The Puffer Forum

I just bought a GSP from Walmart, and told them I had a 55 FW gallon tank with semi-aggressive fish in it, and they said the GSP would be fine. After reading some things on here I'm not so sure I got the right answer. Will it be okay?

Welcome!

I have not kept gsps, but puffers in general are agressive and like to have territory wars and/or nip fins. Gsps are also brackish when young, moving To full marine as they grow into adults. Because of this, having a gsp in your current tank wouldn't be possible. That said, a 55 would be perfect for 2 gsps alone.

Uhhh I hate walmart. I just had a 50 min convo with the managers there. No one cares. Yes GSP require 30 g minimum. Really you need to a) get another tank for him that'll be brackish or marine. Or b) give up chiclids. Gsp are aggressive and may do okay for a few days bit after a while he'll be riding piggyback on you fish. They need bw made with marine salt. Not aquarium salt as told by walmart. Puffers have beaks and need hard shelled crusteacians to keep there teeth trim. Like snails, shell on raw shrimp, krill, crab, ghost shrimp, cherry shrimp etc. GSP are a high maintanence fish. And need nitrates below 15 for them to be happiest. GSP need full marine conditions as adults. That's is something you'll have to consider in the future. Whatever you do don't return em back to walmart. They flush all return even if they're live and healthy. Instead ask a LFS to take him. I have two GSP myself and they have thrown me a bit but they are delightful fish to keep. As long as you provide them what they need to survive.

+1

I think you'll find if you do a search for "Walmart" here, it's the #1 post on this forum.

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Wow, Thank you guys for the information. Me and my boyfriend were just talking about this, and we really like this fish, so I think we are going to give him to one of our friends who has an empty tank right now. Maybe in the future when I have room for another tank, I'll try again. They are so cute though. Well at least I got him away from Wal-mart. Thanks for the advice.

Nly give em to your friend if he is prepared to take on ahigh maintanence fish. Many ppl start smaller tanks to just breed there foods. Bc it can get exspensive. He'll also need marine salt for him. Lots of things to consider. If your friend is not that XP with fish keeping give him to the lfs. And be sure they give him BW or SW. Not FW. Watch them drip acclimate him to make sure they don't try any shortcuts.