The Puffer Forum

Nope.

Wow, I guess the marine conditions really are great for them... I look forward to transitioning them soon! gradually of course...

wow, this was very helpful! if i get a GSP im gonna convert the water right to marine (slowly of course) so i dont have to worry about raising the SG several times

This is Great news, I have fallen in love with the live rock and little crabs and all the things associated with a full marine aquarium, cant wait.

Would it be terrible if I rescued a 4ish inch GSP from a LFS that keeps him in fresh water and put him in well filtered 20 gallon and converted it to full marine?
I dont have a spare 30 gallon around, but I cannot put him in with the other GSPs in the large tank because he is much larger. But once they are relatively the same size they could go in the 100 gallon or I could find him a proper owner.

It is fairly difficult to place larger puffers in proper homes.

You'd just be perpetuating the trade by buying him. They'd think, "Oh, happy customer, they like our stock," and keep doing what they're doing.

I have a 55g FOWLR marine setup with a specific gravity of 1.022, and added my baby GSP about a month ago. He's about 1 1/2" long and the LFS had him for a few weeks and he'd been in full saltwater from the beginning. I used the drip method to acclimate him to my water parameters over the course of an hour, and he has been thriving ever since. He motors around the live purple rock searching for food and just exploring, always has a white belly (unless he's full after eating well, it darkens a tad), eats voraciously on frozen cubes of brine shrimp/krill and twice per week gets a small chunk of raw shrimp, and is always a bright neon green with jet black spots, almost like someone colored him with a yellow highlighter. He practically glows under the lights. He comes to greet me at the glass when he knows it's time to eat and at night when the lights are off, I find him sleeping curled up like a puppy on top of my big African red knob sea star, nestled in between the spikes with his tail curled to one side (no lie!). This has to be one of the funniest little fish I've ever had. When he gets bigger and possibly starts picking on his tank mates or the sea star, I'll be moving him to his own tank and will hopefully be able to get him another GSP buddy. But for now he seems extremely happy in a full marine environment with his starfish bed. LOL!

Solace wrote:This is Great news, I have fallen in love with the live rock and little crabs and all the things associated with a full marine aquarium, cant wait.

It might be too late, but your GSP might eat little crabs. Mine eats anything that moves.....and then tries to eat a lot of things that don't.

Just thought I'd put in my two cents.

I currently have two GSPs in full marine. The exact salinity is at 1.021, and they are currently housed with a clown fish. I periodically experiment to see if there are any potential fish they can be housed with, but my puffers, at least from what I've seen, are extremely docile. They get chased around more than they chase any new fish I attempt to introduce.

So far, I know they can't leave happily with any Damsel fish. These buggers just end up trying to kill my poor, fat buddies. I've heard of a few people who have been lucky enough to house hermits and shrimp with their GSPs. I'll probably try this at a later point.

Aside from that, my puffers are quite happy in full saltwater. They are quite active and spend most the day curving through the waves I've created for them (I use a powerhead in conjunction with a worm feeder which splits the water current in multiple directions).

studmaster wrote:

Solace wrote: Mine eats anything that moves.....and then tries to eat a lot of things that don't.

Hahaha. My horse has a thing for cell phones, especially orange ones. He gravitates towards them and seems to feel they all belong in his mouth.

I have a baby GSP that I added to my tank after my damsels + clownfish had established a "pecking order". Honestly, the GSP is in his own little world and ignores the other bickering fish! No one bothers him, and he's more concerned with tormenting my clean-up crew than joining in on the bickering. The specifics on the fish: 1 clown ( sold as percula, but I'm betting it's an oscellaris.), a three-striped damsel, a juvenile black mouth chromis and my baby GSP! All of them are under two inches. The specific gravity has always been around 1.024.

I have a 2.5-3" GSP in a 38 gallon weakly brackish tank that seems to be doing well and since I'm doing slow peaceful fish in my 46 I think I should leave him in the 38G because he loves the space and interesting decor. The only other tank I have is a mere 10 gallons and will soon be home to 2 b&W Ocelleris Clowns while the mollies are to be taken out to cycle the 46.

At what age do the GSP's need to be at or near full marine? He's happy and healthy and I've had him for 1 month. He's my avater .

You can put him into marine at any time but why use all that extra $alt, when you don't need to yet? I'd make that "weakly" BW tank more like medium though, around 1.010-12.

I think a 10g is too small for 2 B&W clowns.

No reason to cycle with fish, when you can fishless cycle a tank.
library/water-filtration/fishless-cycling/

Yeah I want to wait that and a clean up crew wouldn't be safe around him....so don't know what I'd do.
The SG I'm not too sure of my hydrometer kinda sucks and is hard to tell if is at the 1.012 mark or not.

I know my older blackskirt tetra & rosie barb can handle a higher SG because dummy me didn't realize that when you top off you don't need to add salt (was using aquarium salt at the time..is now marine salt)...the poor things (they were in a 10G that had a lot of evaporation too).

The little clowns are about 1.5 inches or so(according to the store I plan to get them from) plenty of time to find a used 20G tank for them....or use the 20G tall I have ( but plan on doing a display fuge with that, but can use my extra 10G for that instead).