New to puffers, advice welcome

[Sanjo-Eel]

Hey everyone, I just registered yesterday. We brought home a 1 inch GSP the other day(finally, a fish my wife loves!). Although I don't have experience with puffers I do keep a community tank, a black piranha, and a LOT of red belly piranha (I have bred them as well) I guess I have about 10 year fishkeeping experience.
I should have done some more research before this impulse buy though. I knew he was brackish, and could tolerate freshwater for a while as a juvie, so I added about a tablespoon of salt (dissolved in water of course) to my 20 gallon guppy tank to make him feel more at home, and acclimated him over the course of an hour or so. He was happy right off the bat and has nice color. He started eating snails immediately and within 24 hours had cleaned out every snail in sight. (hundreds) He is voracious and it looks lie he has started on the baby guppies now hahaha. I should say She actually, because my wife named her Mrs. Puff.

My plan is a switch to a 55 or 75 gallon full marine soon and add another GSP or two. I am mostly clear on diet & care requirements from reading up on GSPs, but I have a couple questions I was hoping you could help me with.

1. How long before I need to be concerned with adding salt? I want him to grow to his max potential, the sooner the better?
2. How fast do they grow?
3. Can I house 3 GSP in a heavily filtered 75 gallon tank, or 2 in a 55 gallon?
4. Can you guys point me to some informative links. I am still sifting through threads on GSPs but I figured the pros know where to find the best info around here.

Thanks in advance for all your help. I am looking forward to keeping puffers, even if it looks like a lot of work. They are just so cool

[Blaine]

I would say you are safer with two in a 75 gal tank. Aim for 30 gal per puff.

You need to use marine salt for GSP's....I would suggest that you start slowly raising the salt level as soon as you have them in the 75 gal and it is cycled. It is far easier to cycle a tank as FW,...then start raising the sg once it is stable. Start raising the sg each week (no more than .002 sg per week to maintain the bio-filter)Get a hydrometer or a refractometer for accurately measuring the salinity. Refractometer is better in my opinion but a few more $$.

They can grow pretty quickly if kept well,...just make sure that you don't over-feed them. It is hard on the puffer and hard on the bio-filter. Puffers have no ribcage so they can eat till they can't swim straight....aim for a nicely rounded belly, feed once a day, and only feed 6 out of every 7 days,leaving one day to clear his system out.

library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/

ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Brackish/T_Nigroviridis/

HTH

[Srkoe]

If she ate that much I wouldn't feed her today. They are easy to over feed. Watch for signs of internal parasites as well...in my experience all of my puffers have came home with them. You should really remove the guppy's as soon as you can. Welcome to the world of puffers!

[Pufferpunk]

I agree with moving the guppies, as you have added a big bioload to that tank & you need the nitrifying bacteria built up by the guppies waste to support the puffer.

Since you're new to the BW thing, here's some info on that: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

[Sanjo-Eel]

Thanks for the tips & links, I will definitely read some more about GSPs.
I forgot to mention the tank is overfiltered and full of java moss and hornwort. It is set up to handle lots of guppies, so water should be good for now, but that fish laid waste to a ton of snails in a short amount of time which will cause an ammonia spike and I really didn't think about that. I will remove most of them except for a few baby guppy snacks to the community tank as per your advice. I didn't feed her today but I am sure she has picked of a few more snails here and there and probably some baby guppies.
So I will keep her alone in the 20 gallon until I can get the 75 ready. It is already an established tank but needs to be moved.
Given optimal conditions, how soon do they reach full size?

[Dadof4]

Even if the tank is over filtered, the biofilter only produces enough bacteria to support the current tank load. Now, add a big bodied, heavy waste producing fish and you have instantly overwhelmed the biofilter.