First time potential puffer keeper, advice appreciated!

[mrs.som]

Hi everyone!
We are moving to Michigan next Friday and I'm planning my next tank (yeah, I'm an addict).
I've sold all my other tanks, so I'll be starting from scratch. I'm hoping to get a 55-75 gallon setup from Craigslist and make it a semi-natural planted tank in the Walstad style.
The puffer(s) will be the centerpiece of the tank, I won't be trying to keep them with anything else except maybe some fast dithers or catfish (in the case of the Amazon puffer).
Right now I'm torn between the Amazon Puffer (Colomesus asellus) and the GSP as I am looking for something good-sized but not huge (like the Fahaka). My main concern of course is the freshwater vs. the brackish/saltwater.
I prefer the Amazon because of the freshwater but think the GSP may be more available.
If I go with the GSP I'm just wondering what will be entailed as far as slowly converting to brackish then salt (i.e. how much salt I'm going to need).
I'd love to hear from some veteran puffer keepers on the pros and cons of both, especially for a first timer.

Thanks all!

[SammyDee]

woo hoo Michigan. I live in SE MI. about 30 mins outside of Detroit

[pufferpuggirl]

Mixing salt isn't that hard, especially if you aren't setting up a huge tank. If you're going to do a 30-40 gallon tank (30 being the minimum for a GSP), you won't use that much salt.
Thing is, if you go for the South American puffer, you will need to get at least 3 of them because they need to be in groups. Actually 5 would be a better number. So you need to consider that. I think you will find that locating SAP's might not be as easy as finding a GSP. So you may be forced to make your decision in favour of what's available to you.
I don't keep SAP's anymore, but I do have 3 GSP's and they are lovely puffers. You could also do a Figure-8 puffer because they only need light brackish, so your usage of salt would be even lower.

Oh and

[Redspotter]

Welcome!!!!!!

I've had 4 SAP's in the past but not anymore.
I found there personality less puffer"like"

I don't have a GSP but I have a Ceylon and there so different compared with the SAP, more focused on you as owner.

Thereby almost every SAP will be needed of tooth trimming, not my favorite thing. My SAP's didn't like snails at all. Didn't eat them only when I smashed the snail. So every few months there teeth had to be trimmed.

F8 puffers are also very nice. The plus of F8 compared with GSP or Ceylon is that when you have a big enough tank you can add some tankmates. They seem some less aggressive towards other fishes

[Flutter]

You could also have 4-5 F8's depending on the tank you got.

I had SAPs and they drove me nuts. They were so neurotic and obsessive. They also kept the tank a mess with their restless swimming. They were not happy living in captivity.

[pufferpuggirl]

I seemed to have a lot of bouts with whitespot (ich) when I had the SAP's -- that's just a big hassle for me. Not to put them down, but I probably would never own them again.

[Redspotter]

[quote="Flutter"I had SAPs and they drove me nuts. They were so neurotic and obsessive. They also kept the tank a mess with their restless swimming. They were not happy living in captivity.[/quote]

I feel quite the same. The just don't seem happy in captivity.

[soggydrysuit]

If you could manage to get a 100g tank, I'd go for a Fahaka...

[soggydrysuit]

Not too big, you say and fw prefereable.

Hmm - what about one of the 'target group'? Six to eight inches of pure character

[PolishPuff]

I had SAPs and they drove me nuts. They were so neurotic and obsessive. They also kept the tank a mess with their restless swimming. They were not happy living in captivity.

I feel quite the same. The just don't seem happy in captivity.

I've never wanted to keep SAP's. After research, teeth trimming would need to be done and after the last time I did it, I dont want to do it again.

[mrs.som]

Wow! Thanks for all the advice. I sure am glad I ask some experts cause I would have no clue about the problems with SAPs. Nearly every individual article I've read about them is glowing.
Well then, it is between the F8 and the GSP, right now. I do like the Fahaka but 100 gallons isn't practical right now, our future landlord would prefer we stick to something in the 55-gallon range.
The target group puffers seem to be a good size but I'm not sure I'm a fan of their body shape/coloring.
So I'm thinking of doing a LOTR (yeah, I'm a nerd) themed planted tank so a group of puffers would be good (as in hobbits, lol), What is going to be better then? The F8's? About how much salt, per gallon will they need long term?

Thanks for all the great info so far, I really appreciate it!

~Bonnie

[pufferpuggirl]

I would think you might have better luck keeping more than one Figure-8 together than GSP's -- for one thing, with F8's you can get away with a smaller tank.

[mrs.som]

Thanks!
I'm getting conflicting reports though on aggression levels. Some articles are suggesting that the F8s are more aggressive and can't be kept with anything or each other without difficulty.
From your experiences (anyone!) is this a problem or is it overblown? How big have your F8s gotten? I really want a 55-gallon but don't want the poor puffs to get lost in the "scenery". My husband is the type that want to be able to view the fish from across the living room on the couch (i.e. 7-8ft away).

Thanks all!

[pufferpuggirl]

I've always looked at F8's as being rather calm compared with other puffers I've kept and are keeping now. My two are really nice to each other, working in tandem when food hits the tank. Never noticed any aggression whatsoever so far ... but I will also say that I've only had them for a couple of weeks.

Just to say, I think you need to keep in mind that if you get a 55-gallon tank, unless you get bigger puffers, I'm not so sure you're going to be able to see F8's from across the room. They aren't tiny, but they don't get very big either. If you are getting a tank that size, then why not go with a bigger puffer?

Ceylons are very similar to GSP's only they seem to grow much quicker. Still brackish ... but at least you'd see them from across the room.

[mrs.som]

Pufferpuggirl
Ceylon's were actually my first choice because of their "large but not too large" size but what scared me off was that they were recommended to go full marine eventually and we don't have the time or money for full marine right now.
If they can be kept in brackish (without all the fancy equipment and constant maintenance of marine) I'd love to hear about it!