GSP Youngster to SW

[Linda]

Please advise on how to go about adding a GSP to my SW tank to live with a with Picasso Triggerfish (baby). The store keeps its baby GSP's in FW. I realise I will need to start it in a separate FW tank - but where do I go from there to finally get it in with the Trigger? Thanks.

[riggers]

GSPs seem to do best in aquariums when kept in BW to start with, and then gradually moving to SW as they get older. Have you read the GSP article in the library? library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/

Here's a quote to help with what you've asked:

I suggest keeping GSPs in low-end brackish water when juvenile <2", (in a specific gravity, or SG of 1.005-10, at 2-4", medium BW (SG 1.010-15) and adult >4″ SW (SG 1.018-22). You must use marine salt. You will need a hydrometer to measure the salinity. It takes a cup of salt/5 gal of water to raise the SG .005. If the puffer you purchase is in FW at the store, then you should start out your tank in FW and raise the SG .002/week, until you reach the desired SG. This is so you don’t destroy the good nitrifying bacteria as you add salt. SW bacteria are different than FW, so you need time for the SW bacteria to develop as the FW bacteria dies off slowly. If the store keeps their puffers in BW (congratulations, you’ve found a store that really cares about their fish), cycle your tank at whatever SG the puffers are living in at the store. If you already have an established BW tank and are buying a puffer kept in FW at the store, you need to acclimate it very slowly. Whenever I change a fish over from FW-BW, BW-SW, or vice-versa, I use a drip system. I put the fish in a bucket below the tank I will be moving it into, covered by water from the tank the puffers were living in, about 1″ over its head. I tie a knot in an air hose until it drips enough water into the bucket to raise or lower the SG in the bucket .001/hour.

[Agnate]

Depending on how large the GSP is, you can just set up a low-brackish tank (you can start it at about 1.005 SG), making sure that the tank is cycled before acclimating the GSP, and then gradually raise the SG to near-marine levels, and finally transfer him over to your marine tank after several months to a year.

The SG of a brackish environment shouldn't be raised by more than 0.002 SG per week.

How big is the GSP, roughly?

[Pufferpunk]

Although some folks have "sucessfully" kept juvie GSPs in SW, we don't really know the long-term effects of this. We do know that GSPs almost never actually visit the ocean & that the fry start out in FW, slowly making their way towards saltier water, as they mature.

[goby1kenobi]

I have also read reports of too-small GSPs not dealing with high-salinity very well at all. It may not be simply age-related; if a puffer is small for its age, it may also have issues with high-salinity water.

[riggers]

Yeah that's true. If it is still small I guess it's kidney might not have fully developed as much as it normally would for it's age so that would definitely affect it I would think.