The Puffer Forum

Hi guys

Just wondering ...

I understand tha mature GSP requires full salt ...

but

for a juvenile... will it struggle to live in full marine conditions?

Will you need to keep them in brackish as juveniles and then full marine as adults?


I ask the question cause I grabbed 2 australian banded puffers (marilyna pleurosticta)...

both juveniles

i placed one in a marine tank and one in a brackish tank...

the one in the marine tank seems a bit slower gliding staying at the bottom

whilst the one in the freshwater tank is very active....swimming on the glass up and down...


im wondering whether or not... juveniles will struggle in marine conditions...

I was advised that this puffers as adults are marine fishes... im assuming similar to a life cycle of a GSP????

There's a long thread on this somewhere--I think it's a sticky.

found it

great read


I understand that these are 2 different species of puffer

but definitely gave me some insights ... might try a few things and observe any changes or behaviours..

In Oz-land.. this is probably the closest puffer we have to a freshwater puffer.. and I guess I want to see how long can they live in fresh/brackish until full marine conditions are needed???

I understand that these are 2 different species of puffer

What do you mean?

I guess I want to see how long can they live in fresh/brackish until full marine conditions are needed???

Have you read the GSP article in our Library?

I just purchased 2 australian banded puffers (marilyna pleurosticta)...

both juveniles


and I believe based on the info that I have aquired from people (mostly from this forum)

that they are marine fishes... but all the petshops that i get them from suggests that their supplier have caugh them in fresh or brackish water systems


and seems to have the same life cycle as a Green Spotted Puffer... juveniles spends time in brackish and adult in marine??? but i could be wrong hehe

no one else can confirm it??

Some marine fish are born in fresh water conditions and migrate back to the ocean or their normal brackish environment. Just because they are caught in FW doesn't always mean they are a FW fish. These fish need to get to their normal living conditions relatively fast. They require minerals that are provided by SW for proper development so, even if they do well in FW for a period of time they will not do well over time.

i agree dadof4

just wondering how long do you keep them in fresh as juvenile

and when do u know when they are ready to go in full marine


i can accomodate both... fresh or marine..

just dont know when to make the change???? at what time of their lives..??

I would start bringing them up as soon as possible. From the sticky thread on here you can see that people are having success placing them in marine or very near marine conditions as juveniles. Seeing that GSP's are wild caught and found in brackish estuaries, I'd say it's important to get them back in to brackish as fast as possible. Keeping them from marine salt at a young age would be akin to withholding certain vitamins and minerals from a human baby or child. It would be detrimental to their physical development.

dat sounds like a good advice....

hope that the advise suits the marilyna pleurosticta species that i have


im trying to apply the learnings from a GSPs life cycle to this species

cause of the similiraties in life cycle....

found and caught i freshwater/brackish conditions as juveniles.. and as adult living in marine conditions....

this is the information that I have collected...

A lot of species overlap in care requirements. Keep us posted on how it is going with him.

even better.....

I will

at the moment 2 of them are in freshwater... 5-6 cm in size!!

Learned that they could reach 15cm in their adulthood in the wild


what would be an estimated life span of a properly housed GSP? Ceylons?? Milk Spotted Puffers? ... do they live up to 30 years as well....

i read milk spotted puffers only make it to about 15

Milk spotted puffers are frequently mislabeled in this country.

Clarification: The 15 cited above should specify 15", ~38 cm. Not a small fish.

GSPs are likely true BW fish which travel freely between BW and SW and FW. They are maintained in captivity best in SW because we can keep SW more easily than we can mid-range BW. Being able to use skimmers, FOWLR, macroalgae refugia, etc. is a big plus in water management.

The milk spotted puffer, Chelonodon patoca, may more likely a true marine/brackish/freshwater species -at home at least short-term in any of those conditions, but never out of reach of the sea with reproduction likely in an estuarine environment. Personally I would rear it at least in BW, but move it SW within a year at the outside. It will need a quite large tank - a 15" puffer will be cramped in a 24" cross-section tank.

Marilyna pleurosticta is a different fish (per Fishbase), and likely another true FW/BW/SW fish, as is the milkspotted puffer. I would use the same handling as the others, keeping it at least BW initially, and moving to SW while still immature to ease upkeep. I have no info on the maximum size of this fish -do you have any data there? Any info you can give us on this fish as you keep it over time would be valuable. We do not have it in the PufferPedia here and would love to fill in info and photos....hint, hint, hint.

HTH

cool..

one of them died due to some illness.. i think it was orginally parasites and it got worse and got other infections poor buggah.. i tried to treat him..

it was a bit confusing cause originally they were in fresh and acclimated them in salt .. everything was fine (they were very slow in the marine tank..compared to when they were in fresh) til stuff started to show up.. hole in head.. white spots on tail

so i moved the sick one back into fresh... which seems to make him better.. but one day he was just floating... very very dissapointed.

one thing i did notice is that they are very peaceful puffers (for now, as juveniles cant say about when they mature)

anyways... the other one seems fine... looks rounded... colouring seems pretty normal.. eating well.. living in marine with an ocelaris, blue damsel, starfish and 2 hermits...

pictures ill post up soon!

RTR wrote:Clarification: The 15 cited above should specify 15", ~38 cm. Not a small fish.

i ment make it to 15 years old,
i know milk spots are ment to reach 38 cm but ive had one for around a year
and hes barely 10 cm, and the guy at the aquarium near my house claims hes
been keeping milk-spotted puffers for 10 years and never had one break the 22cm mark
he also reckons he keeps them in a group of 4 and has no fin nipping problems at all