The Puffer Forum

Well I did a partial water change and raised my salinity (using Instant ocean) to 1.008.

I also started my day out with the cutest thing I have ever seen a fish do. One of my GSP's was curled up inside the big cave sleeping in the sand!
I quickly took a picture before the flash of the camera woke him up.

Cute! And nice tank

You mentioned way back that you had feeder guppies, they aren't meant for the puffers are they?

The snails and shrimp are ok for the GSP but not the guppies, unless there babys mabie?

Not technically a piscivore so no, not good. They feed on crustations and wormy things, insects etc. Stick to these, add bloodworm etc

sgtmyers88 wrote:Well I did a partial water change and raised my salinity (using Instant ocean) to 1.008.

I also started my day out with the cutest thing I have ever seen a fish do. One of my GSP's was curled up inside the big cave sleeping in the sand!
I quickly took a picture before the flash of the camera woke him up.

Uh oh...Balki junior....LoL. I wish my puffers did that!!

Flutter wrote:Cute! And nice tank

You mentioned way back that you had feeder guppies, they aren't meant for the puffers are they?

Oh no, my usage of the term "feeder guppies" was just referring to the small ones that you get for pennies at a pet store. I got 2 dozen for a $1. I keep them in my 20 gal tropical community tank with my neon tetras and tiger barbs.

Added some live plants (shrimp grass and parrots feather) and a new rock formation tonight:

Plants are fake?

Both real and fake. I had to remove most of the real ones once my salinity got past 1.008 because it was killing them. I would like to find some high salinity live plants though.
(currently at 1.012 now)

I also added a couple pieces of live rock today. I am heading towards a full marine setup ASAP as my LFS just stocked some baby GSP's in full marine and they looked beautiful!

I hope to find a 125 gallon tank for them eventually.

LR will not survive a SG that low. It will cause severe bacterial & LR creature die off with an ammonia/nitrite spike.

The new LFS I visited told me to boost my salinity to 1.015-1.018 as it is the minimum sustainability level for live rock without affecting my puffers.
I was very surprised that they keep their young GSP's in full marine which makes it the first LFS I have found around here to do that. They were very active and colorful.

Or have I been scammed? I paid $10 for 3lbs of live rock.

That price is fine but your SG should be at 1.018, before adding any LR. Your previous post said you are at 1.012.

Ok gotcha so it looks like I will need to boost my salinity to that ASAP. Does this mean I need to invest in a skimmer now? I saw they had some marine bacterial solution so I may get some of that to help with the transition to reduce the risk of my tank going into a full cycle again.

I'd return that rock, until you're ready. You're working backwards.

+1 this is heading for disaster. Take a step back think it through. Don't rush it