New 29 gallon aquarium

[Maxy24]

A gourami might be okay in a 29. I like harlequin rasboras, very hardy and school tighter than any fish I've had.

[swolek]

I loved having puffers but dont really want to get back into buying the marine salt, buying snails, frozen food. I already have female and male bettas. Bolivian rams dont do anything for me. I no I am extremely picky. I will go to the fish store on the weekend just to see whats available and what are my options. Out of all of the fish I have had puffers by far are my favorite. I love the way they buzz around in the tank. Who nows maybe I will end up geting one. If I did decide to get a figure eight puffer. Would the aquarium salt I already added hurt the puffer because I have to add the marine salt solution.

Hmm, have you considered a crayfish? That might be something interesting to try. The blue ones look neat. I'm trying to think of other interesting predators that could live in a 29-gallon but it's hard. If only it was a saltwater tank, then I'd suggest a Dwarf Lionfish or something.

Yeah, I'm a puffer fan too. I used to keep Dwarf Puffers and also had a Green Spotted Puffer for years...only lost him recently due to a power outage :(. He was very low-maintenance (would even eat pellets) and interesting. I haven't kept a Figure-8 but they're very similar in care.

The freshwater aquarium salt won't hurt, especially at the amount typically added :).

I'm trying to think of fish that always greeted me, haha. Paradisefish, also known as the Paradise Gourami, are colorful, intelligent, predators but may look too similar to your Bettas. I had one for a long time and she was one of my favorite fish...tons of personality and extremely hardy.

I like Rosy Barbs...they resemble Goldfish but are lower maintenance and not as large. Mine weren't totally stupid like the various tetras I've had but they weren't like puffers or bettas.

Just throwing out some more names :).

[swolek]

Sorry for the double-post but here are some more ideas.

-A school of medium catfish, maybe Upside-Down Catfish or Porthole Catfish
-American Flagfish
-Silver Apollo Shark (haven't kept this one, I believe it's newer to the pet trade...it's supposed to be a smaller, more peaceful shark then other common species)

[Evangeline]

I have always had figure eight puffers but am looking at the green spotted puffer. They get bigger and are more aggressive. One in a 29 gallon with nothing else and good filteration should be ok. The only thing I am confused is are these fish brackish or marine. When they are smaller they are suppost to be in heavy brackish and as adults some say they should be in full marine. Do you no how fast they grow. If I get one it will be probably only 1 half inches.

[swolek]

I have always had figure eight puffers but am looking at the green spotted puffer. They get bigger and are more aggressive. One in a 29 gallon with nothing else and good filteration should be ok. The only thing I am confused is are these fish brackish or marine. When they are smaller they are suppost to be in heavy brackish and as adults some say they should be in full marine. Do you no how fast they grow. If I get one it will be probably only 1 half inches.

We kept ours in brackish water for the first two years and then switched to marine. The real reason we switched to marine was actually because the tank contained Colombian Sharks but the Puffer didn't mind at all. Like you, I've come across conflicting sources on whether or not they need full marine conditions. To be on the safe side, I'd eventually bring the salinity up to saltwater conditions but I wouldn't worry about getting perfect marine values or anything. After a while of having the tank I stopped measuring the salt when I did water changes...so they might go a week with a specific gravity of 1.018 and then a week at 1.022 or something. Brackish fish are designed to tolerate sudden salinity changes and I always figured it would also kill any parasites/bacteria that could be problematic :).

Since I've only had one, it's hard to generalize about growth rates. Ours grew faster the first year or two, gaining a couple of inches. After that his growth slowed down considerably. A baby is going to take at least a few years to reach adult size.

[BarbaraClark]

We have always cycled our tanks by using the de-chlorinators and then getting some fish water from a local petstore to add to the tank along with a SMALL pinch of food...it's always worked for us.

[Kat]

I had neon tetras when I was like 8, they kept dying, no matter what we did! Never have I cried so much as a kid then having so many batches of fish die lol. We ended up getting those black ones that have really fluffy looking tails, cant remember the name though.

[swolek]

I had neon tetras when I was like 8, they kept dying, no matter what we did! Never have I cried so much as a kid then having so many batches of fish die lol. We ended up getting those black ones that have really fluffy looking tails, cant remember the name though.

Black Skirt Tetras, maybe? They come in a long-finned variety :).

[Kat]

I think they were black molly's... http://www.modernpetcentre.in/data/p...ck%20Molly.jpg so pretty! I miss having fish