New fish keeper and starting with a GSP! tips?

[sangrail]

So.. have researched as best I can for the tank and here we go. I have a really nice 150ltr tank and stand, got an aqua one thermostat heater rated for the 150 ltr, I am over filtering it with a bigger filter than a 150 needs (an AquaOne Aquis 1200 canister filter) I have put Seachem Stability in. It's salt level matches the stores (1.010) and I'm going to bring that up slowly.

Puffer is about 1" at the moment and he's currently exploring its new home just hoping people can help me avoid any newbie mistakes.

I have the same tablet food for it that the store uses and frozen bloodworms as a treat - intend to move to snails and brine shrimp soon... Temp is sitting at 26/27c PH is sitting at about 7.8 and since its brand new and chemically cycled there is no nitrite, nitrate or ammonia in it but I have an API "master test" kit that measures Nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, PH, high level PH and have made depressions in the substrate (grit sand - about an inch deep) and placed plants, a piece of tank safe driftwood and a bell ornament (washed them all first in clean water) for it to explore. also I have a blue planet LED light bar that I can dim, add more lights to and change out pretty easy -currently running the default blue and white leds.

Zepp is currently exploring his new home, and seems happy enough at the moment, but he has a lot of dark on his belly and by his mouth but gonna assume that's from the conditions at the store (small take etc). He apparently regularly bit the crud out of the guy changing the scenery in the tank so he is feisty! He is currently sitting in one of the depressions in the sand after spending a few hours exploring (and biting) the scenery.

Oh! he's resumed his exploring and is dashing up and down the tank- looks like he's chasing his reflection.

[sangrail]

He is still exploring the tank, biting the crud out of everything. hasn't taken his food today, but only day 2 in new tank. was fed in pet store yesterday. a lot more energetic / free roaming around the tank though - he is even starting to come up to the front to look at me

[PolishPuff]

bump

[Blinkey]

Congrats on your new puff.
I have never had luck with seachem stability, quitie the opposite actually where IMO it stalled my cycle in my previous brackish tank by an extra few months... I wouldn't depend on the stability and keep monitoring closely over the next couple weeks.
Don't worry too much about the grey-black belly, unless it stays for long periods of time in all likelihood it is just a sign of stress from all the changes. My new puff did so for the first few days and then went to a normal white belly. They can be a bit moody, mine still often goes grey-black when I get too close or do tank cleaning .

[sgtmyers88]

[sangrail]

Ate his first bloodworms today was nipping at tablets but seems to hate them. Color also looking heaps better

[Blinkey]

I assume by "tablets" you mean pellets(?)

Most puffers won't naturally take to pellets without being trained. My LFS trained my puffer to take pellets for some reason (he/she was there for almost 5 months or so). I do occasionally supplement a couple of pellets with the diet but mainly just meaty frozen foods and my own bred snails. I think I read a previous thread on this forum where there was a debate on the merits of feeding puffers pellets. Some mentioned that it is bad for water quality because many just chew them up and leave the particles in the water, but my puff doesn't seem to do that and almost swallows them whole (they are very small sized pellets). Personally, I don't think it would do much harm in feeding pellets on occasion to vary the diet a bit, and they may provide missed nutrients.

[Pufferpunk]

Are you keeping a close eye on the parameters (ammonia/nitrite/nitrate)?
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... d-puffers/
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... r-puffers/

[sangrail]

Are you keeping a close eye on the parameters (ammonia/nitrite/nitrate)?
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... d-puffers/
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... r-puffers/

I am yeah got a master testing kit. ammonia was sitting a little bit darker than 0, but below 0.25 PPT ammonia so we did a 30% water change. Zepp didn't seem to bothered he did NOT appreciate me adding some vases to the tank though. he went off to his corner and curled his tail and bobbed around like a blimp haha (not puffed though)

fish store had said he would eat these tablets (tablets literally, they are a green disk) but he takes a nip and then ignores it. getting some snails from my LFS this week for him so he can have some harder food then he has been having.

thanks for all the responses guys might pick your brains from time to time as its a new tank and I'm a first time fish owner, but I did research the heck out of it first so should be ok

[sangrail]

Good, Bad, or Ugly?

so Zepp seems pretty happy. have him on snails and freeze dried shrimp now (which he loves!) and I'm bringing up the salt slowly. but I'm not getting ANY nitrate or Nitrate at all in the tank (I test daily) but I'm definitely getting Amonia. have been doing 30-40% water changes which seems to be keeping it below 0.25 quite well, but the things I am reading says this may mean I don't have a healthy tank yet? (have been careful to clean up poop and discarded food)

also if I can get a photo uploaded I would love to show the tank to see if people think I have enough stuff in it to keep him entertained (he still does a fair amount of glass surfing but I hear that can just be a thing)

also I don't think my puffer has an off switch for food (As per posts I have been reading) as he sulks when I stop feeding him haha (no matter how fat he looks)

[Blinkey]

Based on the description of a "green disc" I would say they are likely algae wafers. I have these at home, but I only feed them to my snails to gutload them. It would be unusual for a GSP to eat them lol.

[sangrail]

Based on the description of a "green disc" I would say they are likely algae wafers. I have these at home, but I only feed them to my snails to gutload them. It would be unusual for a GSP to eat them lol.

yeah. fish shop was SURE! the were feeding him them. I think they were telling me porkies. (they had no snails in stock atm)

[Blinkey]

Sounds like your tank is not cycled. Puffers (and all fish for that matter) need a fully-cycled tank to be introduced into. This means a biofilter has been established and there is 0 detectable ammonia + nitrites, and low (I believe 10-20 ppm for puffs) nitrates.
How is your fish doing?
Also, just realised you are from NZ. Good to see a fellow Kiwi

[sangrail]

Zepp seems fine he is hyper as hell and loves watching me play games for some reason (pc is right next to it) very little ammonia in the tank. but still no detectable nitrates or nitrites. been running for almost a month now I think, have been using a cycler chemical and have a bio fitler on it ( the type is in my first post I think)

no health concerns for him, and he seems healthy even if I probably need a bit more in the tank, have over 150l all to himself

[Reezen]

Brand new tank you just added chemicals to from what I understood in your main post?

If so, you won't see any ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates yet. This takes time from waste (either food put in to rot, pure ammonia added, or waste from fish when cycling with fish. You will start to see your ammonia levels go up every day if this is the case. Eventually the tank will start turning that to Nitrites and then to Nitrates. The only way to tell if a tank has officially reached cycle is if you have levels of nitrates with very minimal (if not non-existent) levels of ammonia and nitrites. Even when you add starters to the tank to try and quicken the cycle, this isn't an instant cycle, it usually just speeds the cycle time up a few weeks. I would also test your tap water (if that's what you're adding) to make sure you don't have nitrates already in the tap. Some places have large concerns with this (UK from what I've read). I'm near Detroit and our city tap is treated/filtered well water essentially, we have .25PPM ammonia and that's it, no nitrites or nitrates. We're harder water here which is great for buffering, my PH straight out of the tap is around 7.4 and after it sits a bit hits 8.2 which is ideal for the GSP from what I've read.

Just keep watching those parameters and if the ammonia gets above 2-4PPM I would definitely do a 30-50% water change. You might have to do daily water changes until you get only nitrates in the tank.

Good luck and welcome to the hobby!