GSP in full marine, tankmates?

[effluent]

So I have a 1.5" GSP from WalMart, was told it was freshwater, blah blah there are plenty of WalMart GSP stories. Wish I'd researched the fellow beforehand, butI have since done plenty of research. Right now I have the GSP in a 10 gallon tank, since obviously being in a 29 gallon community tank took 10 seconds to realize it wouldn't work out. I know it can't be in the 10 gal for long, and also read a thread in the brackish section about GSP's doing well in full marine. Right now I'm slowly upping the salt to brackish. I've been planning to do a full marine tank soon in a 90 gallon tank. Does anyone know if there are any, or what saltwater fish a GSP could be in a tank with? My options are putting him in that tank if there are other fish he could co-exist with, or getting a 29 gallon just for the GSP.

[marlana]

What SG are you at now? Make sure you aren't upping the salt by larger than .002 increments, as this can kill your good bacteria and cause the tank to mini-cycle.

Did you cycle the 10 gallon before adding the GSP? Are you testing the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates? I sure hope so! If not read the Emergency Cycle article in the library... it's a big help to cycle your tank ASAP. It's very important to do so in such small tank!

My GSP's have done nothing but flourish in full marine conditions. As far as tankmates go, it will all depend on what size tank you are planning on (so, if they will fit happily in a 90 gal) as well as what temperament/personality your puffer has. This differs from GSP to GSP. I have two and their temperaments and personalities are completely different! I highly suggest getting to know your little guy (or girl) before adding any fellow tankmates to the mix. It will give you a better idea of what will work.

In the past, I've tried the following combo's:
1. GSP & Maroon Clown - Definitely do not recommend. Maroon clown way too aggressive, frequently bullying and harrasing my little Puff!
2. GSP & GSP - works great, probably because they are both young. This is the way they are currently set up!
3. GSP & Sleeper Banded Goby - Goby was a little territorial, other than that, no aggressiveness
4. GSP & Snowflake Eel - worked great, never bothered each other, both eel & GSP were young though. Don't know how that would work out full grown.

However I definitely would recommend as large of a tank as possible. 90 gallon will be great for your GSP so long as it is not overstocked! I have a 55 gallon full marine with my two GSP's. While I consider it "okay" for now, I can't imagine keeping them in a 55 gallon for the rest of their life. They will definitely need more room as they get older and much larger. I'd suggest the biggest tank you can afford/have room for! Right now the best idea is to get him outta that 10 gal ASAP!

HTH

[sevenyearnight]

+1!

[effluent]

Yeah I had to read the emergency cycle page because I didn't have time to do a regular one. I am keeping an eye on nitrate levels, etc. Looks like there is no for sure answer on tankmates..so we will see. I will probably get him his own 29 gallon tank soon.

[toffeecake]

i've seen them being housed with a nemo, which was pretty cute

90 Gallon could easily house tankmates when he's at a young age. I would add the tankmates first, then the GSP, so he won't see them as food?

[purplecandle]

i've seen them being housed with a nemo, which was pretty cute

90 Gallon could easily house tankmates when he's at a young age. I would add the tankmates first, then the GSP, so he won't see them as food?

GSPs get more agresive with age so even a tankmate introduced in the begining can become food in a couple years. And sometimes it is not even about food...GSPs just kill stuff because they can or to protect territory.

And some nemos do not make good tankmates...but they are cute;-)

[Black Widow]

Marine Angelfish make good tank mates! I currently have an Emperor Angel in a tank with a ceylon puffer and guineafowl puffer

[Pufferpunk]

I kept mine with another GSP & Ceylon puffer for many years. Had good luck with a tomato clownfish & damselfish. Really bad luck with a maroon clown (chewed the puffer's tails to nubs in 2 days) & "Nemos", false percs (killed one the 1st night, returned the other one the next day).

[effluent]

Not sure all of this is helping, lol.. So what would be safer, a GSP with another GSP, or a GSP with another type of puffer? Or the same, or just depends on what other kind of puffer?

Also, where would one find those tiny snails for them to eat? I only see larger ones in local stores. Colonel Poofmeister loves him some bloodworms, etc. but need some hard stuff.

[Pufferpunk]

Check out the feeding articles in our Library.

As far as the Colonel, it also depends if he will allow any!

[jus85411]

my GSP was very passive. the only thing he didnt like that i tried was a six line wrasse. something about the green coloring i think, but after the second day he was fine and both swam around out in the open without issues.
Not great success:
six line wrasse(at first) - puffer wanted to eat him! but for some reason was fine after a short amount of time
snowflake eel - the eel would constantly make my puffer nervous i felt by the way the puff would keep an eye on him, the eel would sometimes go after the shrimp my puffer had whether it was in his mouth or not even though he had a shrimp on skewer coming to him! and unless i kept the eel very well fed he wouldnt go after the puffer but he would open his mouth if anything approached. not something i would really recommend to put with the puffer.
blue velvet damsel - this fish was an awesome tankmate for him for about a year and a half, followed him around(i think he though he was a puffer too), ate behind him for anything dropped but once the damsel got older he got really nasty! i traded him in for a small credit towards some nassarius snails.
another GSP - worked for a little while, one purchased second became aggressive, not nipping or biting, but just chasing and stressing my original out. sold him to a friend working on a 90 FOWLR(i think) at the time

successes:
false perc clown, blue devil damsel, yellowtail damsel, 3 stripe damsel, spotted hawkfish, chocolate chip starfish, scooter blenny

i got rid of most of these fish because i moved and the new house only really had one good spot for a tank downstairs and i didnt want to keep it confined to my bedroom cause im not home all days of the week. i downgraded from a 75 to a 54 corner tank. the only fish i kept was the puffer, starfish, hawkfish, clownfish, blenny and yellowtail damsel. this mix worked well until i lost my puffer. got rid of the blenny and false perc clownfish to a friend with a smaller reef and picked up a pair of maroon clowns which now reside in the tank with the hawkfish, starfish, and yellowtail damsel, with a few turbo snails, nassarius snails and one hermit crab

[effluent]

So I ended up getting a 55 gallon for him. Planned on getting a bigger one but I found this with a nice stand really cheap on Craigslist so I went for it. Would like to get him one tank mate. May try some sort of clown or angelfish. Maybe a hawkfish. I really want a lionfish. There are a few types that supposedly only need 50 gallons. I've seen several Youtube videos of aquariums that have puffers and lionfish in the same tank..would that be a bad idea?

[Pufferpunk]

Always a bad combo. Get a tomato clown.

[effluent]

Always a bad combo. Get a tomato clown.

Or a maroon so it can eat my puffer's fins off?! j/k

A clown would make my girlfriend happy. Although not so much if it gets eaten.

[phlawed]

I had a rough time when I first started with GSP's. I then started doing research and talking with a brackwater expert. For me, I found that marine conditions gave me much healthier GSP's as compared to fresh or brackish.

I wrote this up years ago and here is some pics of my little buddy. GSP will thrive in saltwater and will pretty much survive in fresh. Brackish conditions are the norm. It has been awhile, but here is some info that might guide you some. As far as tank mates went, mine spent about 6 months with a G-Tile eel. This combo has never been proven good or bad to my knowledge if you keep the tank in brackish conditions. That being said, you would need around a 120g tank by adulthood for "2" fish. If you did want to go the eel route, a brackwater expert and myself agreed a spaghetti eel (Moringua raitaborua) would be the ideal candidate. I wanted to go full marine with other options so I had to remove the eel. As a puffer matures, they will become increasingly territorial which is why most dont have tank mates. Most tank mate stories with GSP's end like this....I woke up this morning and found all my fish's heads except my gsp floating around in the tank. While they do look sweet and innocent, they are some crazy killing machines. I use to put crawfish in the tank with pincers open and all. The GSP would usually hover towards the back end of the of the crawdad and crawdad would have pincers above its head in attack or defensive position. In a split second the puffer would dive bomb and take a leg..then another...and another. Once crippled it would hover then target one side of the crawfish remove the pincer towards the body. Then the other and then the head. Those parts would usually be untouched after that and could be immediately removed. For the puffer, he acted like it was a fun game.

Last note: While it sounds weird, my puffer enjoyed watching cartoons. I could sit in my recliner and turn on cartoons and his face was glued to the tank. If I watched tv for a few hours and not cartoons he would usually just go swim around and colors would turn darker. Flip it back on cartoons and would swim to the front of the tank and would just sit there staring at TV and brighten up. I showed this to a few people so I have witnesses and not insane lol. I let brother in law stay at my house once and recieved a call, "Dude, this fish will not stop staring at me no matter where i go in the room. When I walk up to the tank it looks like its aggressive towards me. I got home about an hour later and sat opposite of what I usually did (brother in law was in my seat) and the GSP sat in the front corner of the side I was on and watched TV. If we switched seats he would move to the corner on my side and stare towards the TV. So they are not dummies. They know who gives them food and who doesn't. I had one friend that would come in and he would hide in his cave because my friend would always tap the glass.

A general guide to GSP's
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/to ... fer-guide/

Few pics of my young GSP in full marine conditions and yes, that is a smile you see on the puffer in the last pic
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/to ... try1153081

here is guide if you dont want to follow links

1. ONLY 1 per tank or dont be suprised if you end up with missing or damaged fish. Fishmates are hard to come by as they are very agressive, they just wear a sweet face. Fish mates are possible and even multiple GSP's. But, be prepared to offer all tankmates PLENTY of space of their own. In other words are 55+g aquarium.

2. A green spotted puffer (aka GSP) is a brackish fish. They are spawned in freshwater but move into brackwater conditions and eventually even marine conditions

3. territorial, as they grow they will become territorial and they do fight to the death

4. feeding: every other day brine shrimp, bloodworms, freeze dried shrimp, ghost shrimp(can survive in water up to 1.010 in my experience)- snails once a week or every other week to keep teeth trimmed down. There are other foods, this is just what i have used. They need the shells to trim their teeth or they will grow so much that they cant eat at all and die. Dont use flake food as this is not part of their diet and is not suitable. Dont be scared of the big belly they get after feeding it is normal.

5. keeping them occupied - they love to explore their terrain. Stacking rocks very high on the rear of the tank with lots of caves and tunnels usually does the trick.

6. Use marine salt not aquarium salt. Marine salt is a must as aquarium salt is not ment for brackish or marine fish to live in but as more as a medice for freshwater fish.

7. Puffers are very shy during their first few weeks in a new enviroment. Do not pressure them to come out if they dont want to. Eventually they recognize you and show you all the personality you could ever ask for in a fish. Just give them time.

8. Acclimate them to salinity slowly. raising the water .002 every week is how i did mine. He is now in 1.021 full marine conditions. (slow acclimation helps keep bacteria alive as freshwater bacteria differs from brack, brack differs from marine). If you already have a tank cycled at a higher salinity, then you can acclimate much faster using a drip method in just a few hours (nmonks).

9. water temp of 78 while in freshwater-brackwater 80 once in brackwater

10. minimum tank of 20g up to 3" adults will need a 30+g tank (nmonks)

11. Heavy filtration. Puffers are messy eaters and often food settles to the bottom. I have a 20g tank with a 55g filter on it. 25-50% water changes weekly with syphon is a must.