gsp marine in reef

[puff_puff_pass]

ok i need an answer.. one i have had answered already but i need reasons.. i want corals and what not with my puffers.. why cant i have it... 2 GSP's in a 75 gallon with 150 pounds of live rock....

[Boxermom]

You can do whatever you want. Its your fish and your tank and your money. Whether its advisable is a different issue.

[Pufferpunk]

I had 2 6" GSPs & a 6" Ceylon that I loved very much. I chose my reef over them, as soon as they started picking at the corals. You can try xenia, mushrooms & softies. I think they taste bad.

[Rusty]

ok i need an answer.. one i have had answered already but i need reasons.. i want corals and what not with my puffers.. why cant i have it... 2 GSP's in a 75 gallon with 150 pounds of live rock....

Its simple , puffers like to nibble things, power cords, bubble wands,etc etc etc and are desinged to eat inverts, big teeth and all, so if they will chomp that stuff, putting somthing tasty (and expensive) in with them, it might be a bit much to ask that they dont eat it. you could try what PP said and see how it works out.

[puff_puff_pass]

alright people.. and for boxer mom.. great help you are.... sorry im not as smart as you. but puffer punk as always your a big help...now for a list of fish i would like to inhabit with them. 1 scooter blenny 1 yellow watchman goby and 1 barbed zebra goby...being there are lots of room and hidding places and the puffers have had temporary tank mates before during tear downs cleanings and 1 very bad mistake my wife made i think they will be ok. and to be honest xenia and mushrooms were on my priority list.. and as for the rest if i see them nibble they will go to my brothers 210 reef.. soits not like they will go to waste and finally how about anemonies? hear some where they are dangerous to GSP's?

[PetPirate]

ok i need an answer.. one i have had answered already but i need reasons.. i want corals and what not with my puffers.. why cant i have it... 2 GSP's in a 75 gallon with 150 pounds of live rock....

Let me tell you why: Because the corals will not be safe with them.

Boxermom reckons it's up to you - your money. I disagree. Your responsibility is greater than this.

Most of the corals available for purchase in the fish store are wild caught - taken from our ailing coral reefs. These very reefs are in rapid declien, and may not be around for much longer. The rate of coral extinction is extraordinary. This is not solely due to collection - indeed, only partially due to collection. But as coral collectors we must be conscientious and take some form of responsibility.

This responsibility includes not taking risks with these precarious organisms.

If you can set up a separate reef, then fine - and if you can propagate those corals in captivity, then sure, move some of the cuttings to test with the GSPs.

Taking risks with any life under your care is morally questionable IMO. Would you put a puppy in a pirahna tank? But doing so with corals is even more inexcusable, unless you can be certain they were propagated in captivity.

Now, you've got the same answer again. Perhaps you will search the web high and low until youfind the answer you're looking for" "sure, go for it, put in corals, have a try." But I hope that the "good side" of your consicence will remember the counter-argument.

I sincerely hope this reasoning is good enough for you.

[PetPirate]

1 scooter blenny 1 yellow watchman goby and 1 barbed zebra goby...being there are lots of room and hidding places and the puffers have had temporary tank mates before during tear downs cleanings and 1 very bad mistake my wife made i think they will be ok. and to be honest xenia and mushrooms were on my priority list.. and as for the rest if i see them nibble they will go to my brothers 210 reef.. soits not like they will go to waste and finally how about anemonies? hear some where they are dangerous to GSP's?

Most likely those fish will not be OK. They could very well get eaten at some point down the line. You are relying on their speed and them having sufficient wits to swim out of the way.

If the corals are captive propagated, then feel free -- I would be cautious with Xenia,as although it is strong once established, it does not like being moved and will likely perish if nibbled on shortly after introduction. Almost all mushrooms will be fine, but I would steer towards the bigger/tougher rhodacti, ricordea, or similar.

As for anemones --- NO F** WAY... Is that clear enough? They require very special care -- good water conditions, no powerheads or intakes, very strong lighting, and ideally a species setup where they will not bump into other corals on their travels around the tank. In even quite experienced hobbyists tanks, anemones perish within the first year or two. In the wild, they are effectively immortal - living for decades upon decades. Please please please don't add to the dismal statistics.

My opinion, you've made your bed - a GSP tank. Now lie in it. If you want a reef, then change beds. Or get another bed.

[PetPirate]

Not dangerous--might work. I know a fellow here had one w/his puffers. Might ger nibbled on too... just can never tell w/puffers!

And exactly for this reason I believe it is wrong to try.

[puff_puff_pass]

pet pirate i have to agree 100% on what you said.. so let me clearify a few things.. 1 i would never want to hurt any living creatre... 2. i dont want to have the unobtainable at detrimental costs.. i love my puffers.. and i think making the tank look better would be a great bonus... but all the answers i ever got were no.... JUST NO... i didnt know if they were dangerous to the puffers or the opposite.. i cant except no, as just no.. i can except no if i understand it.. so after count less hours i decided to ask the experienced.. and i have my answer.. and to origins of the corals.. cant afford to buy them out of the fish store right now. i have many many expensive hobby's that come first.. but my brother has fraged a few items i was going to try and if they got nibbled they would go back to his 210 gallon full reef tank... but before risking the health of anything i wanted the opinion of far far more experienced people then me.. and now if some one newer to the hobby than me asks.. i actually can say bad idea with out saying, i dont know its just a bad idea.. now i can pass your education along and so on.. the point of this forum.. international knowledge to help keep more fish corals and living creatures alive and lower the unnessasary death rate humans alway always cause to creatures.... thanks for all your help, advice, and knowledge... keep it coming i cant get enough..

[puff_puff_pass]

actually let me go one farther with you pirate.. here is what is avalable from my brothers tank that has been succesfully split. some mushrooms some xenia's some zoo's some green star polyps and possably a brain. i know this is an opinion not a fact question. and your opinion is my puffers will eat them.. but to be honest i cant see them bothering anythig.. and i dont plan on dumping 20 corals in there in one clip.. sart of with a mushroom or 2 give it a few weeks. add a bit of xenia, give it some time, maybe a little cluster of zoo's after that. if all works out for 2 or 3 months start to add. if the puffers get hungry when the get bigger than i guess ill be buying another 75 gallon and putting them in there.. they dont bother any of my inverts and will only eat very very small snails.. the size of a BB and only if i specifically hand them to them.. the rest of the living creatures are fine... and i have some feather dusters that sprouted off the rocks that are fine and a few that are actually attatched to my turbo snails.. they just swim around and do nothing.. any way your opinion is valuable to me and probably everyone else here that was afraid to ask this question.. and if its not clear everyone pirates formal opinion is this is a bad idea.. and i guess i am going to very slowly and carefully push the envolpe here.. but i promise the first sight of any type of nibbling and they will be split in to other tanks. and i plan to have no casualtys in the experiment... thanks as usual to the great puffer forum!

[PetPirate]

Well, in that case....

Sorry, I just got the impression from the first post thet you were doing a "everyone says no but I must"...

I would start with the shrooms, then the zoanthids.

You could try the xeniids after that.. would be even more cautious with the brain. I'd stick with softies, corallimorhps and zoanthids instead.

[Pufferpunk]

I wouldn't chance the brain.

[puff_puff_pass]

i have to agree but its free and its homeless he dosnt want it.. haha to think an unwanted brain.. sounds like half of america! they way the kids fry them with drugs.. any way i understand what you mean pirate.. i was very vauge but its tuff to get the idea for some ones dimenior when all you have is a few sentences typed on a forum... I hope this plan works out cause i love my gsp's and i have never seen a reef that had some beutiful puffers swimming through it...they are only about 2 to maybe 2.5 inches.. and thats giving them a lil. im just hoping one day they dont go snail and crab killer on me.. as of right now the only invert i saw them go for other than the tiny ones i give them from time to time was a smaller turbo fall of a rock.. yes i said fall and to this day i dont know why he just plop fell right in front of me.. landed up side down and one went and took a peck at him.. my hand was in the tank and my shirt was wet up to my sholder before the puffer new what happened.. i flipped him over and they never looked at him or another again.. all my turbos are bigger than a quarter so i dont think they could harm them even if they tried.. i just dont want in a few years to come home to what looks like a bad episode of the nut cracker all over the botom of the tank and have my corals look like my drunk buttocks father fired up the lawn mower after a fun weekend... but i guess well see wont we......... thanks guys!

[Pufferpunk]

i have never seen a reef that had some beutiful puffers swimming through it...

I wonder why???

[puff_puff_pass]

point taken.....