ARGYGANG
Well-Known Member
me and my girlfriend recently were "gifted" a spiny box puffer fish about 4 inches long from our local petco (its to the point they call us when they get sick fish in from liveaquaria and just give them to us and write them off as loses) super cute and hes at a healthy weight but riddled with velvet and ich so i accepted the fish got him in a qt tub with some cupramine as its all i had on hand even though its not the go to to treat him. if he survives this treatment which he probably will the way it looks, as hes still eating and swimming and hes breathing has slowed a good bit after a fw dip, would it be cruel to keep this fish in a 40 gallon breeder for around 6 months at 4 inches body length? i have a 125 display tank that he could be added into after his treatment if a few 3 inch tangs a single dispar anthias and most importantly my mud moray and flametail blenny wont become food but i also have a few really expensive fish in there and all the fish mean a great deal to me in that tank so if its a risk i wont do it. the question is would it be cruel or unfair to the animal to temporarily be housed in a 40 gallon breeder by itsself for around 6 months until i move into my new house and take my fish from my 125 into the 220 i OWN that is in a storage unit and move him into the 125. if it would be unfair to the fish then i would probably just go ahead and rehome him to a fellow aquarist that has a 90 gallon he could setup for the fish instead, i would like to keep the fish because its probably second only to the dogface as far as personality and "cuteness" goes as far as fish are concerned but what i would like even more would be for this fish to be kept respectfully and humanely. the only reason i ask this is because from the research ive done on recommended tank sizes etc its based around the maximum size that fish can be and is hard to find a minimum tank size for the fish at different points in its growth and the fact that some fish only get two to three inches big but need a ton of space despite there small size. So please if any of you would second guess keeping a 4 inch spiny box puffer in a 40 breeder for about 6 months and then moving him to a 125 for a more permanent but not fully permanent home after that 6 months is up please let me know because the animals happiness and longevity is #1 priority after its treatment is done.....and if anyone could please give me some clarity on the cupramine dose for puffers as ive seen you do half dose for puffers and it will work just fine since they are scaleless, and then ive seen people like jay and vetta guy on this website whos opinions i value say that cupramine is therapudic at .5 and if it drops below that you restart the clock. edit: disregard the cupramine question this is not the right forum for that question and jay has also already informed me in another post to use full .5 for puffers so that is what i will be doing.
