The Puffer Forum

Salt water is way less work to maintain than fresh water, it's just more expensive. If you want to reduce water changes and other routine maintenance for your wife, salt water is actually better. Fresh water puffers will require weekly 50% changes, while salt water, 25% every other week or monthly.

thanks cute. yea, i am just happy to walk again. things are going slow but at least i am here for them to go slow...haha.

well i guess i need to do a little more research on the saltwater tanks. from what i seen in the past, it appeared as if it would be a lot of work. the less water changes would be great, not to mention i love several of saltwater puffers. price probably isnt too much of a problem, i am sure i can find a decent deal on one of the sites. so what all would i need if i go saltwater and chose to just have fish? also what sort of puffers should i look for in a 50 gal or less saltwater tank? thanks.

You could keep one or two toby puffers in a tank that size, or keep a larger GSP or ceylon puffer in it. All you really need are a tank, a lid, 60-100 pounds of live rock, a good protein skimmer, some sand, and few powerheads. A GSP and a pair of clowns would probably work pretty well in a 50 gallon. Of course, if you are interested in possibly a 50 gallon, consider a 65. It's the same footprint, just taller; still 18" x 36"

I would get a slightly bigger tank and get a arrowhead there great single specimins!

Check online for fresh water puffer choices. I have seen some C Irrubuseco and such on aquariumfish.net and thatpetplace.com has a good variety now and then. Also Aquabid. I Abei or Fangs would work in a 20g+ tank. Although I say go F8, low salintiy brackish tanks arent that hard you just add salt during the water changes.

i might need to check into brackish too, just thought it would be a pain also to monitor the salinity, ph, etc. thanks for the links.

i might have to hold off another couple of weeks before i get a tank......trying to get my half sleeve....haha

so freshwater, and bigger than dp's but then doesn't outgrow a tank. in this case get a 30-40 gallon and pick up yourself a pignose puffer

coop wrote:i might need to check into brackish too, just thought it would be a pain also to monitor the salinity, ph, etc. thanks for the links.

i might have to hold off another couple of weeks before i get a tank......trying to get my half sleeve....haha

brackish is tons of maint. if you want less work then this is not the way to go for you.
You can stick an arrowhead(pignose) in a 30g.
The saps are my favorite smaller puffer I own actually probably my favorite puff overall. They would work great in your 50g to 25g. You could stick two in a 25 if you got a power head for some current. You could also do quite a bit more in a 50. I had 5 in my 50 with 5 Dwarfs as well as a bunch of other community fish and the nitrates are less than 20ppm almost down to 0 using a fluval fx400. So you could get two different species that way. They both eat the same food and you would have two personality types in the one tank. The only thing with Saps is that you will most likely be doin teeth trimming every 6 months or so unless the main diet was snails that they could crunch on.

I have shipped in puffers that i couldn't get mainly the saps. Since you will be overnighting the fish they will be fine. Just expect the shipping to be around $40 so a big shipment of 10 fish would be best for online shopping.