GSP HOME

[wooly79]

Morning all puffer fans, at the moment i have a FW tank 40GAL that i am wanting to change to a home for a GSP. I have read loads of stuff about them and there requirements. Just having trouble where to start with the change over. Do i strip everything down and start fresh or can i see what water he lives in the store first. If he lives in FW in store can i rehome present fish and bring him up gradually through the brackish stages. Also what type of substrate would be best to use long term. I think that will do for now look forward to reading your suggestions
Many thanks DAN

[pufferpuggirl]

Hi Dan,
When I bought my 2 GSP's they were both in freshwater at the shop, so when I got them home, I kept them in fresh ... but then when I did a water change, I added a little salt. And each successive water change I added a little more.
I don't know how other people feel about bringing them up to a brackish environment, but that's how I did mine and they are both healthy and very happy! I have put lots of plastic plants in my tank as well because they seem to like hiding in the plants, and there's not many live plants that will withstand brackish water, although there are a few if you care to find them.
As to substrate, I have left my GSP tank virtually bare on the bottom. I had intended to put gravel in there, but I had previously been using the tank as a temporary holding tank, and never got around to putting anything in. But then I noticed that my GSP's were gliding along the bottom glass with their bellies pressed to the glass, and I think they actually like doing that, and that's what has stopped me from putting any substrate in their tank. However, I'm sure that most people don't leave their tanks bare on the bottom, so I would think your choice is between sand and gravel, but I would get either fine gravel or rounded-off gravel so they don't hurt themselves when they skim along the bottom.
That's my 2 cents worth, or should I say 2 pence worth?
Good luck with the GSP, they are very cool little puffers.

[marksrush]

Welcome!

No need at all to break down the tank, just gradually up the salinity over time and you'll be fine. You don't want to raise the specific gravity by any more than .002 per week, because if you do, it will probably kill off all or most of your beneficial bacteria. I took this approach and it worked great, and in fact you can keep going until you get to full marine, so you can plan for that too if you like.

If he's in freshwater when you get him, then obviously start upping the salinity after he settles in nicely to his new surroundings. If he's in brackish water when you get him, and your tank is still freshwater, you can easily adapt him to salty water by drip acclimating him. To do this, you get a large container (5 gallon buckets are great to have on hand) and a good amount of extra water from the store to put him in while he gets acclimated. Put the fish and the store water into the bucket, then start a siphon from the tank you're going to put him in into the bucket where he's waiting, using air hose or some other such very thin diameter tubing. Tie a knot in the hose to where the flow slows down to about a drop per second. Let this go for 4-5 hours or so (or until you have about 5 times the volume of water in the bucket as you started out with) and he'll be ready for his new tank. They can actually take much faster acclimation than this, but I say why stress him - even a little bit - if you don't have to.

Recommended substrate is crushed coral or aragonite, as it buffers the pH to around 8, which is where you want it for brackish and marine tanks. However you can use marine sand if you like; I'm sure many people do and it looks lovely.

[Pufferpunk]

All the info you need is in the GSP article in our Library.

Moving this to BW puffers.