The Puffer Forum

Hi
I have never had puffers before. I have researched about them and read all the sticky's here, but still have a question.

FW puffers: The dwarfs sounds great and I'm leaning towards getting ONE. I have a 5 gallon set up and ready. According to the info 2-3 gallons per fish right?

BW: At my LFS I asked about fig 8's and gsp's. (currently they had 0 puffers of any kind, only one gsp and was sold while I was there)

They said that they only get puffers that are acclimated to fresh water and a ph of 7.0.
I said (after reading up on my puffers!!) that "Can't they start fresh and then you need to slowly start making it brackish as the fish get older?" The guy said "no. we have all are fish acclimated so that doesn't need to
be done."

After leaving the store I remember that the puffer website had said that fig8's and gsp's can be frewshwater, but they may get sick more easily and they won't be as active....is that right?

All in all I"m still leaning on getting a dwarf puffer although haven't been able to find any around town.

Anyway, I still wonder about those fig8's and gsp's even though I have read all the sticky's and the information on them...

Thanks,
Resa

The 5 gallon tank really limits you here and rules out the F8 and GSP. I'd say 1 dwarf, but really, if you could get a 10 gal, that would be so much better.

Many LFSs either have all FW fish on one common water system or FW and Marine on two water systems. When they get brackish fish, they don't know what to do with them and put them on the FW system with all the other FW fish. When very young, the F8 and GSP can handle FW, but their health & longevity will be improved in brackish. By maturity, the GSP requires nearly full-strength seawater.

The library article on the GSP by PP is better written than anything I can say here.

You are correct about the DP and that is an excellent puffer for beginners (and old-timers too). One DP in a 5G tank, heavily planted and with good filtration. Please make sure that the tank is fully cycled before buying the puffer though as they are extremely sensitive to ammonia and nitrites.

F8s and GSPs should be kept in light BW conditions when they are young. F8s remain at low BW as they mature while GSPs should be acclimated to higher SG as they grow and full SW by the time they are adults. Your LFS employee obviously has no clue about proper care of these wonderful animals. Sadly, no big surprise there!

Please don't listen to anything else that LFS dude has to say...its unfortunate - but the majority of LFS's just don't get what Brackish Water is - and don't understand BW fish...most especially this applies to puffers - FW and BW.

You will find no better source for your puffer questions than right here.