[Breeding leopard ctenopoma?]

Anyone have experience breeding leopard ctenopoma. I've seen the less common weeksii and ocellatum get bred as well as microctenopoma so i was wondering why there hasn't been success with the more common leopard ctenopoma.

[Hairy puffers]

On 12/6/2021 at 10:47 AM, Vinm said:

Hi. Been a member for like ten months and have learned tons since I joined. Now I am in need of advise as there is little to no information on breeding hairy puffers. Mine just laid eggs and I am not sure if I should remove them or leave them? If I remove them do I have to add methynol blue? Any help would be great. Where's Dean when ya need him lol. 

Congrats! How are your puffers houses together. I've heard that they can be aggressive to each other compared to palembangensis but this might just be guesswork based on their more violent feeding response.

[What Puffer to Buy?]

On 8/18/2021 at 3:15 AM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said:

@Myznada08 the short version is I havent seen that issue in my personal puffers but im sure it exists as a risk in some puffer species. I agree that feeding a variety is vital to long term health of puffers and all fish in my care. 

Longer version: 

I could not find any acedemic research on the pufferfish lockjaw subject but did find some internet posts from keepers. Those claims seemed to focus on saltwater puffers, especially  the Porcupine puffer - Diodon holocanthus,  in the home aquarium who ate only freeze dried krill developing what the keeper personally identified as lockjaw. I do think feeding only one food is to be avoided at all costs for heath concerns and risk of loosing that food source when most needed either by supply issues or the fish quit eating it. 

I only keep freshwater puffers particularly of the pao genus but I would assume the krill reports that is some sort of a nutrient issue either deficency or over abundance if puffers eat any one food exclusively. I primarily use the frozen foods as a direct vitamin delivery method and the live snails etc as an in direct delivery method for the nutrition that those snails or the occasional fish or shrimp have from the vegetables, flake, repashy, pellets, etc they eat. Krill is an ingredient in many foods to me its essentially the black soldier fly larvae of the sea. 

Every food is rich in something and lacking in something else. If all I ate was carrots, or steak, or any one thing really id develop something horrible due to the lack of or buildup of a nutrient eventually. If I were one of the people allergic to it I am sure the issue would be worse when it appeared externally. 

My assumption, since there is only the occasional report, is that the seemingly rare puffer and krill issue could be either a puffer genus is unable to process a portion of the nutrients within krill fully, krill lacks a vitsl nutrient to processes of that puffer genus, or an individual puffer is allergic to krill or some ingredient in whatever krill / krill mix being fed.

The possibility that something in krill or whatever krill mix is involved is not able be processed by the kidneys or liver of the puffer and displaying as lockjaw especially in saltwater species is interesting.  Do you have any theory on what the mechanisim is that could be causing it?

I havent personally seen lock jaw in a fish from krill and have used it with 11 puffers since 2018 across Pao baileyi, Pao palustris, and Tetraodon lineatus. I also have fed it at a similar rate to dwarf pikes, both crenicichla regani and crenicichla orinoco, and meat eater plecos since 2019 with no issues noted yet. With the rotational feedings and the availablity of fish and snails I would guess at most I feed 20% frozen krill /shrimp with vitachem and similar supplements to the puffers.

For all my fish I try to keep them eating as many different things as possible to minimize the risk of health issues from a deficency or worse an over accumulation of some substance from their food in their body. I have not tried the oyster shell with repashy method but i did obtain some extra for that purpose eventually. I use it as a box filter weight and water buffer.

I also may just cook some clams one night, save the shells and boil them clean for future use. In that case I would bet it would be easy to pour repashy onto or into clamshells as a meat substitute. Depending on size of the shell used and how i repashy it that would probably be able to work as grazing rock for puffers, a direct clam meat replacement in the shell, grazing for plecos shrimp etc on the exterior shell, etc and to help buffer water to some degree as thr shell dissolves over time. 

I'm definetely interested in the baileyi. I'm planning a custom  60" by 24" by 18" aquarium for a colony of lurker puffers after reading your experience. Baileyi should be one of the more active ones right? I'm thinking a colony of 5-6 of whatever is more active between palembangensis and baileyi as these are the most attainable for me right now although I'm not sure if miurus could be communal. Does gender ratio matter in your experience? Also how many Baileyi can I add to my tank?

[apisto hongsloi Aggression? Temp? Bottom dwellers?]

Came across some hongsloi in my LFS and I'm instantly hooked.
Need to know all about them.
Currently my plan is to keep a group of 4-5 but I'm not sure how males will fare with each other. Another option is to pair them up with some bolivian rams.

Tank size hasn't been decided yet but they'll be temporarily stored in a 40 gallon and I'll be open to anything under 90 gallons for their next tank as it will be a planted community tank with them as the centerpiece.

However, I'm having trouble planning out the rest of the tank. I'm hearing mixed reports of temperature such as keeping them 80+ as thats the "natural temp" or around 75 to lengthen their lifespan. Because I want other fish that would thrive at their temperature, I have been at a roadblock in this regard. I think they only live in a restricted area in the wild so I'm not sure if there are schooling fish they are sympatric with.

Also, I'd assume I can't do bottom feeders. This is primarily a community tank and I have smaller tanks for rearing fry, but when they get their breeding aggression, I've read they will poke eyes out of cories so I don't think cories + apisto will be doable. Are there any bottom feeders that are doable?

[Pea puffer breeding water parameters]

What parameters do people have most success with pea puffer breeding. Currently my puffers are at 75-77 C with ph or 7

[pea puffer with hillstream loach(sewellia)]

Bought a new 33 long and I was planning a pea puffer tank with the hope of breeding them. Wondering if I could keep sewellia with the puffers. I know puffers do well with kuhli loaches and I figured sewellia would be similar. I've read reports of hobbyists keeping sewellia in low or moderate flow from HOB filters as well as sewellia lineolata coming from rivers in vietnam that range from 75-79 F (24-26 C) I will probably keep the tank temps at 77-79.

Also, puffers seem to tolerate some easy flowing water naturally, at least from the videos i've seen.