Help needed = accidental GSP owner

[kudos1uk]

Guys,
First post and I really need some help and advice.
A friend was moving house and asked if I could take his fish, he has only had them a few weeks, I agreed and have now discovered what I agreed to!

He had two GSP in a small 12" square tank and they looked really nice, as far as I understand the fish shop sold him all the kit, told him to feed them one frozen blood worm cube every other day and let him get on with it (they did at least sell him some water conditioner to remove clorine! Oh and some bacteria balls to go in the filter!). The poor guys have been in this tiny tank with fresh water that has not been cycled for about a month now.

I had a 60l tank at home that has been fish free and just cycling for an eternity so I changed the water and got it ready.

I have now done some research and found these GSP need to be in brackish and I have no experience at all with brackish, I also understand they will grow to bout 6" eventually (will worry about that later, they are 1" right now), they certainly would have been a tight fit in that 12" take when adults!

I understand they can tolerate freshwater for a while but as they get older they will just die, I don't want that for these cute guys, I have ended up in this mess and just need to work out what to do next.

[Pufferpunk]

If they're still alive & healthy in that tiny tank, it's probably cycled by 1 month. It helps that they are so tiny. Sorry they had to live thru that though...

If I were you, I'd get a 55g tank (cheap on Craigslist) for them, along with an Aquaclear 70. You can use the filter material from the tank they're in now, in that filter.

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... d-puffers/
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... r-puffers/
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... =8&t=19348

[kudos1uk]

Thanks for that, I have got them out of that tiny tank and into my 60L tank which is well cycled, while not huge it's OK for now, I'm just concerned how long they can tolerate freshwater and how to get them into brackish.

[kudos1uk]

Thanks for the links BTW, it sounds like it might not be so difficult to start a new life of a brackish tank for the little guys.

[kudos1uk]

I should also say they did not even have a heater in that small tank, just room temperature, so under 20c

I went to the same fish shop he bought the GSP from yesterday to get more information and they told me about the beaks, I already knew about that from my research, they sold me a bag of frozen (in shell) cockles and said alternate feeding between the cockles and frozen blood worm cubes (Blood worm is all these guys have eaten in the last 5 weeks).

I pretty sure I'm right in saying, these guys wont be able to get into a cockle? right?

[Pufferpunk]

Defrost in water dosed with liquid fish vitamins & crack them open. The puffer's teeth will scrape against the inside of the shell, to get the meat out.