The Puffer Forum

The amount of salt to use per gallon really depends on your perticular bucket of salt. The only way to be sure is to test it with a refractometer.

Get a bucket that holds 1 gallon of water, and add a level bakers table spoon of salt and dissolve it completely and test the SG. Keep adding tablespoons until it's at 1.001 SG. Then you know how many tablespoons to add per gallon.

Personally, when I'm raising the SG I just add one more tablespoon per week when I do my water changes. This makes the change very gradual and painless. I check with my refractometer once a week. It's not a race to get to brackish. You can take your time.

ok, i just wanted to make sure gsp wasn't going to die soon.

The sooner you get him into some salt the better.

Good water quality is more important than salt right now. If the water quality is good, he'll manage for a few days.

full water change two days ago, and took out an african albino clawed frog (gave him his own tank...he ate two of my other goldfish)...now its the GSP and three medium sized goldfish.

I'd find another tank for the GF ASAP. Not only will they not appreciate the salt, they need cooler water & are extermely high waste producers, fouling the puffer's water quickly.

Daily 50% water changes might be a good idea until you can get a new tank sorted.

aye 50%, looks like I make a trip to petco and my LFS to get some supplies. Well my GSP is laying at the bottom of the tank...(all lights out) hoping its just nap time.

It is a GSP. It has a bright green cap, which T. schoutedeni does not have. The pisture does not show the belly, but T. schoutedeni always has belly spines which are visible, where the GSP's belly and body spines only protude when inflated. The body shape of these two fish is quite similar - the confusion early in the thread was refering to T. miurus (another Congo River puffer) which does have quite a dufferent shape.

Never mind the fact that no one has seen a schoutedeni for sale in the aquarium trade for >20 years!

i use instant ocean for my brackish tank. i like the fact that it is easy to work with and it comes in many sizes you can buy.

Well I put him in his own tank today and got his water at .0001 where it will sit till next week, thanks for all the help guys. I will become a regular poster here more than likely.

What kind of filter are you using on his tank now? It sounded like before you were using a Whisper 20 on a 39g tank, which is much too small. Especially for puffers, you'll want to make sure you have plenty of overfiltration. A good bet is to have twice the filtration called for - so if it's a 30 gallon tank, you should have filtration suitable for atleast a 60 gallon tank.

Glad to hear you're planning ons ticking around. We're glad to have you. Any questions you have we will be glad to answer.

Dinsdale is completely right. The whisper 20 is pretty weak for your tank. You may want to consider either a larger HOB unit or a canister filter. I'd recommend a canister filter. They aren't as cheap as a HOB unit, but they provide a lot of filtration power without hanging a big thing on your tank. They are also quieter and provide you with much greater flexibility in media use.

Hilly wrote:No it's still a GSP. T. Schoutedeni have a different body shape.

I beleive that T. schoutedeni also are a different color. In the pictures that I have seen, they are gray. Although I am sure it can vary.

TFM wrote:I beleive that T. schoutedeni also are a different color. In the pictures that I have seen, they are gray. Although I am sure it can vary.

I'll take your word for it chief.