BrokenAquarium Introduction

[brokenaquarium]

    Hello everyone,

        My name is Til.... yup just three letters, and I operate Broken Aquarium which is kind of a side project that will hopefully turn into a website and possibly more. Thanks to my friends at American Aquarium Products, I have two tanks (4) Brackish water crabs, (6) mollies, and the second larger tank houses (2) small brackish water puffer-fish. All of which continuously crack me up with they're individual personalities and habits, apparently one of those habits is not being camera friendly!   However i did get some decent pictures of the gang in tank one and a small video of the puffers, (because they wouldn't stay still) that i will upload shortly. I would also like to say for anyone else new to the hobby, crabs and puffers, (and or anything with puffers) they do not get along! As the puffers, although very cute, are quite the bullies even towards each other.   Lesson Learned  I must say i am rather excited to be a Sponsor for this forum and look forward to passing along my knowledge, and absorbing all that's here to gain.

[devonjohnsgard]

Nice intro Mr. Til. Thanks for being apart of the group. Puffers are amazing fish. Such personalities. Do the puffers go after each other or get along?

Picture or videos are always great! Thanks again for sponsoring the forum!

[angelminx]

Welcome, Til!

I just stumbled across an article a week or two ago (only glanced at it while searching for something else, so can't remember where) that I am still searching for, so can't verify the info. I was talking about ("freshwater") puffers, and mentioned a species called the "Pea Puffer", that does well/best in groups and can be kept in a community tank. You can guess where the name comes from...yup, they're the size of a pea! They sound interesting, and I would love to have some, but doubt I'll have access to them where I live. If I find the article again, I'll post the info.

Angelminx

[brokenaquarium]

Hey Hey MR. Devon and Hello angelminx,

    To answer your question Devon, the puffers get along together, "For the most part" but they get very aggressive when its feeding time, and are somewhat territorial. They are however very fun to watch and they like to come right up to the front of the tank, (so long as there isn't a camera around).

  angelminx, I looked up "Pea Puffer" that you mentioned, and they are pretty adorable little fish and I'm pretty jealous that they can go into a community tank certainly wish these two weren't such bullies.

Here are some of the best pictures i could get of them.
 

[Ameenah]

Til. Your puffers are so cute! How long have you been involved in keeping puffers? how hard is it to maintain brakish water in proper parameters?

[brokenaquarium]

Hello Ameenah,

   Thank you, I find them pretty adorable myself. The puffers are new to me, I have only kept community tanks in the past and have never really dealt with a lot of aggressive fish. That being said I have helped my friend with his rather large Albino Oscar, but it has been in a tank by its self for many years.

What I know so far about the puffers is: they are certainly territorial, they like to eat blood worms and really like to eat small snails, and they have big personalities. As far as the brackish water, they can be kept in fresh water but they prefer brackish, so I'm running it like a freshwater tank and simply adding half a teaspoon (per ten gallons) of the Cichlid lake salt from Seachem.   

[Ameenah]

Wow very interesting bit of info on your puffers. I might have to look into getting one. I need to find a good snail-eater since when I got back from the Middle East I discovered the dreaded snails populating one of my smaller tanks. I was considering an Assassin Snail, but now will take a look at puffers before my final decision.

[devonjohnsgard]

Dec 31, 2014 6:33:40 GMT -5 Ameenah said:

Wow very interesting bit of info on your puffers. I might have to look into getting one. I need to find a good snail-eater since when I got back from the Middle East I discovered the dreaded snails populating one of my smaller tanks. I was considering an Assassin Snail, but now will take a look at puffers before my final decision.

From what I know, they really like those snails...

[swimfin27]

What kind of effect would the SeaChem Cichlid salt have on normally freshwater fish? Is this salt the same as Aquarium Salt sold by API?

[devonjohnsgard]

Mar 6, 2015 20:32:19 GMT -5 swimfin27 said:

What kind of effect would the SeaChem Cichlid salt have on normally freshwater fish? Is this salt the same as Aquarium Salt sold by API?

Cichlids, livebearers, and brackish
"SeaChems Cichlid Lake Salt is a chemically sound blend of salts designed to replicate the natural environment of cichlids and livebearers. It contains all physiologically essential elements such as magnesium, calcium, sodium potassium, and trace amounts of iron, aluminum, & iodine.
This product can safely be used for ALL FW fish aquariums requiring some salt"
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/seachem.html#cichlid

"For freshwater aquariums (& basic marine aquariums), Wonder Shells are an excellent compliment for raising Calcium, magnesium, and electrolyte levels when used with Buffers, or even Baking Soda, however by themselves Wonder Shells (or similar mineral products such as Equilibrium) do not raise KH much.
Sea Chem Cichlid Salt also supplements alkaline buffers with added minerals (as well as salt), generally for use with fish such as Rift Cichlids, Livebearers, etc, but this can also be used in limited quantity with all freshwater fish."
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/aquariumkh.html#kh

This is also a good read:
www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2008/03/salt-in-freshwater-aquariums.html

So, like API salt, but with buffers too.