Hello, I'm also new!

[yunachin]

Awesome find!! I am excited to see the finished work.

[GSP]

I have a question for you...

Im torn on how to decorate. Should I use real or fake plants? Do the puffers prefer either or? Should I use coral or man made decorations?

How spartan are they? Do they like more or less stuff in their tank.

I want to make this perfect.

Thanks!

[yunachin]

Is this SW or BW?
Plants in BW need to be acclimated and then still are difficult to keep. (I have failed several times myself) Fake would be best but will need some cleaning after a while.
Rocks are your best bet, you can fashion them to make nice little nooks for your GSP to hide. They like lots of areas for exploring.

[GSP]

Ugh, so my fish had ich from the stupid walmart he was bought from. I used a medicine called "Lifegaurd" last night to help remove it. The medicine says it has a new formula that wont hurt the bacteria its for marine fish (Hes in low end brackish). It calls for removing the carbon filter which I did.

The problem is that this morning my wife found him sitting at the bottom of the tank all black. she left and then peeked in and hes fine swimming around and what not. Only when she comes near does he get black and she said he "sits" on the ground. He hasnt done this before, and it has me worried. Normally he likes both of usand greets us well.

Anyway, Thanks for the help!

[Nick]

Hmm, check the water parameters again, I usually do that when I see a dark belly, just as a precaution. There's no reason to use the lifeguard stuff, the brackish water and some time will happily wipe out the ich with no chemicals. Chemicals for ich usually burn the gills to a greater or lesser extent, that may be behind the black tummy, perhaps a water change to clean the stuff out would help. Good luck with the new little fishy