GSP?

[Jmifland]

I have decided against the GSP and the Figure 8 Puffer. What are the pros and cons of the following two puffers with my aquarium setup.

Leopard Puffer
Saddle Valentini Puffer

They both say that they can be kept in a reef tank with caution and require a 30 gallon aquarium set up. The Leopard max size is 3" and the Saddle Valentini Puffer gets to 4" which are semi aggressive like clowns and cardinals. What do people use to clean their tanks if these eat crustaceans?

[jus85411]

I heard seen videos on youtube and read articles about people successfully keeping Figure 8 Puffers in marine aquariums for 1-2 years until they passed.

most puffers have been documented to live into at least their early teens, given that they have pristine water conditions and adequate aquarium size. F8 puffers will adapt to marine, but they do not live long lives in marine at all. thats why the cases you have seen on youtube or you have heard of they only lived for a year or two. they simply arent genetically capable of it. they thrive and live longest in brackish from what has been documented over the years

[wagner7123]

I think you should get what ever is cheapest and most abundant as you seem like you want to get a new one every year.

[Jmifland]

life span of a wolf in the wild is about 13 years, 16 if they are on an animal preserve. do you think a captive wolf would have a shorter life span?

sources

http://www.wolfcountry.net/information/ ... erved.html

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/North ... aywolf.cfm

Two different animals.

[wagner7123]

I withdraw. Good luck though.

[Jmifland]

I decided against it based on everything that is said so everyone that is arguing back lets get back to my newest question...

I have decided against the GSP and the Figure 8 Puffer. What are the pros and cons of the following two puffers with my aquarium setup.

Leopard Puffer
Saddle Valentini Puffer

They both say that they can be kept in a reef tank with caution and require a 30 gallon aquarium set up. The Leopard max size is 3" and the Saddle Valentini Puffer gets to 4" which are semi aggressive like clowns and cardinals. What do people use to clean their tanks if these eat crustaceans?

[jus85411]

What do people use to clean their tanks if these eat crustaceans?

our hands lol. i got an awesome tool from petco that was a razor blade scrape, a velcro attachment for sponges to clean tank walls and a "rake" attachment to help stir the substrate. you may get lucky and get a GSP that will leave certain crustaceans alone, but most likely he will view them as food. i had nassarius snails in my sand bed, and when my puff found out i had them in there he constantly was digging around looking for them to eat lol. i had a hermit crab that i got by accident for no charge. he was harassed for a while but i think the puff gave up over time because he lived with my puff his entire life in marine.

You should add some personal experience into those profiles.

there are more than plenty of personal experiences put into the profiles of these fish. they were not pulled from any other site that i know of. and if you have seen these exact articles somewhere else, then please link because i think they are property of PP(owner of TPF). if you plan on breeding anything in that tank, i dont think you should be looking into puffers. they wouldnt be best in a tank completely full of competition for food. the most recent puffs you listed would probably fair better than a GSP due to size difference, but again if your breeding i wouldnt do it in the same tank.

so say you did get a puffer and you bred both clowns and cardinals. where would all the baby fish go? same tank? grow out tanks? i would like to see your future thoughts on this tank if your plans are set in stone.

[Jmifland]

I have heard that unless you actually have the tank setup for clown fish breeding then the odds of the fry actually surviving are very low. I have also heard they a lot of the time they eat there own eggs. The cardinalfish i was in a magazine as being one of the top three easier marine fish to breed. Since they are mouth brooders the males will stop eating for 17 days and hold the babies in his mouth until they are ready to eat for themselves. During this time the female will protect the male if anyone tries to pick on him. If this happens I plan to remove the cardinalfish and place them both into the refugium which will have a filter sponge over the dividing wall as to keep the babies from going over and being sucked into the return and back into the tank. If I can successfully breed live young then I may either create a tank for them or leave them in the refugium and move the adults back to the display. Then either sell the babies or make a tank just for them until they get larger.

I just worry about the sand not being sifted enough and the algae on the glass not getting properly removed but if I keep on it with the tools you mentioned then it shouldn't be a problem. I have also read that a lot of the time they will ignore hermits depending on how hard the shell is they are in. The only problem is that I have a cleaner shrimp that is about 2-3 inches and I really like him. I have read forum post about people saying that their puffer would allow the cleaner to clean him up so I would like be optimistic.

[Jmifland]

I apologize to all for being stubborn but I thought I saw successful stories of keep a figure 8 puffer in a marine aquarium. I had no idea they lived for such a long period of time. I just really wanted to make it work since they are such a unique looking fish. I'm sure keeping the Leopard Puffer will be much better and I will continue to do some research on them. Weird that I haven't heard of them prior to today especially since I have been looking all over for nano type fish. Hopefully I can find some good news either here or somewhere else online.

[Pufferpunk]

I heard seen videos on youtube and read articles about people successfully keeping Figure 8 Puffers in marine aquariums for 1-2 years until they passed.

You consider that successful??? After a decade-long study done by our Mentor, RTR, it has been proven that F8s are best kept at a low-end BW SG of 1.005. He kept one for over 18 years.

Many of us here have successfully kept our GSPs into their teens.

PLEASE do not believe anything you see on Youtube!!!

The valentini is a hardy puffer. Good luck finding a Leopard.

[Jmifland]

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod ... catid=2909

LiveAquaria has the Leopard Puffer for sale :X are there any good write-ups on these two puffers? Search button won't work on my phone but I can check at home after work.

[Pufferpunk]

Search won't work here, until we get onto a new server.
I found the valentini to be hardier. My Leopard was adorable, but didn't survive the tank move.

Here was mine:





Another cool one is the coronada:

[J-P]

there are a few people keeping valentini puffers. Canthigaster puffers typically have the same care requirements but different species fetch different $$ values.

viewforum.php?f=38

That is the general list of puffers that are known to be or have been in aquariums. Obviously some of the more rare SW ones are lacking in information. Current keepers could advice. Which bring the next point. People won't reply to a valentini question under a GSP thread. It might be worth while to open a new thread on that subject.

[jus85411]

http://reviews.petco.com/3554/108251/pe ... eviews.htm

there is the link to that tool i mentioned. mind you that you may still have to move rocks to get in places you couldnt get with the tool. but you can swap every few times you rake with sifting under rocks. then you can also rearrange some rocks(which is recommended to keep the puffers from being bored and glass surfing a lot) and decor to get where you missed while you rearrange.

keeping puffers is easily my favorite. i just dont currently have the time required to set up and do all of the cycling etc or i would have tanks again. i plan on having some pretty soon again the fact that you havent even heard of those panther puffers should show you something about how unique this forum is they know their stuff and im slowly learning more and more. honestly i dont go to other places for information anymore, puffers isnt just what this place knows a lot about and there is all types of information in other threads. just sucks the search function isnt working currently to help you out more(i didnt donate yet i plan to though and i promise soon). if your that sold on keeping F8s and are willing to reconsider your current plans, you could also go for a low brackish tank with two F8s since its 15 gal for each, and it could leave you with the option to get a bumble bee gobie or two along with it

[Jmifland]

The only problem is that I currently have saltwater fish that are going to need a larger tank soon. I think that either the Leopard or the Valentini will work well in the tank. I am going to create another thread and hopefully get some more information on those two fish so I can make the best decision.