new here need advice

[deathfromabove]

hello everybody im new here, excuse the username its my xbox name, i was in the pet store a few weeks ago cuz my gf has community fish set-up(fresh water). I saw a green spotted puffer, i saw him he saw me and it was like it was studying me lol witch i found very intriguing i cant explain it, the weird thing is i always thought it was pointless to have fish... but and as soon as i saw it i was attracted to it and soon after i wanted one, i talked to the guy he said they do best in full salt when there adults but you can keep them in brackish water, i did a lot of research but i have questions that are still UN-answered, if you go full salt do you need to get the coral and live sand and all that or can you have a regular freshwater set-up with salt and/or brackish water? and how much harder is it to keep up with salt water than brackish water? also im planning to put em in either a 20 tall or 20 long tank, i dont know witch is better cuz every time i saw him at the fish store he seemed like he would like the height rather than the length than again it was a square tank not much room to swim length wise. also is it hard to keep up with the ammonia levels in a 20 gallon tank i read that you have to check it everyday with a 15 gallon tank. if you could just give me opinions it would help a lot thanks

[kingkoopa]

Hello! Funny, I too was more of a hands-on pet person, until I randomly bought a betta for work. 4 fish tanks later, I am the proud owner of 3 bettas and one fiesty GSP! Trust me, once you get one fish there is absolutely no turning back, lol.

I'm a newbie puffer owner myself, but I can give my opinions to your questions based on my limited research and knowledge. My GSP King Koopa was in a freshwater setup at the LFS I got him from, and once I got him I slowly acclimated him to brackish, and he's very happy in his 15G. I know they live longest and best in SW, so eventually when he grows I plan on getting him a 30G, and possibly going full SW. I believe that having coral and live rock and sand will help cycle your SW aquarium, but I don't believe it's *necessary* to have a SW tank. My GSP definitely likes the length better than height, as he likes to swim full speed back and forth to entertain himself sometimes. As a rule, the bigger the tank, the more dispersed the ammonia is. 15G is the minimum for young GSPs, and I have been doing good with 50% water changes every 5 days. With a 20G you could probably get away with 50% water changes weekly. Don't forget to cycle your tank way before you get your GSP though!!!

You should wait for a puffer pro to give you the real advice though. =) Good luck! You sound like you're going to be a very good and responsible fish owner!

[J-P]

this is a good start:
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Brackish/T_Nigroviridis/

then this one:
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/

You can set up a brackish tank and lowly move it up to marine as outlined in the introduction. If you go full marine usually it is FOWLR (fish only with live rock) and sand.

You won't need the corals, they are an expensive snack.

On water care, I'm sure someone will chime in, but what I have read is that full marine is more costly initially but easier to maintain. Brackish is cheaper to set up and uses less salt but requires more maintenance. Either way you go, I'm sure you'll be very happy with the little bugger. I am also impressed that the LFS said brackish and marine... usually they say just FW is ok.

[Pufferpunk]

20g is OK if it's a juvie but this is how big he's gonna get:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25770

[c333davis]

hello everybody im new here, excuse the username its my xbox name

Welcome! Your user name made me laugh because I recently posted a picture of my GSP with that phrase as the title
ug.php/v/User_Galleries/c333davis/gsp/2 ... 0.jpg.html

i talked to the guy he said they do best in full salt when there adults but you can keep them in brackish water

Just like J-P said above, I'm impressed that the fish store employee had this correct advice for you! Many don't know this. If your experience with this local fish store (LFS) continues to go well, consider writing a review about them... there's an area of the forum to do so. As a community, we need to acknowledge and support those LFS that properly house their fish and can advise customers likewise!

if you go full salt do you need to get the coral and live sand and all that or can you have a regular freshwater set-up with salt and/or brackish water?

I just recently made the transition from brackish to full marine for my GSP. You can read about the transition here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=25686

also is it hard to keep up with the ammonia levels in a 20 gallon tank i read that you have to check it everyday with a 15 gallon tank.

As kingkoopa pointed out above, you definitely need to have a tank cycled to give your puffer the best, healthiest start. Once the tank is cycled, the bio filter should prevent any detectable ammonia and nitrite in the tank. Your regular water changes will keep the nitrAtes down.

[deathfromabove]

thanks everyone the advice deff helped, what does (LFS) mean and what does cycled mean, do you mean when you set up the tank? or when you clean the tank, i read this thing that said when you get the tank set it up get everything right but leave the water to sit for a week and turn the filter on the day before you get the puffer and hell be ready to go in the next day is that cycled? and also when you clean the tank do you take the puffer out or can you leave him in?

[purplecandle]

LFS local fish store
A lot of people think that cycling means let water sit, but that is not true. Ask your self, does that make any sense..

A cycled tank means that you have a bacteria cycle going

Fish pee and put ammonia in the tank. Ammonia is toxic to fish. You need bacteria to convert ammonia into less toxic Nitrites and Nitrates.

You must add bacteria to the water to start this cycle.

Here is an article-
library/water-filtration/fishless-cycling/