The Puffer Forum

Wow so it wasn't just a rumor...reading about it online is one thing. But the photos of him feeding the young 1s is amazing. I wonder if this means the price of GSP's in FL will drop?

Possibly all over the country. The bad side is that they'll be more readily available, and more uninformed people will be buying them.

Wow, I didn't think it was doable. It must be amazing to have such a large group of tiny GSPs as in the feeding pic. They are so cute!
I'm a bit frustrated by the man holding puffers above the water though.

Yeah... maybe they were sedated for the picture? Probably not. *sigh* When you have that many animals, I guess they become dispensible.

The fry are adorable, though!

I think that the puffers at my LFS are captive bred. They are very small, and at another store they are the size of a small grape and they DO NOT look like dwarf puffers. Also they are cheap as hell.

Since the puffer in his hand wasn't blown up, I have reason to believe it was probably sedated. Wouldn't it have been flapping about in his hand?

And the little babies are GORGEOUS! Unfortunately - this doesn't help hobbyists breed them any better.

Well, it does. Because now that we know the male's sperm is only viable in full saltwater, we at least know where to start.

Before there were theories about if they mate in freshwater and move to salt, or mate in salt and move to fresh, or just stay in the middle or breed in all three.. no one knew.

Now we know the basics are full marine conditions, healthy and happy puffers.. its a heck of a lot more of a start than we had before.

So basically they can be added to marine when they are at their smallest size?

That is what we've been starting to believe, but there hasn't been enough long term testing yet (as in keeping puffers in full marine from a very young age for 5+ years) to know for sure.

For example, years and years ago, RTR (a long standing fishkeeper known throughout the web as one of the best) took a fancy to puffers. He did long term studies keeping specimens in freshwater, light brackish, higher end brackish, etc. His studies showed they did MUCH better in brackish than in freshwater, and did better moving to full marine at some point in their life than staying in brackish for their entire lives. He never did get around to testing out if they did better starting in full marine and staying that way.. which is why we have a sticky thread asking people who have kept GSP's in full marine for extended periods of time (ie, years, not months) to chime in with what their experiences have been.

This new breeding success suggests that they are hatched and spend their life in marine, travelling to brackish/fresh ocassionally.. but we really don't know at this point for sure. I mean, turtles lay their eggs on the shore, and babies have to travel to water.. maybe GSP's are born in marine but the young have to find their way to lower salinities to survive.. we just don't know.

But judging by all the success people are having in keeping them in full marine, I would venture to say they are happiest and healthiest that way.

I'm believing that adult GSPs normally stay in low end brackish, then move to reefs to breed, and then when the babies hatch, they swim back to rivers and grow up there.