GSPs not wanting snails!  11/05/09
Hi Crew! First off, a little background information. I have two green spotted puffers that I've had for about a year and are between 2.5 and 3 inches.
<How sweet they must be!>
They're in a 175 gallon setup and it is full salt (a little early, I know, but they have been doing wonderfully).
<Fine.>
Water quality is great, they have tons of live rock so they're not bored.
They are perfectly healthy and eat like little pigs... but they wont eat snails.
<Not uncommon. Snails are difficult to eat, and if given easier and tastier alternative foods, tend to ignore them. Much like how humans would sooner eat junk food than a salad.>
I have tried EVERYTHING to get them to eat snails. I've tried different kinds of snails, I've tried crushing the snails, I've tried shoving snails inside a large shrimp to "trick" them, and I've tried starving them for a
couple days.
<Try starving them for a week or two. Won't do them any harm at all.>
None of this works. Right now they eat frozen mysis or brine shrimp 2 days a week, crab or lobster legs 3 times a week, large shrimp 2 days a week, ghost shrimp and squid whenever I can find them, and sometimes will munch on the pellets meant for the two damsels sharing the tank with them (Great use of a 175 with four fish, I know, but the puffers will need that space eventually).
<Damsels and GSPs tend to get along rather well, so I wouldn't look at this combination too harshly. You may decide to add some of the very pretty, but very aggressive damselfish species you couldn't keep in a standard community or reef tank. Look at the tank as an opportunity rather than a problem.>
Anyways, their teeth are starting to get a little long. They don't look like bugs bunny or anything yet, but long enough that I'm concerned. I'm terrified to trim their teeth (I'll do it if I have to) and I wish they would just eat the snails!
<To be honest, trimming their teeth isn't a big deal. I keep Colomesus asellus, a species infamous for its fast-growing teeth. While a combination of crunchy foods and a sandy aquarium seems to slow down the rate at which their teeth grow, it doesn't completely remove the need for me to occasionally trim their teeth. I have a step-by-step guide here:
http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/pufferdentistry.html
In other words, if your puffers resolutely refuse to eat snails, it's no big deal.>
Do you have any suggestions to get them to eat the snails?
<Hunger makes the best sauce...>
I'm desperate! Also, if you have any ideas of how to feed them better, I'm open to advice.
<Do choose snails they can swallow whole. A common mistake is to put big snails in there, assuming the puffer will peel them open like a can of beans. They don't. Want puffers tend to do is bite the whole snail, and more crunch the shell down, and if they can't get most or all of the shell in their mouth, they won't do this.>
Thanks so much for your help!
Carol M.
<Cheers, Neale.>

Neons Gone!!!!! In with a brackish puffer... eaten   10/13/09
Hi all. My name is Gerard.
<Hello Gerard,>
I really need some help here. I have a figure 8 puffer and had 10 Neons in the tank.
<You do realise these fish cannot be kept together? Figure-8 puffers (Tetraodon biocellatus) are BRACKISH water fish. They need to be maintained in a brackish water aquarium around SH 1.003 to SG 1.010.
http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/FAQ/3e.html
For some years there was confusion over this, possibly because Figure-8 puffers were mistakenly identified as Tetraodon palembangensis, a truly freshwater fish. In any case, Figure-8 puffers need brackish water, whereas Neons need soft water, so there's no overlap. Pufferfish also tend to be non-social fish, at best they're territorial, at worst they're predatory.
Figure-8 puffers are nippy and somewhat territorial, and best kept either singly or in groups of 3+. Do read here about puffer behaviour:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/pufferminds.htm
>
I woke up yesterday morning and 8 of them had vanished. I mean not even a fin left. Now I thought that my wife took them out to give to her sister for her tank......but this is not so.
<Somewhat mysterious. Of course, a big Pufferfish will eat small Neons.>
Sorry wife. So this morning I wake up and I find that the other two are now also GONE!!! what is going on?? At the pet shop I was told to feed the fish every second day with flakes or pellets and bloodworm twice a week for the puffer. not more than that otherwise the tank water will go off because bloodworm is very high in protein, so the puffer would eat what the others eat (terrible spelling sorry).
<Pufferfish need crunchy foods, not flake.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/bracpuffsysfaqs.htm
Offer them things like unshelled prawns, woodlice, small snails, chopped squid, krill, and so on. Avoid freeze-dried foods (these seem to cause constipation). Focus on fresh or wet-frozen foods. Don't feed them live feeder fish!>
At another pet shop I was told that the puffer only eats bloodworm and to feed it once a day????
<Why are you relying on what pet stores tell you? Would you listen to what a car salesman said? Or someone selling clothes? Of course not; you'd do your own research and make your own decisions. There is plenty of
information on this puffer species here at WWM.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/bracsystems.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/20qsbrmonks.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/bracpufffdgfaqs.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/bracpuffsysfaqs.htm
>
I'm 50 bucks down overnight and a very empty looking fish tank..... Please could someone tell me the truth. I don't know who to believe.
<Luckily for you I write about brackish water puffers, and even have a book about brackish water fishes that you might want to buy or borrow from a library. So you can trust me!>
When you go back and off load your frustration...... it's always something you have done... Eagerly waiting for a response Kind regards Gerard
<Hope this helps, Neale.>

Re: Neons Gone!!!!! 10/13/09
Hi Neale, yes thanks for the quick response. Please tell me , could that puffer have eaten all 8 and 2 the following night??
<Yes. Puffers will eat a lot of food! In the wild they eat "poor quality" food, meaning their food contains a lot of shells. So they have big stomachs, and need to eat a lot of food across the day to get all the energy they need. In an aquarium they are given soft, good quality food, so seem very greedy. Their instinct is to fill themselves up on whatever they can find; if that happens to be a bunch of small fish, particularly dead
fish, then that's what happens. I should say that Figure-8 puffers do not normally eat fish, not in the wild and not in captivity.>
That really baffles me. oh and what is the difference between brack and soft water?
<Brackish water is what you have in an estuary. It is half seawater and half river water. In the aquarium, for the Figure 8 pufferfish, you would add 9 grammes of marine salt mix (like you'd use in a marine reef tank) per 1 litre of water. Do read in particular here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/bracsystems.htm
Soft water is water with low levels of hardness. It was what you find in rivers hundreds of miles inland, like in the Amazon or the Congo. You *cannot* keep soft water fish and brackish water fish in the same
aquarium.>
Thanks again.
Gerard
<Cheers, Neale.>

14G freshwater setup questions, stkg... incl. Gobioides, non-aquatic plants,  - 10/05/2009
Hello there and thank you for your time.
<Hello, and we're happy to help.>
I have recently purchased and setup/cycled a 14G freshwater aquarium and have a few questions after reading and learning a bit more about my new hobby. The first and most important issue I need help with is what to do about the "Dragonfish" that I now know to actually be a Violet Goby and a brackish water fish.
<Indeed. And far too large for a 14 gallon aquarium. Adults get to as much as 50 cm/20 inches in length.>
I purchased it from Wal-mart on an admittedly rash impulse after reading the info label "freshwater, peaceful, eats blood worms" sounds good to me, too bad only the peaceful part was 100% accurate.
<!!!>
The other fish in the tank are 4 Devario aequipinnatus (giant Danios), and a Pterygoplichthys pardalis (Pleco).
<Both of these are far too large for 14 gallon tanks as well. Giant Danios, as their name suggests, are bigger than regular Danios. While the volume of the tank isn't critical, we're looking at tanks around 100 cm/39 inches in length for them to feel settled and happy. They also tend to be aggressive in groups smaller than 6, so be on the lookout for chasing and nipping. As for Plecs, well, this chap of yours will need a 55 gallon tank. Sure, it can be wedged into smaller tanks, but at up to 45 cm/18 inches in length, and a fish that produces solid waste by the bucket, small tanks will look filthy pretty quickly!>
I was sold some "aquatic" plants at Petco and have identified a couple as Dracenas and Brazilian swords which thanks to WWM I now know are not actually aquatic.
<Oh dear.>
My substrate is a basic colored gravel. According to the Violet Goby FAQ's I know that they need a gravity of about 1.005 to be happy but I was also reading that the Pleco, Danios, and plants aren't going to like that.
<Indeed not.>
I know that being estuarine the Goby will "survive" in the freshwater for a short period of time, my question is this. Will it be morally wrong to wait it out and see how he does?
<Yes. It will certainly sicken and die eventually. You hear of the odd specimen kept in freshwater tanks lasting 6, 12 months... but most don't. Wild fish likely live many years.>
I certainly don't have the money to start a second BW tank right now, and it seems like taking the fish back to Wal-Mart would be worse than leaving him with me, but on the other hand I don't want to slowly torture him to death by keeping him in a FW tank with a gravel substrate if that's going to be the case.
<A conundrum without an easy solution.>
Would "workarounds" like making sure he gets algae pellets and bloodworms to account for the lack of substrate feeding, and a PVC tube half buried to allow him a "burrow", be acceptable? Also is there a compromise gravity like 1.003 that will work for both the goby and the others?
<Look, the plants will die anyway, so they're not worth factoring. Dracaena and Spathiphyllum spp. are house plants, and should treated as such. Their death underwater is certain and imminent. For the fish, SG 1.003 would be tolerated by the Plec for a while, and if you were lucky, the Gobioides would be comfortable enough to last under such conditions for long enough for you to find alternative accommodation. But the Danios... not so much.
They have a low tolerance of brackish water.>
The other issue I need to address is the "aquatic" plants. Is a non aquatic plant going to cause any harm if left in the tank until it dies?
<Yes. Dead stuff is dead stuff, and it's all using up oxygen and producing organic acids.>
Assuming dead leaves are being removed of course. Plantgeeks.com says they will rot but I'm not 100% sure about my identification of the plants and would hate to waste money and good aquatic plants by pre-maturely removing them.
<Brazilian Swords are a species of Spathiphyllum, and certainly do not belong in an aquarium. As for Dracaena, they're pretty easy to identify, and so widely sold, that you'd be unlikely to make a mistake. If the thing looks like duck and quacks like a duck...>
What signs or symptoms should I watch for to remove them?
<Take them out.>
They were labeled "assorted potted plants" at Petco.
<Indeed.>
The final issue I have is that I have a Pleco who I'm learning will be eventually around 13" long and is living in a 14G tank that is about 20" long. I do plan to step up to a 55-75g eventually and would transplant him
to it.
<The bigger of the two tanks is wise.>
How much time do I realistically have before he will need to be put in a larger tank?
<They reach full size within 1-2 years. Do not underestimate their growth rate!>
I read in a forum on fishprofiles.com that if you place a fish in a too small tank that it will stunt their growth while their organs may continue to grow internally and eventually cause a painful death for the fish, is
there any truth to this?
<No, the organs don't keep growing. That's garbage, and quoted all over the place on web sites written by people without any real knowledge of fish biology. What *does* happen though is that eventually the mass of the fish overwhelms the ability of the filter to keep the water clean and oxygenated. When that threshold point is reached, ammonia isn't removed quickly enough, and oxygen isn't replenished fast enough, and the fish becomes stressed. Eventually, it dies. There's no rocket science here, and under lab conditions at least, you can maintain big fish in tiny tanks, provided the filtration is (uneconomically) massive and the water
constantly being changed (like, 90% daily). It's not viable to keep pet fish this way, which is why we stress the importance of the size of the tank, and the turnover of the filter, with respect to the fish being kept.>
Along the same lines, if I keep the Goby which I'm thinking isn't probable, how long before he's going to need a larger tank?
<Again, just don't.>
Thank you again, I realize now that I should have done a bit more research before setting this all up but now all I can do is try to make it right retrospectively and appreciate any help you folks have to offer.
<Do read here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_5/volume_5_3/stocking.htm
Much to be gained by measuring the volume of your aquarium, and choosing livestock accordingly.>
I'm an avid animal lover and would hate to know that they were suffering due to my ineptitude.
<I understand. But there is this issue that we go into pet shops and assume all the fish are equally easy to keep. This isn't any more true for fish than it is, say, for breeds of dog, or plants for your garden.>
Cheers,
Phil
<Cheers, Neale.>

SG flux GSP tank  9/21/09
Good evening crew. I have a GSP tank that I normally keep at SG of 1.013 for well over a year now. After my last water change, I don't know if I was distracted or what, but I added a bit too much salt to the make up water and now I have a reading of 1.015 in the main tank. How bad is this going to be for the biological filter and should I do a partial water change of fresh to remedy this ASAP? The fish seem unaffected, but from what I have read you are supposed to do any increases very gradual and that even .002 jump should be over a week or so. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
<Hello Keith. It's very unlikely you've done any serious harm. Filter bacteria adapt to fairly big changes in salinity. Your fish, being brackish water fish, couldn't care less. In fact adult GSPs do perfectly well from
1.005 to 1.025. So if everyone seems happy, and there's no nitrite or ammonia in the system, you needn't worry. Cheers, Neale.>