The Puffer Forum

A big DP tank would be fun. I have one in a 5-hex. He is such alittle personality. I think you'll love DPs. Just make sure you sex them correctly and intoduce them together. Mine is extremely territorial toward any new puffs. (Gave up on that idea.)

i really enjoy my DPs... at first i was kind of on the fence about them... but now that ive had them a little while, theyve started to learn how things work as far as feeding time and such... they know that whenever i lightly tap on the glass, it means its feeding time!!! wooo!!! everyone races to the front of the tank lol (which is nice because i can take a daily head count that way). they play with eachother and are very curious of everything in the tank... they enjoy a heavily planted tank that they can forever explore and find new places in... they are a lot of fun... didnt think they would be, but i love my little guys/girls. the tank definately does not look "empty" they are all over the place! really fun to watch. i think it would be a good choice...

HOWEVER, if you are planning on doing a marine tank, you may consider rethinking a GSP... they will do very well in a SW tank, maybe when you are ready, you could add him to your SW set up?? just a thought... keep an open mind they have HUGE personalities too

btw, you seem very educated in fish.... GOOD FOR YOU! we would love to have someone like you in this forum... maybe we can learn a few things lol... look forward to reading future posts! and welcome

Thank you for all of your responses, lol kilo fey I still have a lot to learn. I am becoming really interested in puffers, they are very unique in their needs and I like researching something I don't know much about.

My new saltwater setup is going to be a SOWLR (shrimp only with live rock) lol. I am sure a GPS would be really happy in there, but I am not sure how happy the shrimp would be.

Could I get opinions on a the figure 8 puffer? Would I find dealing with a low salinity brackish setup just as involved as a setup with a higher salinity?

I think everybody and their brother has wrote an article on the figure 8 I have read a couple of articles that stated "My puffers seem to do best in freshwater." Now of course I do not buy into the first user submitted articles I read, but I am curious why there are so many sources that state figure 8s as freshwater fish?

I don't know much about this but so someone will step in and set me straight but I believe they are naturally FW however when kept in BW they do much better. RTR did a little experiment on this and he found his BW fish lived to be about 15 with healthy lives and his FW fish lived to be about 10 but were riddled with problems their whole life.

I imagine a low end brackish tank would only be a bit more work than FW (have to add salt). Certainly nowhere near the work of a full marine setup.

I have two Fig8 puffers in with a swarm of bumblebee gobies and some Florida Flagfish and it makes for a wonderfully lively tank.

I started off with DPs and then progressed to C. irrubesco and then Fig 8s. They are such smiley fish - well mine are anyway!
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It's straightforward to maintain a low end brackish tank. I set it up with a salinity of 1.003SG straight away and I fluctuate between freshwater and saltwater changes every week. I test the salinity regularly but it stays good and stable with weekly 50% water changes. Two filters - one big external and a good size internal, rocks for the bumblebee gobies to hide in, plants for the flagfish and the F8s and that's it