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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Malabar "Pea" Puffer - Carinotetraodon travancoric

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02 Dec 2008 23:45 #1 by Andrew (Andrew Taaffe)
I am looking at getting a few of these for my specimen tank. Does anyone else keep them, all advices welcome.


Andrew

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03 Dec 2008 01:06 #2 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Puffers are very intelligent and quickly recognize their owner. They will probably spend more time looking at you than you look at them.
Good clean water is a must. 30-50% water changes weekly.
Give them some plants to hide in. They can chase each other and need some where to hide.
They are carnivores and will hunt down live food. Flake is out. They wont touch it. Snails are the obvious choice and are good for grinding their teeth down. Their teeth can grow fast and if they grow to long can stop them from feeding.
I would feed them other foods like brine shrimp or worms to vary their diet. If you feed worms it is a good idea to soak the worms in a past of flake food for a couple of hours. The worms will feed on this and what goes in to the worms eventually goes in to the fish.
Remember these are small fish with small mouths so the food should be small. About the size of their eye is a good way to judge what size food they can eat.
Pond snails or malaysian live bearing snails are to big. Ramshorn snails (flat spiral) are a better size to feed them.

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03 Dec 2008 09:12 #3 by 2poc (2poc)
Hi,

Can I ask where you are getting them from?
I've been on the lookout for these guys for a while.

I have a red tailed red eye puffer & a fahaka puffer myself.
Just traded in a Palembang puffer at the weekend.

Re: food - like platty says snails are required. I'd say these guys would go for bloodworm too.

Cheers,
Patrick.

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03 Dec 2008 15:41 #4 by Andrew (Andrew Taaffe)
Platty - thanks for the advices, it was your tank that convinced me I could do it :) So for the last few weeks I've been harvesting and breeding snails that had hitchhiked into my tank from any plant purchases, I quite lke the snails anyway, but as soon as I know i'd like to get these dwarf puffers I set about the snail task. Though i guess i'd need quite a supply of snails to keep them happy and fed.

My specimen tank into which these puffers will go is a 120litre, at the moment i've got 6 otos in it and 1 male SFF (he was there to keep the tank cycling while the danios were in sick bed). and now the questions
How many puffers could I put into the specimen tank? Ratio of 1 male for every 2 or 3 females.

Ultimatley I hope to have 10 otos, some killifish and some loaches - khuli and zebra, in this tank along with the 4 danios, whatya think is it a a goer or have i got major
conflicts?

2poc, I gave my santa list to LFS and hope to have some before Christmas, these small fish warrant big stock orders so I guess once demand is there then the supply can be filled. When I hear they are in I'll let you know straight away.

Andrew

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01 Feb 2009 23:39 #5 by Andrew (Andrew Taaffe)
Today, at last I have the little gang in the tank. 6 puffers, hopefully 2 male and 4 female, not sure of age yet so as to certainly confirm sex but the hint of blue on 2 of the specimens is a good indicator. I also picked up some frozen krill to feed in the coming days, but started them off on a little bloodworm, at least i saw 4 of the 6 eating it. They are meant to be cautious travellers and nervous entrants to a tank so i took it nice a slow when introducing them in the unlit tank. I will keenly observe them over the next few days and check the tank snail population census later in the week !
Andrew

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01 Feb 2009 23:40 - 01 Feb 2009 23:51 #6 by Andrew (Andrew Taaffe)
Today, at last I have the little gang in the tank. 6 puffers, hopefully 2 male and 4 female, not sure of age yet so as to certainly confirm sex but the hint of blue on 2 of the specimens is a good indicator for the males. I also picked up some frozen krill to feed in the coming days, but started them off on a little bloodworm, at least i saw 4 of the 6 eating it. They are meant to be cautious travellers and nervous entrants to a tank so i took it nice a slow when introducing them in the unlit tank. I will keenly observe them over the next few days and check the tank snail population census later in the week !
Andrew

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Last edit: 01 Feb 2009 23:51 by Andrew (Andrew Taaffe).

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01 Feb 2009 23:46 #7 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Sexing these is easy. The male has a dark stripe along it's belly.
You are lucky getting them to eat frozen food. Mine wont touch it. If it dosent move it's not food.
Were did you get them?

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01 Feb 2009 23:49 #8 by Andrew (Andrew Taaffe)
Hi platty, they are still a bit young to sex them, I got them off Drew in AV, and we had a good study of them, they moved quite swiftly which was a bit surprising for their little pectoral fins size, but sure i guess wild ones go fast.

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01 Feb 2009 23:50 #9 by Andrew (Andrew Taaffe)
Hi platty, they are still a bit young to sex them, I got them off Drew in AV, and we had a good study of them, they moved quite swiftly which was a bit surprising for their little pectoral fins size, but sure i guess wild ones go fast.

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01 Feb 2009 23:56 #10 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
If they are that young that they are not showing the dark stripe then maybe the size will tell you male from female. The male been slightly larger. Check again in a couple of days for the stripe. They get this quite young.
Yes they can move very fast for their size and as you know get stressed when been re homed.
They will settle in quickly.
Just give them plenty of cover to hide from each other.

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01 Feb 2009 23:59 #11 by Andrew (Andrew Taaffe)
yeah, initially they hung out together near some bogwood and coconuts but gradually drifted away from each other, as the tank has been going since October i've had loads of time to get it planted and decorated so hopefully they will have a good time there.

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