The Puffer Forum

Hi, I have a green spotted puffer and I have him in a ten gallon tank. I just cleaned the tank myself for the first time and did a 20% water change, roughly. I washed the glass and got the algae off and did my best to get the algae off the decorations in his tank, then put them back in and added water that was close to the same temperature as the water that was already in his tank. Then I got confused and didn't know how much aquarium salt to use, I read somewhere for freshwater it's supposed to be a tablespoon per 10 gallons so just to be safe I did 1/4 of a tablespoon of salt and tried to mix it into a little water, but it wasn't mixed, and when I dumped it in I could see all the salt fall in.

So my first question is: Is my pufferfish going to die?
I know adding salt without having it dissolve in water first is bad, but I'm not sure how bad. Or.. at least I think it's bad! Is it bad?

How much salt should go in the tank?
Per gallon, per five gallons, or per ten gallons, whatever information you can give me would be good.

This is the first time he's ever had his tank cleaned by me so I don't know if that means he might freak out and die.. but I'm hoping he won't.

Also, what kinds of plants can I get for him? How often should I get feeder snails to trim his beak, and what kinds of food do puffers like best? I got him krill but he never seems to eat all of what I put in the tank for him... I read somewhere that pufferfish only eat until they're full, so maybe that's why, but I never put in that much.

That's all I have to ask for right now, so if someone could answer me soon that's be great! Thanks!

Hi Kighla and welcome to the fourm. First of all 10 gallon tank is too small for your GSP. please check pufferpdia section for more info about GSP and i think minum size tank is 30gal.


You're right GSP are brackish puffer evenatually go full marine. Im not sure you should use aquarium salt tho but i believe is sea salt which you can get at lfs which you mix in with water befoere you put into your tank.. As i never own a GSP before but im sure others will help you answer this question more clearly.

As for plants. There are not many plants that can adapt to brackish water. Which one can.. i forgot..lol sorry.

Puffers loves snails. You can also feed blood worms,krill,gut load ghost shrimp. Feed him every other day. Be sure to get ready to clean right after they eat because puffers are very messy eaters.

Well he's just a baby right now and I'm gonna keep him in the ten gallon for a while until he starts to get too big...

Also I'm getting worried, he's kinda swimming around frantically and letting himself get pulled around by the water a lot, which he usually does but he's always a lot slower. Do you think I did something wrong with the water or is he still just freaked out from me having changed the water?

Some puffer do freak out when you do wc and some dont but i would make sure the water parameters are at correct stable reading i.e. ammonia=0,nitrites=0,nitrates=10ppm.

i have a gsp in a 10 gal i have him for abouth o mounth, i change the water every 3 days (30%) i feed him snails crickets and mealworms, the temp of the water is 27ºF and every water change i add 1/4 of cup of salt for salt water aquarium.
i share mi experience with you and on december im moving mi puffer to a 30 gal salt water just for him i think.
hope the info helped mi friend puffers rock.
and for the more experienced ones i have a question how many time does it take to my puffer to grow 4 inches hes now 2?

Here's the problem: Your fish had addapted to the poor water conditions he was living in the "dirty" tank. You cleaned everything & changed a good portion of the water (even at this point, 20% can be too much) & the fish may be in shock (most of us do 50% weekly water changes, so the water is always pristine).

I'm moving this to the Hospital section. Please answer all the questions above, in red. If you don't have answers to the test result questions, you must take your water in for testing at your LFS & buy your own test kits too, along with a hydrometer. Please read the GSP article in our Library. There are also excellent feeding articles in our Library.

I haven't even had him that long, just to let you know. It's been at most 2 weeks, probably just under that. His tank would've been cleaned after the first week but my mom kept putting it off until I got so worried I did it myself. It was the first time I'd ever cleaned a tank myself (at least, without someone there to tell me what precautions to take and such) so I only did a 25% water change.

1. I don't have a testing kit, so I can't tell you. When I got him we had the water tested (at an actual fish store, not a petsmart or petco) and they said it was ok, and it's been a week.

2. 10 gallon tank, no other inhabitants. There is a weird round ball plant thing... but I don't know what it is. My mom put it in there to help cycle the tank and didn't want it back.

3. I fed him every other day, giving him about half of a cube of frozen krill, then putting the unused half in the fridge and giving it to him the next day. I used a tank cycle liquid once, I don't have the bottle anymore, sorry. Also I used kosher salt to put in the tank.

4. Other than putting in the tank cycle maybe 5 days ago and the water change, nothing.

5. It's been set up for a few months probably, we bought 6 tetras and kept them in the tank for a while then moved them to our other fish tank and took the water in to get tested and it had been cycled (the fish had been living in it for months since we could never find time to go out and get the new fish)

I think he's starting to look less sick, and is swimming around more normally. I have another question though, with krill, should I be cutting it up at all? it's too big for him to eat in one bite and I can never tell if when he bites it he actually gets any off of it to eat.
Also according to the site in the FAQ he needs 1-2 tablespoons of salt per gallon, is this true?

It's very important for you to lean how to read the water parameters. This needs to be done on a very regular basis until everything is stable, meaning parameters are staying in the same good range. This will happen if the tank is cycled, not over loaded and regular weekly WC's. I suggest having the parameters checked weekly at your LFS until you get liquid test kits. The Stripes are not accurate. You should have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, these kill fish. Time for a WC asap if you have either. pH around 7.0 - 8.3, Nitrate under 20 . Marine salt is used to create brackish conditions. You are correct on the amount, 1-2 TBS per g but it needs to be measured w/ a hydrometer that starts at .000 or refractometer after adding to the tank to know the salinity. No need to put the puff in brackish water until he is about 2 inches and it is in a 30g tank or larger. Any info you get from the articles on this site are reliable. The salt you have been using if it is like aquarium salt will not harm your puff but is not necessary. I did have my puffs in aquarium salt until I put them in marine salt. My puffs have always been healthy. It does need to be dissolved in his WC water completely because if the undissolved salt touches your puff it will cause salt burns on the puff.

Feed your puffer what it can finish in a few minutes time. Yes you can cut up the krill. The puff needs a varied diet to be healthy. Krill should be fed as a treat only to puffers because it has been known to cause lockjaw if it is the only food fed over a long period of time. All live foods should be put through a QT IMO. Read all the articles in the library under the learn tab at the top of the page to learn all you can about your new puff.

1. a lot can change in a week. please get your water tested again or buy the tests (prefered)
2. bigger tank would be nice. plants won't really help cycle. most likely a moss ball...
3&4.please check what other foods there are. there's a feeding article in the library. also unless you used "bio Spira" it most likely did nothing to help cycle.

it's common for people to feel like they are being picked on, but we really just want to help you and your puffer. we're glad you're here

Puffers do not handle uncycled tanks very well. I'm surprised yours has managed to survive this long without problems.

First, how long did you wait to put the puffer in after taking the tetras out?

Second, get tests, as was said. Or go back to the store and have them test your water and give you the REAL results, not just "fine". You want actual number readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Its best to just buy the tests and do it yourself, because at this point, you'll need to know what levels are where so you know what to do to help your fish. Ammonia burns the skin and lungs, and can kill a puffer very quickly. Stores often tell you your test results are "fine" because then when your fish gets sick they can sell you lots of medications to "save" it.. or when it dies, they'll tell you all this stuff you did wrong and what you need to buy to "fix" it for your next fish, when clean water was all you needed in the first place.

Third, salt. Aquarium salt/kosher salt is not what you want here for a brackish/marine fish, its marine salt. Instant Ocean is a common brand name. Marine salt has a different chemical makeup than aquarium salt, it matches the minerals you find in the ocean. Brackish and marine fish need these added minerals to be healthy. If you can buy a small box of marine salt and start using a little bit of that, it will be good for your fish, but start out slow, as adding too much can hurt your biofilter. If you can't afford it right now, just concentrate on keeping the water clean with lots of water changes and make getting salt the next thing on your list.

The problem with keeping a puffer in a tank that's too small is that very early on, their bodies will stunt. So they never get "big enough" for you to justify moving them to a bigger tank, and this does major damage to their bodies and immune system. So instead of a fish growing to its full potential and living 10-15 years like it should, it will be too small, have health problems, and maybe live 2 years. If you are going to do that, just get rid of the fish and keep a pet rock or stuffed animal instead.

You can probably keep him in the 10 gallon tank for a month or two, but be warned, it is very easy to let that turn into a year and by then, you've done a ton of damage.

...alright, again, THE TANK WAS CYCLED WHEN I PUT HIM IN! It had been cycling for an extremely long time and I took the water in to get tested at a place called aquatics unlimited, they told me all the numbers (I forgot them by now) and said that the water is perfect to put the puffer in. I tested it after I took the tetras out. This fish place doesn't try to trick people into buying useless medications, when my goldfish got sick and I asked for help they told me that there wasn't much of anything I could do except clean the water. They also told me that buying a tank cycling liquid is kind of unecessary and that just putting in some gravel from my other fish tank would be good.

Anyway, I think my pufferfish is gonna be ok, he's looking normal again and is swimming around at his regular pace! I'm still going to be careful for the next few days. After work I'm going to run my water over to the fish store and get it tested, and while I'll there I'll get some different foods for him and some feeder snails, and marine salt if I can afford it. I'm going to ask them about the tank size, since I've asked a few different employees there different days about tank size, and they all said that the puffer I have can be ok in a ten gallon for a few years.. they even have one there that they said was in one for 3 years and they had put him in a new tank a few years ago, and he was huge!

It's not that I don't trust your guys' judgement, it's just I definitely can't afford to buy a 30 gallon aquarium set up right now.

Random Question: What does a green spotted puffer look like puffed up? Do they turn into big balloons like other puffers or does just their face get fat? Yesterday I thought his face had gotten fatter, but I think it was probably just me freaking out.

ok.. something else kinda weird is happening! Now my pufferfish is swimming vertically with his head towards the gravel and his tail is curled up against his body... I dont' know how long he's been doing it and I unfortuneatly can't stay to see if he keeps doing it for a while or not since I have to go to work. Does anyone know what he's doing? It kinda looks like he may be searching for food in the gravel, but at the same time it's just kinda weird

Staying head down is not at all a good sign, from my experience. Tail curled up can mean distress as well, both of them together probably means your puffer is severely in trouble. If he stays like this and is basically inactive...well, that's just not good news. Now if he's just swimming head down while he putters around the tank looking for food, that's different, but you should be able to tell if that's the case.

Here's the forum's article on GSPs: ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Brackish/T_Nigroviridis/ It's in the Library section, and it tells you the basics. Then read Pufferpunk's article here: library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/ Both those articles will help you take care of any GSP you ever adopt.

Keeping a puffer in that tank for an extended period of time will stunt his growth, which in turn, will make him die faster. So instead of living 10 to 15 happy years, he may live an ok 6 months.

Aquatics Unlimited is a good store (I live in the Milwaukee area), but their speciality is cichlids, not puffers. They know more than the usual store, but I've seen them keep GSP's in everything from freshwater to full marine and never seem to know why they are doing it when they are asked. They obviously told you the wrong salt to use, or didn't bother to mention this is a high end brackish to full marine species (somethng I'm not sure they understand, because as I've said, they throw them into just about any open tank they have available).

If you want to stunt your fish, go ahead and keep it in a 10 gallon tank. Or better yet, go back to AU and ask them what the longest they've been able to keep a GSP alive is, and how big it got.

Members here who have been keeping puffers for probably longer than you've been alive have found GSP's need 30 gallons each, live 10-15+ years, and can grow to the size of a small nerf football.

Now, if the employees at AU can come even close to that in comparison for their experience levels.. then go ahead and listen to them, and I wish you the best.



As far as your tank being cycled.. again, this is why I asked how long it was between removing the tetras and putting in the puffers. More than 24 hours without any fish in that tank and your bacteria could have died off, crashing the system.