[H2oGirl]

Just a few new piccies to show you how it's all going.

[Ninong]

Nice! This is your new 1,000 litre tank, right? It's hard to get proper perspective from photographs sometimes. When I first looked at the first photo, it looked smaller than I know that it really is.

[H2oGirl]

Hi, yeah this is the new 1000 litre, it's quite hard to give an idea of the size in photos. All going pretty well, everything seems happy, had a couple of different coloured algae blooms which it seems to have shaken itself out of now, added a few new fish which we thought would be good additions and would shoal, they may be shoaling but they're doing it inside the middle rock formation and only the largest one comes out very often, c'est la vie.

Anemone still alive, still white, but seems very happily routed in another hole. Had a bit of a fright when the puffer decided to jump into the weir, luckily it didn't get stuck down any of the pipes and we managed to get net him and get him back into the main tank and he seems no worse for wear after his ordeal.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by H2oGirl

...added a few new fish which we thought would be good additions and would shoal, they may be shoaling but they're doing it inside the middle rock formation and only the largest one comes out very often, c'est la vie.

Shoaling (or schooling as we call it down here in Louisiana) is a defensive behavior. Fish that do it naturally may gradually discontinue this behavior in captivity in the absence of any predatory species that pose a threat. They are in hiding right now, as you have observed, and as you have observed it is the largest that will be the first to begin venturing out. Gradually the others will follow. I suspect that they will shoal for some time but not in tight formation.

Anemone still alive, still white, but seems very happily routed in another hole.

It is important that the anemone get something to eat. In the wild, they eat constantly. Usually just small zooplankton that drifts into their tentacles. It should be fed a couple of times a week in portions appropriate to its size. Dr. Ron Shimek's article on anemone husbandry.

Had a bit of a fright when the puffer decided to jump into the weir, luckily it didn't get stuck down any of the pipes and we managed to get net him and get him back into the main tank and he seems no worse for wear after his ordeal.

What species do you have?

[H2oGirl]

There's a picture of the puffer above, would hate to get the name of it wrong so I'll leave it to you to identify and will therefore find out if I'm right.



Only kidding I believe him to be a blue spotted puffer and we've had him for just over a year now and he loves me, follows me around the tank whenever he spots me.

[Ninong]

It's a good thing you provided a picture of your puffer because I just googled "blue-spotted puffer" and came up with more than one species that are known by that same common name, which is quite common. According to fishbase, "blue-spotted puffer" is not one of the English common names for your species, Canthigaster solandri. At least it's not one that they approve of. Maybe they don't want to confuse it with the other blue-spotted puffer? Arothron caeruleopunctatus is the only fish that fishbase calls the blue-spotted puffer and before you even begin to wonder if maybe you have one of those, notice that they have an adult size of 80 cm. Ouch!

In case you are unaware of the following information, which I believe to be correct, here goes:

Blue Spot Puffer, Canthigaster Solandri, is also known as the Blue Spotted Sharpnose. Its brown body is covered with brilliant blue dots. The tail fin varies from specimen to specimen covering shades of deep gold to orange. Just as personable as some of the larger Puffers, it grows to a maximum size of around 4 inches. This Indo-Pacific native can sometimes be found as far east as the Hawaiian Islands. The Blue Spot Puffer feeds largely on red algae, green algae, and coralline algae. Because of its penchant for coralline algae, the flesh of Stony Corals, and crustaceans, it is definitely not recommended for the reef aquarium. This is a fairly hardy species that requires vegetable matter as well as meaty foods including krill, clam, and carnivore preparations.

From fishbase: Feed mainly on filamentous red and green algae and coralline red algae but also on corals, tunicates, mollusks, echinoderms, polychaetes, crustaceans and bryozoans.

I don't know of any puffers that are suitable for a reef aquarium.