Pity Buy

[Cisc]

The title pretty much says it all, I bought a gsp out of pity (I know it's bad it only supports the lousy pet stores out there but why should he/she suffer because of their ignorance). After getting as little information as possible from the staff, like the tank says brackish but nobody knows the salinity we can't sell you common pond snails in the plant tank because they don't have a price tag etc, I wandered out with a very hungry little puffer. That was yesterday, today he is looking much more alive and not quite so starving but I can't seem to find a solid answer about what my salinity should be at. He is in pure fresh water atm because that's what the lfs had him in but do they migrate to full marine over the course of their lifetimes? Also should I be going with sand or gravel? Does anybody's Gsp like to bury themselves?

He's set up in a little (8g custom) quarantine tank with filter material stolen from a community tank. I threw together a 2.5g snail breeding tank with the snails I was able to convince another lfs to sell me. I think the basics are covered, I will build him a bigger home when I find out if he needs marine or fresh so no worries on that front. I've decided to name him lucky since most of his tankmates were dead or dying when I got him out of there.

[Nick]

He can't stay in fresh water for very long, maybe a couple of months before suffering health defects. They need brackish water their entire lives, but can be moved up to full marine conditions if you desire. You need salt mix for marine fish to make brackish, not aquarium salt, for a younger GSP, SG 1.006 or so is fine, but you can only increase by about .002 per week and keep the tank cycled. I'd suggest setting up a 29 gallon or larger tank for him, as that will be big enough for his entire life.

[t1gerbee]

firstly, check out the pufferpedia and identify your puffer correcctly... a burying gsp... not that i've ever come across, so just confirm it is definitely a GSP before playing with salt....

either sand or gravel is fine, keep the Q tank bare bottomed though, while you assess what he is, and what treatment he might need.....

If he is a GSP then he will need an SG of around 1.005 - 8 as a juv. then slowly increasing to high end brackish or full marine as he matures...

you are looking at a needing a 30G tank just for him....


But get the ID right first and we can take it from there... or post a photo and someone will ID him for you....

[Cisc]

Ok here's a pic, he was nearly black yesterday but he's getting lighter and won't stay still for a proper pic.



My qt tank has also been serving as a plant qt so it has a flourite substrate, I don't know if that will cause him any problems. I want to bump him into full marine as soon as possible as freshwater really isn't my side of aquaria, so a three week acclimation to .005 or so then a slow acclimation to .026 over a long period of time while he grows to 6 inches? 30+ gal tank just for him is no problem but I do like keeping corals, are gsp's coral nippers?

[Nick]

They typically nip corals, but it depends on the corals and puffer. I have seen no health consequences in bringing small GSP(over 1") to full marine with a simple afternoon of acclimation, if you have a fully cycled marine tank ready.

[Happy_Puffer]

When I tried acclimating my gsp to full marine he didn't do to well. I did it really really slowly and as time went on he turned almost all black on his belly and sides and then he was mad about the bag he was in even though it was a huge bag I had gotten from the lfs. I don't know what happened but when he got into the tank he seemed better but then after a few days he went down hill fast. He stayed all black and wouldn't eat. Now I am afraid to try this again, so I am doing it the other way slowly upping the sg in his other tank and when he is ready I will add him to the sw tank.

[Pufferpunk]

GSPs are rarely found in the ocean. I don't suggest putting a juvie into straight SW. Wait until it's at least 3", IMO.

[cobra1713]

yea i agree i would keep it at low salinity for a while, mine was at very low salinity with aquarium salt (noob mistake) until 2 inches and now is at 1.015 and loving it so i dont think it would hurt them at all to be at low salinity as a JUV but if you want to move them to full marine once he's a little bigger and try corals go for it but i wouldnt spend to much on expensive corals cus i know they have been know to nip.

[t1gerbee]

have to agree... my 5 inch ceylon like the SG at 1.15 ish, but i added a juv GSP (under 1 inch) and he got really stressed, so i took the SG down to 1.008 and he came back strong...

annoys the Ceylon though, so i play around 1.010 and they both seem ok, but i know i've had too much evaporation and the SG has risen when the juv goes all thundery....

but people on here including some mods do have GSP's at 1 - 2 inches in full marine, so maybe it's just fish dependent....

[Cisc]

Well I guess I will wait until he's bigger and in better shape to try and acclimate him to marine. Right now he's at .002, I'll bump that up by .002 or so every week until he's in brackish then spoil him rotten to get him grown out.

[t1gerbee]

sounds good.

he'll tell you when the Sg gets too high... he'll go all grumpy and sulk...

[cobra1713]

he'll tell you when the Sg gets too high... he'll go all grumpy and sulk...

lol thats so true, it is so funny how they sulk and just go hide when their upset.

[jimi]

my f8s will sulk for a tone of reasons sometimes when i feed them they will spin around and look at me then stand up there spines and look all angry like its not what they wanted ( they recently went from an almost all blood worm diet to a new thing every day for a week before it repeats ) then hide jsut to wait till im not looking to eat again picky spoiled fish but hey there happy

[Cisc]

Ok I've run into an identification problem. Mainly because I don't know who to trust on the internet. Most aquarium sites I visit say he needs brackish and cannot have tankmates, some say their freshwater and larger tankmates are fine. In all my searching I found http://www.fishbase.org which lists fish by their scientific name and is apparently where ichthyologists post info. Going by the picture I matched my puffer to Tetraodon nigroviridis which they list as living in freshwater as adults. There is another green puffer Tetraodon fluviatilis which lives in brackish but looks a bit different. So is it possible that internet conventional wisdom has mixed together these two species and my puffer is supposed to stay in freshwater?

[Pufferpunk]

Check our Pufferpedia for proper ID & there is an article in our Library on the T. nigroviridis. Many BW fish spend a lot of their time in FW but we have found they do much better long term, in BW in captivity.