The Puffer Forum

I was browsing Craigslist and there was a guy selling his 5 gallon tank with 1 GSP....AND 5 neon tetras! Not good! We e-mailed him, he was frustrated b/c the puffers kept dying, he was keeping them in freshwater! We do not own any brackish fish but I felt like I needed to rescue him. So what do I do? How much salt do I add and how fast? Obviously we're getting the neons out of there immediately into our quarantine tank. I really don't know about brackish so any tips/help would be welcomed!

Worry first about getting a bigger cycled tank and THEN worry about the salt..

What size is he?

Okay, first of all don't panic .

What size tank is the puffer in? He will be fine in FW for a little bit but i would start the acclimation to brackish soon, once you find a more permanent arrangement for him. Is the tank cycled? Do you have a hydrometer? Also how big is he? What is the puffer like also (health)?

"Brackishwater fish do best in specific gravity between 1.005 to 1.015, though most are accustomed to fluctuations in salinity levels. Equipment in brackish water systems is more akin to freshwater, however the main difference is the necessity of a hydrometer and kind of salt used. Salt in brackish aquariums must be marine salt." - from Brackish Central

Pufferfreak is right. Essentially the equipments the same. You need to buy instant ocean salt. And mix and measure the salinity using a hydrometer/refractometer. And he needs 30g minimum if he alone. With tank mates much larger. Best as species only tank. After his new tank is cycled and well established for atleats a week then you can raise the SG by a maximum of .002 a week. Don't do more than .002 or you'll kill your biofilter.

Ok, panic mode has been turned to off, it was on b/c the guy we had gotten the GSP from had already killed 3 of them! He is about 2 inches, the tank he's in is only 5 gallons (I know it's waaaaay too small) but it is cycled. We do not have a hydrometer yet but we're going to pick one up as soon as stores open...along with the right kind of salt. We have a 15 gallon but it is currently empty and uncycled. Health wise he looks good, not skinny, reacts to people. He is pacing the side of the aquarium but I think that's probably due to it being soooo small. So could we drip brackish water (a little?) into the 5 gallon while we start cycling his new home?

No. Pull everything except the water out of the 5gal and put it on the 15gal. Then you will have a cycled 15gal tank. Filter, filter media, decorations, gravel, etc, just not the water. It needs to get out of the 5gal immediately.

Good for you for grabbing this fish. Now you need to go buy a new tank

Thank you! This is probably a dumb question BUT i'm going to ask anyway - we set up the 15 w/ all the stuff from the 5...so we use freshwater or (slightly) brackish water?

I'm not too disappointed in having to buy a new tank...it was about time I ventured into brackish fish keeping! I just hope we're not too late for this little guy...or gal.

Shoot, I need a name now too...i'm terrible at naming things! haha.

If the 5gal is FW then you set the 15 up with the 5gal contents with FW. Once the fish is settled in you can start slowly raising the SG by 0.002 per week max. You want to mimic the conditions of the 5gal. Someone else will know how soon you can start raising the salinity.

Not many are disappointed about having to buy a new tank

From Adria's BF/fishkeeping partner;
Thank you all for the good advise. It agrees completly with what I was told by a 25 year fish keeper. I have the right salt and will transfer the gravel to a biger tank. The filter in his curent tank is integrated so no reusing it but there is a decoration that looks like a pretty good bacteria seed. When he is transferred and has eaten a bit I'll get started on the salts. My current plan is to measure out the total salt needed for the tank and break it into 8 portions. Add one portion per week (little bit each day, in solution) checking spec grav along the way. Does that sound right to you guys?
Thanks!

If you can't move the filter, move the dirty filter media, instead, just about as good!

Let the tank cycle as FW. Once it's cycled I'd wait a week to two weeks to let's your bacteria grow even more. This way it makes the bw conversion more smoothly.

Thanks again. I won't start to add salt for a while. I can't even move the filter media, there wasn't any in the filter! Already transferred the gravel and decoration, going to add more gravel now.

It died. Very depressing day. The gsp died & the sap's my lfs ordered didn't show up. Sad, sad day in my puffer world.

That Sux. Sorry for ya loss. Itwas a learning experienced. Now you kno nitrogenous bacteria is the most important thing in all aquariums. Personally thou you should just left em in the tank they were in and did the big wc daily while reducing the SG. Or died he die before he was transfered? Bc setting up the new tank and putting him in it woulda been worse. FW and even less cycled than his OG tank.... Sorry for your loss thou.

Adria wrote:It died. Very depressing day. The gsp died & the sap's my lfs ordered didn't show up. Sad, sad day in my puffer world.

You were stuck between a rock and a hard place, no filter media in the 5g tank what were you supposed to do.I personally think moving to the bigger tank was the correct call, there is no substitute for a larger body of water to dilute the waste. Take heart you did the best for him.