figure 8 puffer fish

Question
Hi,
I have a 10 gallon freshwater aquarium with live plants and an abundance of
pond snails.
I am interested in keeping a Figure Eight Puffer fish in this tank and would
like to know what to feed them, their tolerance of PH and water changes, and
other helpful information.
Would I need to buy frozen or live foods? Or would the snail provide enough
food? My PH level from the water tap to the tank is normally at 8.0, and I
would rather have a fish that could adapt to that instead of me constantly
changing water levels.

Please reply soon!
Thanks

Answer
Hi!
Figure-eight puffers are great candidates for a "wet pet" or a species tank. If you decide to keep two, make sure to raise them together as juveniles.

Puffers do well in water with a pH of about 8.0 so you're fine were you're at now. They also do appreciate a little bit of marine salt added to their water to make it slightly brackish. While they can live in freshwater they often do better in water that is slightly salty. Creating and maintaining brackish water is not difficult. But first you should ask your supplier if they are keeping their puffers in brackish water currently. Usually they do. If so, go ahead and keep your puffs freshwater and later on you can slowly adjust them to brackish conditions with each water change introducing little by little salted water. Start out small and gradual. Get a Hydrometer which is a very important object for measuring the salinity. Don't increase the salinity more than 0.001-0.002 per week. Your biofilter as well as your fish need time to get adjusted to it.

This also brings up about water quality. Puffers cannot be added to uncycled aquariums. Their delicate skin and fins cannot tolerate polluted water. There must be absolutely no Ammonia or nitrites and nitrates should be kept under 20. If you are starting with a recent setup, you can try cycling your tank with a few mollies (removing them later) or incorporate the snails into it.

Water change schedules depend upon how high your nitrates get. As I mentioned earlier, they must be kept very low for puffers. This may mean 30-50% water changes once or twice a week just depending upon your individual setup. A good water conditioner like Amquel+ or Prime would be great for puffers.

Puffers need a varied diet with plenty of meaty foods and snails (you've already got that part covered) Puffers often will not really take flakes or pellets but its worth a try to attempt to train them to after you've had them a little bit. Some foods they do well on are-

*Bloodworms
*Black worms
*Meal worms (sparingly)
*Crickets (sparingly)
*Earthworms
*Krill
*Other shrimp
*Plankton
*Brine shrimp

~ It is recommended that Freeze dried and perhaps even frozen food to be soaked/defrosted in a cup of cool dechlorinated water with fish vitamins added (from your petstore.)

Be careful, puffers are beggars and its easy to overfeed. It's recommended to feed them enough for a slightly rounded belly about once a day.

Well, I think that's pretty much the basics of Figure-eight puffer care. It never hurts to do a little extra research on them though.

Best wishes and I hope this helps!
Karen~