Future GSP Owner; Newb questions.

[Darkanic]

I'm planning on buying a GSP [or two] but want to get some questions answered straight before doing so, so there is as little stress as possible on me and the GSP.
I've searched around the internet for all sorts of information, and have a basic idea on the basic water needs, filtration needs, and food needs. Though a few questions keep slipping my grasp..

1. Substrate. I want to use a soft sand because puffer fish like to burrow and have no scales.. [If it's GSP that like to burrow or not, not sure.]
2. Tank mates. I have a 30-35 gallon tank [not sure which] for the Puffer.. I read they need 30 gallons each to be happy and not tear each others gills off, but a lone GSP seems like it'd be lonely. And since the water goes Fresh, to Brackish, to Marine, it'd seem pointless to get any other fish besides another GSP. Suggestions?

Research has turned me away from getting an Oscar [due to my tanks size, and lack of money to get a bigger tank, and not wanting to make an Oscar stressed] and I find puffers more interesting, now that I've actually dug some info up on them. I know they need shelled creatures [snails and ghost shrimp come to mind] to keep the beaks dulled down so not to cause problems with eating. I know as they age I need to change the salt levels over time. It just seems these two questions aren't very clear with anything I read.

Also, any pro-tips that may not be found on guides and websites would also be appreciated, not only for myself, but any other new owner trying to find this out and just going in circles finding the same information over and over again.

[bertie 83]

Welcome to the forum. I don't think gsp burrow but not certain on that. There is a lot to be said for single puffer tanks, they are generally more personable so stick with a singleton in a tank that size. Have you looked at f8 puffers? You could keep two of those in a 30g. If you go for a gsp I would set up as marine and drip acclimate the little rascal, saves future messing around.

[RTR]

+1 to bertie's comments.

Also, GSPs IME do not burrow, and should be handled as marine fish even though they will likely be in fresh water at the LFS.

[Squaffy]

but a lone GSP seems like it'd be lonely

I have a single Figure 8 in a 60 gallon tank, and to be honest, he Lords it up in there, King of his own castle. His personality shines. His tank is his own domain and he uses every square inch of it to the point I often wonder if 60 gallons is big enough for a Figure 8, let alone the 15 gallon guide-lines (my view on guide-lines for stocking is to double them, and then double them again)

I think the 'lonely' thing is purely a human attribute we try to pass off onto other species.

The fact we cannot sex them is also a point in question. Two males would have territorial issues; a male and a female would possibly result in the female being bullied; two females in theory could work out, unless one of them was a bit butch and harassed the other... you get the idea.

GSP's don't really burrow, they are 'hunter' predators, whereas other species that are 'lurker' predators tend to burrow. That being said, I'd go for Aragonite sand substrate due to it's buffering capacity helping to keep a stable pH

As far as the 'pro-tip'... get your tank cycling fishless ASAP and continue with your research. A fishless cycle may take as long as 3 to 4 months, often faster, but sometimes that long, giving you plenty of time to get the correct items needed for relatively hassle free and enjoyable fish keeping. Keep researching and asking questions - the best way to go about it

[Pufferpunk]

Lots of reading for you:
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
library/category/feeding/
library/puffer-care/alone-but-not-lonel ... fers-solo/

I suggest 55g for a singleton. 30g is the suggested MINIMUM tank size.

[RTR]

+1 to PP's emphasis on MINIMUM tank sizes. I used 15s for most of the studies I did on F-8s (my favorite puffer species), so I have to admit them to being adequate, but like PP, I believe that minimums to be rarely to never optimum. Personally, I consider the F-8's optimum tank for me to be either a 33XL or a 40-long. In either of those I would try to establish a small colony of Bumblebee Gobies as cleaning crews.

[sgtmyers88]

Regarding Fishless Cycling please check out this thread. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=32416

[Yael]

So far my F8 is doing very well with the BB gobies I have (7 total BBs and 5 nerite snails). I have small shells for the gobies which the males have claimed but the females swim around freely and the puffer basically ignores them. I established them first in the tank and then added the puffer. For some reason my puffer also ignores the nerite snails but goes after the pond snails the moment they are put into the tank. Perhaps they smell differently or something? Even if he doesn't see me put in the pond snails it never takes long for him to find them. He spends quite a bit of time working on them and then patrols the area where they were in hopes of more. What I find interesting is that the gobies will all start drifting over to the area of the tank even before the puffer as if they know that there will be debris to eat in the near future. What animals know about their environment and how they know it is very interesting to observe so it's worth it to make the effort to set up a complex environment for them.

[RTR]

Nerite snails expose little or none of their "foot" as they move around. They do not offer smallish puffers anything to bite. They also have relatively hard/dense shells, so the smallish puffers have insufficient incisor spread to crush them. For whatever reason, the freshwater Ramshortn and common pond snails expose much more "meat" to the puffers along with having less dense shells. The Nerites breed in SW, so we rarely see small ones in the LFS to keep in our tanks. When we home-raise Ramshorns and common pond snails we can select the optimum size for the puffers as well. The disadvantage to the Nerites is that they do deposit single eggs (which do not develop in FW or light BW) scattered around the tank.

[Pufferpunk]

I also have had success with Nerites with my F8s. Not sure I'd trust them with the larger adult GSPs, though.

[Yael]

Yes, I see lots of little white dots - the disappear over time and I'm not sure if some occasionally hatch or not but I observed a very odd thing a couple of days ago. My F8 took out mouth sized holes of a red lily leaf - spread out nicely all in the middle of the leaf like he was biting something that was distributed on the leaf. The leaf is still doing fine, it just looks sort of 'lacey' now. It was only the one leaf, none of the others even though there are others near by.