"Cenote Tanganyika": 300G build for our 26-inch Mbu puffer...

[Jenerik]

What size metal halides are you using?

Those are Giesemann NOVA II housings with 70w Osram "Excellence" 5,500K bulbs. Fantastic bulbs and very affordable compared to "reef-type" ones.

I don't know how I missed this thread. This is my absolute dream fish. By far the best Mbu I've seen on the internet, or anywhere else. You've done a fantastic job. I'll be getting one myself the day I get a 300+ gallon tank. I've read that some are vicious killers, yours seems to completely leave the other fish alone. Do you think this is just the personality of the fish, or because it grew up with fish it's whole life and never viewed them as food?

Thanks, appareciate it. To answer your question, all the Mbu I am personally acquainted with or have seen have been pretty docile. In fact, aside from a very strong feeding drive, they are actually easily bullied by more aggrressive fish that could be quite a bit smaller.

Here are some recent updates from the tank. The Moth Orchid's buds finally opened and are stunning...

This is an "ant plant", Myrmecodia tuberosa. In nature, it is an epiphyte and has this swollen, brain-like caudex into which ants bore holes and make a colony. The ants live inside the plant and in turn, protect it from predators and such....

The Tillandsia capitata bromeliad is beginning its bloom cycle. The whole center of the plant will flush red when it is complete...

On a side note, our puffer is now locally famous. Some friends of ours were in town for the SXSW music festival and developed this app for your smart phone where you can email a pic to them and they will print a poster of it. They fell in love with our Mbu, so his face got plastered up around town...

 

[Chicxulub]

Wow, that flower looks like its glowing! Very unusual colors that thing has.

 

[aclockworkorange]

Just read the whole thread. Love your set up and your mbu looks great.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[azin]

Holy cow bro, you are the man for building that set up. I am surprise the puffer can get that big with such a small tank to begin with.

 

[Jenerik]

Overdue for an update. If anyone wants to know what it costs to feed an adult Mbu for a year, here ya' go...

Supervising dad preparing the crawfish for the freezer...

Some pics of the sea monster from earlier today...

 

[auratum]

Awesome set-up and fish! How did the Lepidiolamprolongus kendali fair in his tank? You had posted a picture of him some time ago when very small.

Great job! That is a lot of shrimp, but then again if that lasts a full year - no worse than my 1lb of pellets I feed a week in my tanks. Especially for such a cool wet pet as this.

 

[Jenerik]

Thanks. Regrettably, the kendalli jumped out of the tank some time ago. That was a bummer because he was one of my favorites. I had read reports about them jumping out due to aggression among conspecifics but he was the only kendalli in there. Assume he just got spooked in the night by something. Sad, in any case.

On a different note, the Gold-face compressiceps have spawned a couple of times. No fry (that I have seen, at least...) so far. Probably because the Mbu buries their spawning sites with sajnd as he puffs around for food. Also, the Celebes Rainbowfish spawn pretty much on-cue whenever I do a water change but same deal: Never any fry. I assume the other fish are eating the eggs as soon as they get laid. Tank is doing great, I hardly do anything to it aside from feeding and water changes.

 

[gangster]

Love all the plants on the tank! That orchid is beautiful! And congrats on gettn your buddy plastered up around town. Thats quite cool.

 

[Jenerik]

Thanks, the orchid is still in bloom believe that or not.

Here is an interesting observation on the effectiveness of "Pothos Filtration". There was a period of time a while back where I was traveling a lot and just sort of neglected the tank maintenance. Like, maybe two months between major water changes. The water got a bit yellow from organic-whatever but the nitrates never got any higher than about 20ppm. The emergent plants really do a great job of keeping the nitrates down and keeping the tank stable.

 

[nightster]

So how do you keep the crawfish fresh year round? Do you freeze them?