Ok...wtf is a brackish tank??

[bongface]

What is a brackish tank exactly? What do i have to do to get this little puffer to live!?! lol:oops: I have him in a normal fish tank with cichlids and he seems to be doing fine? I know they're notorious for fin-nipping and even taking chunks out of other fish. I guess I made a mistake buying him but I like him a lot and I want him to be ok. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[bongface]

::UPDATE:: Puffer has ICH! He's being treated in a tiny critter tank with water from the main aquarium (none of the other fish are showing any signs of ICH at all) and i put in a few tiny drops of Rid-ICH. help? thanks.

[SGypsyMermaid]

if your puffer is a brackish water water puffer, he may have developed the ich due to the stress of not having any salt in his water. here is a link on brackish water tanks: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.html

you can get more info by doing a google search on "brackish aquariums". it would help if you could find out what species of puffer you have...many are brackish water species, but some are freshwater, and some are saltwater.

[bongface]

This is definitely a Green Spotted Puffer...does that help any?

[SGypsyMermaid]

look here: http://puffernet.tripod.com/nigroviridis.html

[demonblade442]

All puffers are brackish, you just can aclamate them to fresh or salt

[SGypsyMermaid]

Originally posted by demonblade442
All puffers are brackish, you just can aclamate them to fresh or salt

i disagree...there is at least one totally freshwater puffer species.

[jonah]

There's also some that are completely marine species like the dogface puffer.

[Seedy]

I have kept green spot puffers in a 10gal brackish tank. I believe that the tank make up was: 1 green spot puffer (oddly enough, he was named "bong" 'cus he's a puffer!) 1 or 2 green or red scats, one mono, and a poor little common pl*co to keep the algae down.

Ps-the pleco didn't tolerate the salinity very well...

Even though the tank was small, I found my puffer to be extremely tolerant to poor water quality as long as the salinity was relatively high...(50-50 mixture fresh salt? I cant remember, it's been a few years...) Fish that live in brackish water commonly come from river mouths, salt sloughs, bays and other areas where salinity may vary based on rainwater/tides. This means that these fish are very halo-tolerant and can be conditioned to live any where from almost fresh water to a little over ocean salinity

....and yes, there are true fresh water puffers as well as true salt water puffers, and YES even brackish water or "halo-tolerant" puffers....

As far as the ich issue goes, spotted puffers tend to like their water a little warmer which may have contributed to the ich...

[YourPalCM]

Puffers will do OK in a Cichlid tank????? I've never seen or heard of anyone doing this before. Puffers are pretty cool. Anyone have any experiences? I do salt my tanks, but I can't say I know anything about just how much salt is required for Puffers. Anyone?

[Seedy]

I would not recomend puffers and cichlids... Fresh/brackish water puffers are slow growers and would probably end up as lunch for a cichlid...