The Puffer Forum

Went back to my LFS to get a larger tank for my figure 8 and to see if they had any more figure 8's that i could put with my current one. But instead of buying figure 8's they had some GSP's. There were 3: a tiny almost dead one (skinny, small, black, and little to no fins), a medium one with a sunkenish belly and slightly dark, and the most beautiful GSP I have ever seen for sale (bright neon green, almost perfectly round spots, a nice round belly, almost perfect fins, a nice friendly personality, and very curious.) He didn't touch any of the other fish in the tank (freshwater tank though ) He followed close to the other GSPs even though the middle one (health wise) always butted him away.

I wanted him soooo bad. But I don't have room....Neither did I have any cash to spend on him. I hope that no one bought him and he will stay healthy and i will pick him up maybe tomorrow or monday depending on when i get my paycheck.

Good luck! Which of your tanks do you plan on using for him?

Well, I am currently hunting down a 75 gallon tank or something in the realm of 40-60 gallon long so I could put maybe 2 GSP's in. I'm just taking everything at a step at a time. I plan on putting him/her in full marine. The only thing im not looking forward to is if I get the tank in full marine conditions is the possibility of needing live rock...I don't know a thing about it and frankly don't want to get involved with it....

But on another topic, I just started getting the stuff together (50 gallon) for my figure 8 and was just curious could the marine inverts (the small hermit crabs etc) live in conditions that a figure 8 is in?

Thankz

I have two GSPs in a 55 but I want to upgrade to a larger tank. I've only had them for 7 months and one of them has more than tripled in size already. I'm watching want ads and sales looking for a good deal.

Tihsho wrote:But on another topic, I just started getting the stuff together (50 gallon) for my figure 8 and was just curious could the marine inverts (the small hermit crabs etc) live in conditions that a figure 8 is in?

I doubt it, but I'll defer to folks with more experience to provide the final answer.

Nope, actually they need hight SG than most fish, around 1.023 & up. (someone correct me if I'm wrong, please.) Anyway, F8s do best in low-end BW--1.005.

Yeah thats what I figured, but I wasnt totally sure...
Atleast I know now

PP whats the best tip you could give on keeping GSP's at their best, other then the weekly 50% water change and vaccuming?

A good variety of vitamen-soaked foods.

Vitamin soaked foods such as what?
~Cocktail shrimp?
(cant think of much else)

And vitamin soaked as with supplements or just with mineral water?

I have listed all the foods my p[uffs ate in my article in The Library. there is also another excellent article on pufferdiet in there. I soak foods in Zoe liquid vitamens.

Well, got my paycheck today and went off to see if they still had that single GSP that looked perfect...Like my luck runs, it was either sold or died...A girl that works there (very friendly) always trys to tell me what happened cause she always likes the tips I give or info I tell her about some of the fish that they sell. But back to the puffs, I did end up seeing a pair of upset GSP's about an inch and a half each with the beggining signs of ich. So I crouched at the tank thinking to myself for about 1 and a half hours what I should do. Then the employee I mentioned above came around to see if I needed help, and I asked if she or anyone knew that GSP's are suppose to be in brackishwater at the size they are at (or even just to begin with in the first place.) She was like 'Wow, I learn something knew from you each time I see you in here!' and then I went on explaining the effects of what results from the GSP's or any brackish puffer they will come across from the poor care. And she was like 'Oh, thats sad. Hold on let me go tell someone to see what I can do.' After 10 minutes or so she came back looking bummed and just said 'they don't seem to care or even want to listen.' And at that moment I said to hell with it, I am going to take these guys home and get them all healthy and ich free. So at the moment I have 2 un-well GSP's.

Physical Descriptions (mainly any problems seen):
~Belly of one of the puffs is flat (my guess is from the puff being in an over stocked tank and not getting enough food)
~Back side of one puff looks like to be a bite wound. Out of the dark coloration of the body there is a pinkish spot.
~Back (where green should be) it is dark or brownish. Bellies are white though
~And ich

Thats the only things I can say at the moment. Sadly I am doing something I know I should not be doing, but it seems easier to acclimate puffs into a high SG in smaller tanks. So just for a few weeks I have them in a 6 gallon tank (I know I am going to hear "YOU NEED TO PUT THEM IN A BIGGER TANK ASAP!") I just moved my figure 8 to his 10 gal and I am fixing a 30 gallon up for their next move (temporary till I move stuff out for another 60 gal.)

Feeding so far is un-successful, I will just keep trying every day. I need to know if there is a way I can make a homemade 'garlic' soak for the food.

Tanks temp is about 82 and I added about 3 ounces of 1.027 SG water to their tank using drip acclimation.

I hope they will pull through!

Good luck....you're giving them a chance at least..I'm sure you'll pull them through.
Pami.

Pamela wrote:Good luck....you're giving them a chance at least..I'm sure you'll pull them through.
Pami.

Well, I hope. Havn't had any successful like with GSP's for a long while (this was when I was beggining keeping puffs and thought these guys were freshwater )

Lets see status of them so far...Ich on one of them is dissapating (still there though) and the colors have brightened up a bit. On note of the other puff, the ich has grown more, and the darkness is spreading (:()

So far both puffs seem to be inactive just sulking at the bottom. I try to approach slowly cause one of them flipps out. The other one just lays there and moves its little cute eyes.

So far ive put in about 12 ounces of 1.027 SG water in the tank (6 yesterday, 6 today) hope it wasnt too much. I thought that if i bump up the SG pretty quickly for a few days it will help the puffs rid of ich. The temp right now I don't know off hand (heater in the tank is kinda iffy)

No more than 1.002 rise in SG per week, or you'll take out your bacteria.
Raise the temp a couple of degrees.
Pami.

Pamela wrote:No more than 1.002 rise in SG per week, or you'll take out your bacteria.
Raise the temp a couple of degrees.
Pami.

You mean .002 a week? cause 1.002 a week seems a bit high.

Well, I spend about 3 hrs trying to feed em. No luck on the first 3. Tried blood worms (live and frozen), blackworms (live), brineshrimp (live and frozen), and snails (live[whole.]) After trying all those things I gave up. Then it hit me, the CRAYS! I put one in and something in the puffs snapped (if only I got video footage.) The more sulky of the two puffs caught intrest first. He stalked and followed the cray till it turned and fended itself, waited till it turned and lunged and tried to grab it by the tail. (S)he attempted that like 3 to 4 times. Then the other puff got intrest and tried a frontal attempt a few times aswell. But towards the 5th time the other puff watched the front of the cray the other puff came around the back of the cray and got it straight between the eyes. After seeing that I left, I'm a vegitarian and have my limits to stuff and that was one (I know it may sound hypocritical but the puffs were the ones who were eating it )

So after their meal (both fatter then ever) they perked up swimming wise and color brightened a tad. There not as dark.

I need to invest in another heater for these guys, the heater they have is not as great as it should be...

These guys keept worrying me. I look in the tank in the morning and there soooo dark and then slowly brighten up but are the brightest once they have been fed. The only problem I see so far (other then whats left of the ich on just one puff (and yes I did say ich on only one puff )) is that one puff protcts the food. When I first drop in food (say a cray) the largest of the 2 goes for it first takes half of it then moves to the top of the tank and rests to gain back his energy. That is when the other one gets a chance to eat. But once the other puff gets his 'breath' the other puff is chased off. The puff just gaurds the food, he doesn't even eat whats left and the other one keeps trying to get more but no luck.

The other thing that is concerning is they seem to like to just sit in the tank at certain parts of the day unless Im sitting right infront of them then they are just swimming and looking at me. But if im laying on my bed watching them they lay on the gravel and just watch (NOTE: the fins are still moving and the tail is straightened out.)