Please help my figure eight pufferfish!!! =[ i know the post is long but PLEASE

[Sarbear4464]

i have a 25 gallon community tank with a school of about 6 tetras multiple guppies which are always mating with a small colorful australian fish. i have one barb and a algae eater fish. we have three tall plants in the tank, gravel rocks surround the bottom. we vacuum clean the gravel about once a month but the glass walls are always clean. we have a couple lava rocks on the bottom and only one lava rock that is in a wide arch so its just like a cave.
about a month ago i added a black redtailed shark to the tank and he took over the cave and has lived perfectly peaceful with the other fish. i have had no problems wit the shark. in fact he has actaully taken to one of the small baby guppies that gets bullied a lot by older guppies. he the baby gets bullied he goes into the cave and finds the shark and the shark with go and almost lay on top of him until the guppy decides to leave. its cute =]
i have wanted a figure eight pufferfish for a long time and i did lots of research on it. my parents wont buy me another tank because my love for fish is relatively new. they also have had a community tank for years and were hesitant about the shark cuz they thought it would be aggressive.
i read about the pufferfish and read that if i bought one when it was young, and if i had hi with another semi aggressive fish that he would have a less chance of being aggressive. and since the puffer and red tailed shark are both young i thought it would be fine. i just didnt want the puffer to be aggressive with the other fish. i even bought about 20 ghost shrimp so that he would be kept well fed.
i bought the pufferfish yesterday and he seemed fine all evening (i basically never left the tank for 2 hours) the guppies came up the the pufferfish and he didnt nip at them. he only got snappy one with the barb but the barb butted him first.
anyway when i finally left the tank and came in this morning there was a pufferfish sized bite taken out of my sharks tail! no other fish had bite marks but i wonder what happened to make the puffer do that. the puffer is unharmed by the way. the shark is mostly a bottom dweller and the puffer was mid or high. i was thinking maybe since we have only one cave thing that the puffer was looking for somewhere to sleep or hide and he encountered the sharks territory. because the puffer had NO visible problems with ANY of the fish EXCEPT the barb.
PLEASE someone tell me what the problem is!
was all my research wrong, did i make a stupid move?
do i need another cave?
is the tank too crowded, because if thats it and i need to take the puffer fish back that will make me sad, but i dont want the poor guy stressed or hurt.
or is this something like they just had a brief encounter and it probably wont happen again?
please tell me what to do!!!!
keep in mind i really want to try to keep the fish!
oh and one more thing sorry,
the puffer is a little less than an inch big and im afraid the ghost shrimp are too big for him to eat yet. i have some frozen krill i can feed him... can he eat the ghost shrimp now? (they range in size from pretty tiny to exceptionally big) or should i feed him krill for awhile or what???
PLEASE HELP ME!
THANK YOUUU

 

[Sarbear4464]

PleAse people its really important that i get as many answers as possible TODAY
because now my shark is nervous cuz of the attack on his tail and now hes being pushy to other fish... PLEASEEEEE

 

[f8fan]

After reading your post, my list of advise is long and varied but I can sum it up in one sentence...

Figure 8 Puffers are not, let me repeat NOT, community fish.

Add to that, they aren't freshwater, either. They are brackish fish. Take a look at the brackish forum.

Unless you can set them up in a brackish tank (a ten gallon would do for one F8) I'd take him back to the store. Either all your fish will become his meals, or he will die from stress.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, it sounds like you really care about your tank. And welcome to MFT.

 

[Sarbear4464]

i looked them up and it said it could be brackish or freshwater. though freshwater was preferred. =[
yeah i knew it was a risk thats why i took all the precautions i could possibly read about to try to make this work.
but it probably wont and i dont want any fish including the puffer to be tense or stressed.
ill see if my mom will let me buy a 10 gallon tank.. but if not i guess ill take the little guy back to the store today. =[
thanks for the help

 

[BlueStraggler]

well i have nooo experience with puffers so I can only offer advice.

"i read about the pufferfish and read that if i bought one when it was young, and if i had hi with another semi aggressive fish that he would have a less chance of being aggressive."

I believe you may have read that but that it is not necessarily true. It is hard to predict the exact behavior of a fish. Your RTS for example. I never heard of them being protectors of guppies.
Also I've read that puffers are brackish water fishes. And I think you will receive some replies recommending a bigger tank and more caves.

Your puffer is under an inch? or is that a typo?

It may be a wise choice to return him or her to the lfs to avoid any problems.
It sounds like you are unsure about the care they require.

Or you could wait for him to be the only one left and consider him the spotlight of your tank.
I don't know the feeding questions that you have, I never kept a puffer.

lol there is a few posts now which there wasn't before I typed...sorry

 

[Sarbear4464]

from nose to tail he is probably an inch long.
yeah it was hard finding info on the puffer cuz lots of different sites said different things so i based my decision on what a majority of the sites said about me trying something like this. im going to try to put i another cave and feed him again to make sure its not a territory or hunger issue. but t the end of the day if i dont think this will get fixed, i will probably have to end up taking the poor guy back to the store. but im trying my best to resolve the issues today.

and yeah i know about the RTS. i thought he was going to eat them or something because he doesnt like any fish in his cave, but when a baby guppy swims in there from being bullied or just whatever i guess, the shark just hovers over it as close as it can be without crushing it and the guppy hangs out there as long as e wants. its wierd lol


anyone have any other tips??
any way to try to make this work?
i just want whats best for my fish (lol im so lame)

 

[Sarbear4464]

by the way along with any other tips or suggestions..are the ghost shrimp too big for him to eat... does he eat those when hes more grown?

 

[f8fan]

by the way along with any other tips or suggestions..are the ghost shrimp too big for him to eat... does he eat those when hes more grown?

The size of the live ghost shrimp doesn't matter. As you found with your sharks' tail, F8's bite, shred and tear apart their food. They have "teeth" and they use them. It's also important to gut-load the shrimp, they have very little nutritional value alone and in order for the puffer to get nourishment out of them you need to gut-load them with nutritious food for the puffer.

Unless you have a spare hundred dollars (or so) kicking around to create the environment the puffers needs to live in (new tank/filter/heater/tank top/marine salt/caves/substrate/special food) I don't have any more advice to give you to make your current situation work other than returning the puffer to the store. Sorry :/

Here's a couple links you might find informative regarding brackish tanks:
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/brackish-discussion/35372-brackish-tanks-guide.html
Starting a Brackish Aquarium, what you need and what you can keep.

 

[jo3olous]

you shouldnt put the figure 8 puffer with other semi aggressive community fish other than its own??? puffers are generally slow and it wont be fast enough to out swim other semi aggressive fish; or if it stands ground and fish butt heads the puffer will probably lose...
mmm.. what kind of barb is it? is it a tiger barb? if it is it should be in a shoal of at least 5-6 otherwise it will bully other species to no end. The redtail shark is territorial and it will harass other fish in the tank, that is a lifelong personality and fish that cant handle it should not be in there with a redtail. hope this helps

 

[f8fan]

you shouldnt put the figure 8 puffer with other semi aggressive community fish other than its own??? puffers are generally slow and it wont be fast enough to out swim other semi aggressive fish; or if it stands ground and fish butt heads the puffer will probably lose...

I'm not sure where you got that information, but I disagree. Puffers aren't known to be "slow" and yes, they are agressive and will attack other fish. Read up in this first post.

anyway when i finally left the tank and came in this morning there was a pufferfish sized bite taken out of my sharks tail! no other fish had bite marks but i wonder what happened to make the puffer do that. the puffer is unharmed by the way.

 

[jo3olous]

I'm not sure where you got that information, but I disagree. Puffers aren't known to be "slow" and yes, they are agressive and will attack other fish. Read up in this first post.

hmm sorry, didn't regard them as a fast fish compared to tiger barbs, danios and other community bullies. Shouldn't matter anyway since they should be in a species only tank?

 

[f8fan]

. Shouldn't matter anyway since they should be in a species only tank?

Agreed...figure 8 puffers should be in a "species only tank" *thumbsups

 

[Dugan1058]

Maybe a little help for your Figue 8 Puffer

I actually just got an f8 for my comunity tank. At first i was having some trouble with him nipping at my other fish. Lately i have found that if i can give him plenty of food he's been leaving the others alone. My 2 most recent discoveries is that they love frozen shrimp. I bought some shrimp from the grocery store and boiled one of them for my puffer and threw it in the tank. He went to town on it, and he's been going back to it when he's be hungry. I've also put some small snails in the tank for him to grind his beak on. since then i've had no other attacks. My pufer seems happy and my other fish are doing well.

I have a very odd assortment of creatures in my tank: Angel fish, blue crawfish, platy, molly, the puffer and a few others and they have been getting along fine.

 

[jo3olous]

I actually just got an f8 for my comunity tank. At first i was having some trouble with him nipping at my other fish. Lately i have found that if i can give him plenty of food he's been leaving the others alone. My 2 most recent discoveries is that they love frozen shrimp. I bought some shrimp from the grocery store and boiled one of them for my puffer and threw it in the tank. He went to town on it, and he's been going back to it when he's be hungry. I've also put some small snails in the tank for him to grind his beak on. since then i've had no other attacks. My pufer seems happy and my other fish are doing well.

I have a very odd assortment of creatures in my tank: Angel fish, blue crawfish, platy, molly, the puffer and a few others and they have been getting along fine.

if you are anomolously getting away with a bad tank set up (wrong mix of fish) please do not use it as positive reinforcement for the newbies. It's one thing to do something completely wrong but somehow it works out, it's another thing to promote it as logical correct advice.

 

[BlueStraggler]

I actually just got an f8 for my comunity tank. At first i was having some trouble with him nipping at my other fish. Lately i have found that if i can give him plenty of food he's been leaving the others alone. My 2 most recent discoveries is that they love frozen shrimp. I bought some shrimp from the grocery store and boiled one of them for my puffer and threw it in the tank. He went to town on it, and he's been going back to it when he's be hungry. I've also put some small snails in the tank for him to grind his beak on. since then i've had no other attacks. My pufer seems happy and my other fish are doing well.

.

You feed them cocktail shrimp? Are you sure thats ok to do?