose gh+ and/or montmorillonite clay for minerals instead of buying marine salt? I know you two have brackish tank experience so I would appreciate some help @Biotope Biologist @Ninjoma Secondly, I see lots of people keeping figure 8 puffer with bumblebee gobies successfully. Also I have seen a few mentioning mollies. Any care tips, diet and tankmate tips are welcomed if you’d like to share any. @mountaintoppufferkeeper @Beardedbillygoat1975 Also based on what I see, most people only keep one figure 8 puffer rather than mixing many, right? I have seen a couple people mentioning more of a group but majority was keeping only one Also is frozen food bought from market is safe to feed for parasite issues? Lastly Ive seen a few plants being used in brackish tanks. To my understanding figure 8 and bumblebee gobies are on the lower end of the brackish so shouldn’t be a huge problem but probably still undesired for many plants. What plants work in your experience? One more thing that confused me at lfs. Some seem to have darker bellies. Does that refer to anything? I have come across a few darker colored darker belly ones online too but normally the bellies are white. Like this: thanks everyone

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I can actually use any of the abovementioned tips to prevent any issues in the future. I am more inclined to introducing a new filter and move this one to a new tank once the other one is established enough while running simultaneously. So at least I can utilise these tips while running the new filter in until I am done. Also the main purpose of creating this topic was to warn anyone who keeps fish that may potentially enter into the sponge filter and get trapped. I have never had a similar issue before, but one is enough to be cautious. I wanted to share it with everyone so you guys may be more cautious about potential problems. I hope nobody has ever faced a similar problem

Hey, Good suggestion. But I am not from the US so I don’t have access to it. I added this filter as a back up from another tank after losing my cycle partially due to using medicine in this tank. Normally I didnt use this one. I am planning to go back to sponge filter with other style( the ones stick to the glass, no clue about their specific name) or use a small HOB here

Hello everyone, I was doing my water changes and then I just wanted to check how my farlowellas doing. For the last couple days at the feeding time I was only seeing three out of four but yknow, they are like basically twigs. Their tank has lots of branches and leaf litter, so full of tannins. It is hard to see them sometimes Anyway, guess where it was. It was basically stuck inside the sponge filter and probably waiting to die if I didnt notice😭 it had no option to move or do anything to save itself I saw the tip of its tail and directly saved it but it was literally stuck so I had to tear the filter apart and gently pull it out (it created a mess but yea). It took a couple attempts to save it out of there I know sometimes we see hillstreams/borneos do the same and find it nice and funny. Or Ive seen baby eels using the tube as a hiding spot and so on. But this has been a big lesson for me. Please be aware of such potential issue to keep sponge filters with grazing fish or any small fish that might try using it as a hiding spot. It couldve lead to losing my fish in my situation It gave a hug to his mystery snail friend. Looks okay and not injured:

Sadly I lost one of mine this way. Here is the topic I created back then, maybe it helps. Im sorry for you lil friend

Not with goldfish I would say. These guys are prone to hurt themselves by any slight thing. As there is a confusion between keeping cories and stuff on eco complete, I understand that its sharp? My goldfish always poke on the substrate and sometimes even try to take it into their mouth and spit back I would not use aquasoil with goldfish too. I personally find it very hard to clean and as a goldfish owner you probably understand what I mean. Beautiful tank mate. Do they make any attempt to eat any of these plants? Especially pothos roots? I may try adding some of these to my goldfish tank

I find this quite risky personally. Because it leeches ammonia a lot. At least my tropica one does. there has been times Ive seen ammonia leeching lasting up to 3 weeks even with installing a filter on day one with established media and water changing pretty often

It is good to hear one or two experiences but sadly product using results for sensitive species might vary in experiences. So I would say two experiences is very low in number but at least that’s something. yw. In case anyone else shares another experience I may update this in the future

No more fish food for you Knee. You got like 10 new packs last week 🤪😝😄

I would instead install the HOB to another running tank and move it back to the qt when needed the food will get soaked and spread around the tank no matter what I believe. Putting it in the HOB basket where there is a constant flow does not make much sense to me

Assasins definitely work, they wiped out the mini ramshorn colony in my endler tub. I got me a group of 4 to try, and see how they breed there as my LFS requested me for babies. However, when pest snails were gone, they also killed mystery snails too I believe. I have not seen them on action, but I blame them. This is why I think they are cool yet limiting. They might choose easier and smaller targets, but sustaining a diet of them with pest snails is very hard if they breed like that you say. To constantly sell a group of 30, you basically replace a colony of more helpful pest snails with carnivore not very helpful but money making assasins. And I am not okay to replace my snail keeping in every tank by risking a predator around. I tried before due to many people sayjng they are safe for big snails nerites and shrimp, but don’t trust them at all anymore Also many people struggle to find new homes to their fish even for free. So this type of breeding might be a replacement for pest snails if one has no chance to keep selling/rehoming considering the breeding. Id rather have pest snails assisting me in the tank rather than a big colony of carnivore opportunistic predators in my tank who needs to be fed meaty foods if there is no prey around But they are very cool creatures and just like any other snail I love them. And I can confirm that as a person who has pest snails in majority of his tanks, overfeeding or having food options is the reason why their population rise. If you visit my fishroom you may not even notice a single pest snail in the tank meanwhile yhey have been living there for months. I have this problem only in two tanks where I overfeed and fish are not great at eating

Pea puffers are schoaling species. I would highly encourage you to keep them as other schoaling/schooling species in a crowded group of at least 6(2m:4f) or more with the same gender ratio or more f with a good tank size. Having friends around with a balanced m:f ratio in a good tank size, lots of live food options, many decorations plants woods around is important here is them in nature: I have a group of 11 just completed the quarantine of a month and although they may look comfy doing their own thingy at a normal time they like to have each other around when their needs are met I believe. Just as an example, if there is a stress factor, like me doing a water change, they directly start to school tightly for some time until they feel comfortable again. When I introduced the the tank they were schooling quite tightly too for a couple days. I would highly recommend to read this guide below https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldwide.com/amp/c-travancoricus As a P.S: these guys are easy to find tank bred in comparisons to many other puffers. Highly recommend it as they are facing issues due to being collected in the wild and are under risk, and also tankbred fish can be easier to feed and a bit less likely to have parasites imo if fed sterile cultures.

Sadly the person who created the topic in our local forum also did not get any experience related returns by other people other than one more person. Product says it is safe, I have not used it so I cannot tell or recommend. I can translate the two comments related to the person who tried tho. He said after one dose he started to see only a couple planarias. As he updated the topic further, after a week or so, when he checked the tank at the night time with flashlight, he noticed an increase in the population gradually again. It was only a couple of them before but now increasing more again. So he said it surely does not wipe out them all. So he used a second dose after the water change and mentioned it seems okay again but he will be tracking more but currently not observing them around. He reported there has not been any negative visible effect snails shrimp and the fish. The other person who tried it has many different snails shrimp fish and crayfish and he also said it experienced no ill effect on them. He tried them on the following species but he said there is no snail safe term written on the box. However the other person has mentioned it as a snail safe and the box pic online seem to have snails mentioned too. Im confused on that part. Basically it took around 5 days for this person to get rid of them. He said once he introduced the product, they started coming out and he gradually started losing them over the time jn the following days and planning to redose when the potential eggs hatches The product says Chem Vital S.R.O on it. We couldn’t find much info too. I guess s.r.o gives an idea that they are Czech or Slovak? Idk

No the producy claims it ”detoxify” for a period. but this is a topic that people talked about a lot in the forum in the past. Let’s no go into it again, as it usually ends up with different opinions turning into arguments and main threads being locked or so. You may search for the previous topics and see many others opinions on it in detail if you like

@Guppysnail the stage is yours! 😄

Hello, The combination of product safety is usually explained in the Seachem's official site. You can check it out for similar questions in the future, I usually check their site to see if two products are okay to use together, or if one product is safe to use where I keep X shrimp/fish/snail etc. https://seachem.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003985794-FAQ-Can-I-use-Seachem-StressGuard-together-with "StressGuard™ will not directly interact with any of the other Seachem® products, but a large overdose of reducing agents (conditioners like Prime®, ammonia detoxifiers, stress reducers, and some medications) can start to reduce the oxygen levels of the tank. It's just fine to use multiple reducing agents if you have good filtration and you're not using extra products unnecessarily, but if you need to use 3 or more reducing agents at the same time, it may be best to wait an hour or so between products to avoid a sudden drop in oxygen levels. " So you can use both, but better have a good oxygenation. In terms of dechlorination, yes, you should use it if you are doing a water change for the Chlorine/chloramine and heavy metals. Usually a water source is less likely to have ammonia but it is possible. Stress guard does not mention that it removes ammonia. It claims to reduce ammonia toxicity. Removing would be whole another thing StressGuard™ is the premium slime coat protection product. StressGuard™ will reduce stress and ammonia toxicity whenever handling or transporting fish. StressGuard™ binds to exposed protein in wounds to promote healing of injured fish and to reduce the likelihood of primary and secondary infections. https://www.seachem.com/stressguard.php Why do you want to use stress guard btw? Asking to make things clear, possibly you might be thinking it will remove ammonia as you mentioned above.