The Puffer Forum

In my experience, a GSP can be acclimated from FW to SW in about two hours with no apparent signs of stress, and in an hour with some annoyance, but no apparent health problems and acting completely normal within an hour or two after that.

While working in the pet store, there isn't always time to take your time, and in cases where I was sure the puffer was better off in the marine system, I made sure it got done. The brackish tank was a 20 high, so I refused to add larger fish turned over to us, or add several unexpectedly and make it even more overstocked than it was.

I don't know how quickly their native waters graduate, but I'm pretty sure they could make the transition in the wild on their own in only a few hours swim. In any case, I can't see any reason to take more than a single "work" day, maybe 8 hours. My worry is that ammonia buildup from having a GSP in anything that isn't cycled for any longer than necessary will very quickly become much more stressful than the fast change in SG; in the wild they do fast SG changes and are quite used to them, while there is never any detectable ammonia, period.

Nick wrote:In my experience, a GSP can be acclimated from FW to SW in about two hours with no apparent signs of stress, and in an hour with some annoyance, but no apparent health problems and acting completely normal within an hour or two after that.

What was the procedure for this?

I remember I asked PP this question a while back and it wasn't advisable taking a FW GSP and "plopping" it into a marine tank. Too much of a shock.

I would be worried about the ammonia levels also as the bacteria strains are different. Maybe a 3 step process? BW established tank => drip bucket => marine established tank? That is assuming that the owner has a minimum of 2 established tanks available.

Plopping is to be avoided. I have seen it done FW to SW with only stress and no lasting harm, but SW to FW seems a bit rougher on fish; fortunately I've never had occasion to take a fish down below half marine. Hardness, dissolved carbonates, and PH going up is apparently easier to adjust to than them going down, which makes sense.

The procedure was:

1) Float puffer in marine system in his bag of water.
2) Every 5 to ten minutes, remove a bit of the water it's in, dump the water, and replace it with water from the salt water tank the puffer's going into.
3) Start with small portions of a cup of water, and slowly change more each return. The dump cup system may require a bit more attention than a drip, but it lets you change only little bits early on, when the SGs are much more divergent, but change more and more as the puffers water gets closer to marine and the SG from the incoming water changes the SG less.
4) I eyeball everything, based on the bag size, and time it so I've done essentially a 100% water change in two hours, plus or minus a bit.
5) Pour puffer into tank, likely he'll be so happy to be out of the bag he'll be in happy mode in 15 minutes.

Nick wrote:In my experience, a GSP can be acclimated from FW to SW in about two hours with no apparent signs of stress, and in an hour with some annoyance, but no apparent health problems and acting completely normal within an hour or two after that.

While working in the pet store, there isn't always time to take your time, and in cases where I was sure the puffer was better off in the marine system, I made sure it got done. The brackish tank was a 20 high, so I refused to add larger fish turned over to us, or add several unexpectedly and make it even more overstocked than it was.

I don't know how quickly their native waters graduate, but I'm pretty sure they could make the transition in the wild on their own in only a few hours swim. In any case, I can't see any reason to take more than a single "work" day, maybe 8 hours. My worry is that ammonia buildup from having a GSP in anything that isn't cycled for any longer than necessary will very quickly become much more stressful than the fast change in SG; in the wild they do fast SG changes and are quite used to them, while there is never any detectable ammonia, period.

as I am saying in another post, is I am holding off fish in the tank until I return from deployment. I am just allowing the tank to practically cycle with some live rock and a cleaner crew while I am deployed

Nick wrote:Plopping is to be avoided. I have seen it done FW to SW with only stress and no lasting harm, but SW to FW seems a bit rougher on fish; fortunately I've never had occasion to take a fish down below half marine. Hardness, dissolved carbonates, and PH going up is apparently easier to adjust to than them going down, which makes sense.

The procedure was:

1) Float puffer in marine system in his bag of water.
2) Every 5 to ten minutes, remove a bit of the water it's in, dump the water, and replace it with water from the salt water tank the puffer's going into.
3) Start with small portions of a cup of water, and slowly change more each return. The dump cup system may require a bit more attention than a drip, but it lets you change only little bits early on, when the SGs are much more divergent, but change more and more as the puffers water gets closer to marine and the SG from the incoming water changes the SG less.
4) I eyeball everything, based on the bag size, and time it so I've done essentially a 100% water change in two hours, plus or minus a bit.
5) Pour puffer into tank, likely he'll be so happy to be out of the bag he'll be in happy mode in 15 minutes.

Thank you for that information. I was going to do the whole drip system in a cleaned out bucket with a siphon for 4-10 hours. Your idea might work out better if they aren't stingy with their bag size . *Here's your fish in a beta cup*

I appreciate your assistance. If any more tips, please feel free to share

No problem. I was at the store most of the times I have done this, and used two gallon bags
At home I've done the 3 gallon bucket on the floor rather than the bag floating in the tank, had no troubles.

I noticed you said something about the stocking delay in your other post, I think you will be very pleasantly surprised about how the tank works out giving it all that time to mature before it takes fish.

Ajepalmer wrote:as I am saying in another post, is I am holding off fish in the tank until I return from deployment. I am just allowing the tank to practically cycle with some live rock and a cleaner crew while I am deployed

Excellent!!! I still don't advise quick acclimation of any fish through SGs. Albeit still very stressful, it may work for a 100% healthy fish but what if there is an unknown health issue?

Having to do it in an hour is definately NOT something you want to do, that's "the store is closing in an hour and we can't leave this fish in this bag/tub overnight." Two hours definitely seems to work better, but spending 4 to 8 hours is probably best. More than 12-24 hours is where I think ammonia buildup and stress from being in a small holding tank is likely to be making it overall more stressful than doing the "one hour quick" acclimate. What time frame do you usually use for acclimating brackish fish?

Nick wrote:Having to do it in an hour is definately NOT something you want to do, that's "the store is closing in an hour and we can't leave this fish in this bag/tub overnight." Two hours definitely seems to work better, but spending 4 to 8 hours is probably best. More than 12-24 hours is where I think ammonia buildup and stress from being in a small holding tank is likely to be making it overall more stressful than doing the "one hour quick" acclimate. What time frame do you usually use for acclimating brackish fish?

I've never had to change fish from their original salinity, just FW to FW and BW to BW. I would have to get that from someone else. From different people and yourself 4-8 hours seems to be a good time frame unless fully willing to setup a clean 5g tank then maybe could take 24 hours....

I wouldn't bother with the 5 gallon tank, I find a bucket with shaded walls is less stressful, just add a couple plastic plants floating on top of a colored bucket, and you will have a fish that feels very secure and unstressed. I'm pretty positive in the wild they can swim from FW to SW in under 8 hours, probably less.

Acclimating should be done in a bucket. Drip until the water volume has doubled, then dump 1/2 out & repeat. No ammonia buildup in there. I prefer .001-2/hr.

Nick,

There are a couple threads going..so I am just gonna plop this Q here..

In what salinity are GSPs typically caught? 2inches or less?

Pufferpunk wrote:Acclimating should be done in a bucket. Drip until the water volume has doubled, then dump 1/2 out & repeat. No ammonia buildup in there. I prefer .001-2/hr.

Nick wrote:I wouldn't bother with the 5 gallon tank, I find a bucket with shaded walls is less stressful, just add a couple plastic plants floating on top of a colored bucket, and you will have a fish that feels very secure and unstressed. I'm pretty positive in the wild they can swim from FW to SW in under 8 hours, probably less.

Sounds like a plan! Thank you

@Purple:

The honest answer is that nobody exactly knows because the ones doing the physical gathering are more or less impoverished locals working for the collection company. Most likely, they are caught at all salinities, and dumped together into fresh water or very nearly fresh water for shipping to the states because it doesn't kill them and likely reduces fish loss later down the line becuase FW holds more oxygen than salt water.

I would thus conjecture that the best collection site would be where the rivers first narrow sharply, that's the densest traffic on both directions, probably light brackish.

Nick wrote:@Purple:

The honest answer is that nobody exactly knows because the ones doing the physical gathering are more or less impoverished locals working for the collection company. Most likely, they are caught at all salinities, and dumped together into fresh water or very nearly fresh water for shipping to the states because it doesn't kill them and likely reduces fish loss later down the line becuase FW holds more oxygen than salt water.

I would thus conjecture that the best collection site would be where the rivers first narrow sharply, that's the densest traffic on both directions, probably light brackish.

the truth sucks