Hi all, I'm new here and just got my first GSP's

[Rafini]

I have always loved puffers, Years ago back in Europe I had a Panda puffer which is an extremely rare variant of dogface that looks like a panda pattern, I can't even find many information on them and all I have to remember the fish by is a few 2mp camera pics.

I have always been tempted by them when I see them, especially when I had my first job working in a fish store and I saw the little figure 8s. So after Getting my oscar back to health and reintroducing him to my big tank I discovered that I could put something new in the tank. I spent days removing all the algae, doing an eventual 90% water change (over a few days) and treating the tank with anti ich medication (stopped a few days before I got the puffs, so they wouldn't be effected by the medication). This tank has always been a kind of lazy nothing special tank, And I feel now that I will really make it look cool.

After all my preperations I went to a cool LFS today and decided to get a pair of small Green spot puffers. I can assure you after all the research I did that I feel more than prepared to look after the fish. They were sold to me in full fresh water and I plan on slowly converting them to brackish maybe even full marine when they are mature (I like this idea). so here they are my two new little puffers
Yurt and Solaire (I am a big Demons'/dark souls fan) are currently in a 20gallon long and I know this won't do them for life but for now its more than adequate compared to what they were in at the LFS.

Luckily for me these guys grow slowly, I'm thinking of maybe towards the end of the year getting a new tank for brackish. in an ideal world I would love a 75g but I may have to settle for a 55g ( I would rather not, so I could keep Monos etc) And would be fine moving into full marine. I was planning on going marine in the next few years anyway just because I love puffers, so no complaint here.

[Pufferpunk]

[Rafini]

Thanks Pufferpunk for recomending me to this site! everything I could ever need all in one place

[bertie 83]

Welcome

[RTR]

Welcome to the forum.

It would be good to plan on upgrading the tank size significantly as soon as possible. The 20-long is fine for an extended QT tank, but will likely stunt their growth short of full mature size. IME the sooner the young fish are moved up in tank size to their permanent home, the more likely they are to grow to full adult size. I would plan on a 75 US gallon tank for the two.

They also like a visually complex environment with lots of decor to explore.

HTH

[Rafini]

thanks RTR, I collected a bunch of rocks for them yesterday and made their tank more interesting, they don't glass surf at all now which is great. They are pretty small around 1" 1.5" at the max. The reason why I can't really get a tank any sooner is because I'm moving towards the end of the year and I'll have much more room. But who knows if I can convince the powers that be to let me get a 75 sooner I definately will. I'm going to start aclimatizing them to Brackish in about 4 weeks. I want to let them settle in and get comfortable before they start getting an increase in salinity. (and I'm going to visit family abroad soon, so my mum who loves puffers will be looking after them)

For now they are over filtered by about 10-15gallons and I do weekly waterchanges and gravel vacs

[bertie 83]

They will need much bigger than 20g way before the end of the year. Keep them in the 20 and you will cause stunting leading to possible health issues. They are not a slow growing fish, they produce a massive bio-load for their size.

[Rafini]

okay well no offense but they could easily be sitting in the LFS 5 gallon for another 6 months at least they have enough space for now. they are also overfiltered like I said so I'm not worried about the bioload.

can I add its a 20 long, they have just under 3feet of space to swim, its not a tall tank.

[I.Puff.Too]

Fresh water filters do little more than move the water. You're right though, it is better than a 5g at the LFS, but it's not optimal.

[Pufferpunk]

That's not true at all. FW filters have mechanical & biological filtration going on in there.

[I.Puff.Too]

Does how much water it can turn over have anything to do with the bio filter? It was just my understanding they didn't offer much in mechanical filtration.

[Pufferpunk]

Of course, it depends on the individual filter but my Aquaclear sponge collects a TON of crap!

[I.Puff.Too]

I was wrong, thanks for clearing that up for me!

[kcartwright856]

My AquaClears are total workhorses.

Other filters turn their heads in shame.

[Rafini]

im using an aquaclear for a 40 gallon tank. and im running a 20 long, with weekly sometimes even biweekly water changes.
I get a lot of evaporation because here in calgary its always below 30% humidity so such dry air the water kind of evaporates twice as quick.