NEW GSP, Tank Size?

[brooksst]

Hi, just this weekend I picked up a GSP. I've been working towards getting a puffer for a while now, studying and preparing a tank. I was planning on getting a F8 and keeping him by himself in a 20g tank for life which would have worked great from what I've read. Well setting up the tank and cycling it I spent a month and half trying to find a good F8 and I they were hard to come by. When I did find them, they didn't look good unfortunately. Stopping in at my LFS I noticed they had some really great looking little GSP's and I couldn't resist. I knew when I was buying him that he would get twice the size of a F8 and definitely outgrow a 20g tank. Like I said right now he is real tiny. Only about 3/4" or less. He's doing great right now and has acclimated really well. Now to the point of this post. By my guess he'll grow about an inch every four months. Right now I just don't have room for a bigger tank. In a year I'll be moving and I'll have plenty of space for something like a 55g or bigger. Of course the LFS assured me it wouldn't be a problem to put him in a 20g for a year to a year and half but I don't have a lot of faith in that. What do you guys think? He'll be the only fish in there as I set this tank up specifically for a puffer.

So can I keep this fish or do I need to return him and keep waiting on a F8.

[puffertt77]

Hey brooksst

I'm guessing your tank is 3ftx1ftx1ft to be a 20g

So long as you have good filteration I think he'll be fine in that tank up untill he's about 4.5inches

[Pufferpunk]

55g would be perfect for him!

[marksrush]

An inch every four months sounds a little fast to me...more like an inch every 8 months, if my GSP is anywhere near normal.

[brooksst]

So it sounds like the 20g tank will be ok for about a one year time frame. Trust me, I'm not going to try and stretch things out and see how long I can keep him in this tank. In my opinion it's already too late if you've waited until they NEED a bigger tank.

Also, the little guy has been doing real good up until I got home last night. Suddenly he was spending a lot of time hovering just below the surface of the water looking pretty sluggish. Any thoughts on what that should be telling me? Since he seemed a little off the first thing I did was a water change of about 40% and he perked up for a bit but after about an hour went back to hovering at the top of the tank. I also pointed my power head towards the surface of the tank to get more movement of the surface water in case it was some kind of lack of oxygen. This morning when I woke up he seemed normal again buzzing around like usual and exploring. How often can I keep doing those water changes without disrupting the bacteria in my tank?

My salinity is 1.003 but I've been using freshwater salt. I plan on switching to marine salt slowly through water changes. I don't have a test for ammonia but I plan on getting them soon. Nitrites are 0 and nitrates are about 5 ppm, temp. is about 80. Currently I'm using a powerhead that's 200gpm and sponge for filtration.

If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them.

[pinkfloydpuffer]

I'd definitely get an ammonia test. Fish often hover towards the top when there's ammonia present. If there's any ammonia showing you'll have to do waterchanges daily.

[brooksst]

Ok, I'll get on that ammonia test. Just as a precaution I'll start doing daily water changes until things settle in a bit more. After cycling the tank I put four 1.5" tetra's in there to keep cycled and make sure things had stabilized but I guess that wasn't a heavy enough load?

What size water changes can I do without disrupting the good bacteria in the tank? If I'm changing 50% daily don't I risk pulling out bacteria faster than it's growing?

[pinkfloydpuffer]

The bacteria doesn't live in the water, but on surfaces like the gravel and filter media. Just try not to agitate the substrate too much with your daily changes and you should be fine.