Anttwon

So I was on my way to diner when I put that last post up, there was maybe 5 - 20 floating babies in the tank. We got back about 8pm and all the eggs are hatched with babies, tons of babies swimming about. I, myself have never seen or heard of a fish laying eggs that hatch within hours, or even same day for that matter. I have dispersed about 10-20 per tank through my tanks to "experiment" I guess. Some fresh, some brackish, some harder water some softer water. Really interested to see what works. All the fry have been moving in the tanks for close to an hour, will keep close eyes on all of them. One difference I have noticed about this time as opposed to last time, the smaller darker parent puffer is eating them, the larger brighter parent hasn't taken any interest. I brought up the looks to the puffers because I really want to know which is producing the eggs, I had to have missed it today by no more than 2 hours. I have an arlo security cam I used to use to put out to watch packages. Based on the time between when they spawned last and when they spawned this time was about 3 weeks, so about 2 weeks from now I will set it up on the tank so I can catch the egg laying on camera. The differences in these two figure 8's from size, color, and aggressiveness is very drastic, and finding out who's the egg holder may give a lot of insight into sexing them and things of that nature.

Round 2! This time I’m prepared so let’s see how it goes! @mountaintoppufferkeeper how long after your puffers lay the eggs do they hatch? This batch was laid upfront of the tank, so I know for a fact they were laid between 8-4 today and were already hatching by 4.. pretty exited once again 😁

Day 4: Unfortunately looks like we lost all the fry overnight last night 😞 There are maybe 5 left in the parent tank. Feel like I was just lacking in the proper setup, and food…. Memorial Day weekend slowed all the shipments so I wouldn’t have gotten anything until this coming week anyways. Going to work on getting a setup going and ready so I’m 100% ready for the next batch.

Day 3

Just curious if filters/Java moss in brackish tank would contain insuforia. Haven’t thought about it that much, just realizing every video I watched was all fresh water. I do have my snail tank I could pull the moss and filter from, but again just curious.

Am picking up one of those same white/green net ones from the local Petco on lunch today for the ones still in the parent tank. In your puffer baby experience, how long do you think it will be before they are juveniles or should I say how long do you think it will be before I need to "do something with them"? If it's move them to a bigger tank, separate them out, sell them. give away etc. Just trying to be prepared for the future if we make it that far.

Awesome. Will give this a shot as well. Thanks for the info!!

Got what looks like half of them in a spare 10g brackish last night. Lost some to my hob in the parent tank last night it seems. Thought I covered the intake in filter floss good enough, but there was an opening that that got a few of em. Took a fine sponge from one of my other filters and rigged it so it doesn't get the rest of the ones in there. Got bbs and vinegar eels on the way, hopefully they get here in time for this batch of babies. Ground some of the freeze dried brine shrimp super fine this morning and fed so hopefully that can hold them over. Forgot to ask last night, but I have some vita chem that I used with the freeze dried krill I fed when I first got the puffers and was waiting on live/frozen foods. Was wondering if this would help give them the nutrients they need that the freeze dried brine doesn't give them while I am waiting on the live bbs to get here?

Am definitely looking into the vinegar eels! Sounds like one of the better options. What was the second 50% ingredient after the apple cider vinegar? Once again, thank you for all the info!!!

This is crazy! Went from thinking this was impossible, to this conversation in 24 hours. Thank you for all the information, wasn't looking to breed or take care of babies but I am going to try my best! Of all the foods mentioned I am only familiar with a couple, and none of which I can get locally. I am ordering BBS stuff from coop and will look at ordering some cultures of smaller foods to get going for possible future fry if these don't make it with what I can get or have. 100% plan to document everything!! Figure 8 puffer info is peanuts compared to everything else I am coming to find.

Thank you for your help!! Definitely think I am in over my head with this surprise..

Do you think I need to relocate them to another tank? Can definitely do the bbs, am ordering the stuff now from coop, but will need to do my research on the vinegar eels! Until then I have frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp, frozen krill, and freeze dried brine shrimp. Will any of those get my by until I can get the bbs up and going? If petco or petsmart has anything that would be better I can hit them up locally. Sorry for all the questions, wasn't expecting this at all and am just trying to do waht I can. Thanks in advance!

29 gallon. I have another empty 29 biocube and an empty 40 breeder

I was wondering the same on the fresh water, but I can't find a single drop of information on baby figure 8s. I have a couple of extra ten gallons and cycled filters, maybe I should set one up brackish and one fresh. Also was considering the brine shrimp hatching if this was indeed the case, after getting some more info was more than likely going to order the stuff from the coop and just follow one of Cory's many videos on the subject. Do you think the frozen brine I have will be ok to feed until I can get that rolling? Thanks in advance for any knowledge that can be bestowed upon me

I have never raised fry before, so I need all the knowledge I can get! I've setup an additional tank with an extra filter from the puffer tank and water from the puffer tank as well, in case this was the case lol, but that was also before I knew there were TONS of them. I have some frozen and freeze dried brine shrimp on hand if that will work, if not I can get whatever I need. No clue what I am going to do with a hundred puffer fish!!!!

I have 2 figure 8s that have been together almost a year now with 2 nerite snails. I came home from work yesterday to find what looked like about 20 tiny baby fish in my tank, and a bunch of brown spots all over the sand and filter sponge on one side of the tank. Came home from work today and there is what looks like over a hundred tiny baby fish in the tank. I have been told they wouldn't breed, or its impossible, or no one has ever seen it, etc. What is this I am looking at? I have not introduced anything new to the tank in 3-4 months, other than the water change every Sunday. Am I infested with something or are these tiny puffers???? Please help lol. It is really hard to get a picture of them that is clear enough. I have tons that I can post if need be, maybe one will be better than the next, also have videos that show them allot better, can drop a link to those if I need to. Also, I put a picture of the brown spots that I am assuming were eggs if I am not crazy. Just looking for some guidance.

No rapid breathing. It is hard for me to actually see him poop with my work schedule, unless it is the weekend, which I planned to watch real hard this weekend. But the poop I have been seeing when I get home hasn't looked stringy, looks like his normal poops. I have noticed a bit less of it though.

Looking for ideas about what is going on with my figure 8 puffer. Regular diet of ramshorns, frozen bloodworms, frozen krill, and shrimp. When I noticed his stomach not flattening out as usual after his daily feeding, I did not feed him for 2 days and still looks larger than after he eats. No meds have been used. Water Parameters (use co-op strips): Water Temp: 78F pH: 7.2 Ammonia: 0 ppm Nitrite: 0 ppm Nitrates: 5-10 ppm Hardness: Between 150-300 Salinity: 1.008