The Puffer Forum

Hi all,

My GSP is not looking very comfortable since I started to upgrade the lights in his tank due to the addition of some macroalgae (caulerpa and ulva) and a small colony of green zoanthus.

He spends most part of time hidden in a rocky cave.

This is the tank, a 46G long, 157W CF, full SW with some rockwork, beach sand, clean up crew, caulerpas, ulvas and a colony of green zoanthus.



Side view of the tank.



The GSP hiding among the rocks.




Now, I don't know what to do because I want my puffer to feel good in that tank, and I want the macroalgaes and zoas to grow healthy since I figured a lagoon biotope for the GSP.

id dim the lights down, the pictures alone hurt my eyes lol. could just be an adjustment thing for him, or he literally might not like them. not sure...

Damn that sucks huh. That would bug me also. I would def dim them down and see how he reacts. If he starts to come out more then you know he just did not like them. If he does not come out still then maybe something else is bothering him? Is that the only thing you've changed recently?

You made me feel bad about it! LOL Maybe a sunglass would help my puffer LOL.

Well, he acts frightened when I started to add the clean up crew, but he didn't hide himself. He began acting strangely when I started to increase the lights. First day, his black spots totally disappeared. Next day, his color was normal again, then he began to hide among rocks...

If I dim the lights down a little, how about macroalgaes and zoanthus?
It's not that I don't care about my GSP, yes I do, but I wish I could have everyone healthy.
Too bad IF I'm not able to keep all of them together...

How long has he been acting like this? Is there a way that you can decrease the light a bit for a week and then put it back up?

That tank looks amazing! Can't imagine it once the algaes grow in. I like the lights though.

Many fish have a natural aversion to bright lights and open areas. Especially when the 2 are combined.

@ Flutter : He's acting like that for 5 days. I dimmed the lights drastically. After that I offered one snail to him and he started to hunt for food. I will keep the low light for a week and I think I will increase it weekly and check for his behavior.

@ J-P : I agree with you, since my F8s don't like bright lights, probably because they are found in murky/shaded waters. I don't know when GSPs are regarded, because I didn't read about anybody complaining about their GSPs feeling shy in high light SW tanks. If you can point me a link to something similar, I'd appreciate it.

@ Lil' Swimz$ : I COULD imagine caulerpas growing all over the tank and among the rocks forming a great caulerpas bed just like this enviroment:


That's why I added macroalgaes and some inverts, but they need strong light to grow... and my puffer is not happy with that.

I thought my GSP would love it!

It'll probably be ok once its grown in and providing a bit of cover.

Could you create a covered section to link the 2 rock formations together while they are growing in?

The hunter-predator puffs are well protected- you must have noticed the iridescence of their eyes/corneas - that serves as their 'sunglasses'. But sudden changes in light intensity are likely to cause them some uncertainty or fear. Like any other radical tank change, there will be an adjustment period. If you can stagger the "on" time starts, it will help, as will shortening the day length initially. After a week, you can slowly increase the "on time" of the lights to the full interval the macros and zoes you wanted.

If you have separate ballasts and plugs, it really is best to have staggered start and stop times for the lighting. Sunrise and sunset in the tropics are faster than in the temperate zones, but it is not ever as sudden as a tank's lights all going on at once, especially under water. All on my tanks which have multiple ballasts also have staggered start times. There is less stress for the fish that way, and it does allow the photosynthetic critters to ramp up and down more naturally.

HTH

I don't have any direct links. Only experience with some FW hunter predators.

Here's the theory:
many hunter - predator fish come out at dusk and dawn. This provides the most shaded areas for which they patrol. Ridges, rocks, hardscapes, and densely planted areas are typically hiding areas during daylight times and night times. During day light, they are hidden from larger predatory animals such as birds. During night they are sheltered from nocturnal predators. It is those key dusk and dawn periods when they are most active.

NOW... this doesn't apply to all fish. It is just a theory that I know works for some fish.

What is the behavior with the room lights on, but the tank lights off?

What is the behavior with only moon lights (if you have them)?

We know what the behavior is when all lights are on

RTR - so you have multiple levels of light that come on at different times? so like a dim light coming on at a certain time, and another level of light that comes on to brighten the tank even further? i would love to see like an album of any past/present setups or present ones like described above in person since were both on the east coast of the US

On my reef tank, the actinics are on 9am-11pm & the daylights are on 11am-9pm. As soon as all the lights are off, the moonlights go on.

yeah i have seen those style set ups, maybe im taking RTR's post wrong but from what it sounded like the staggered start times would be different intensities of light. that would be really neat, especially if you could do a slow raise in brightness/darkness to effectively (as natural as possible) immitate the sun's slow raising/setting

Most of my tanks have two or more tubes, and most of those have a single tube coming on at "dawn" (or tank light "on" time). If there are only two tubes, the second will comes on 1-2 hours later. Then the first on will go off an hour or two before the second one does. The schoolers and predator tanks generally get only one hour between on times. Certain catfish get the two hour difference. That is because they, like certain predators which J_P mentioned are really crepuscular in nature -in the wild they are dawn and dusk active, resting in darkness and in full light. One end of their cycle or the other is when they are fed in my tanks, as that is more natural to them.

Some of my predatoir tank have been single-tube lighted in the past. Those genertall have been either in the tank roon and have lighting only during the period when the majority of the tanks are fully lighted, and get a shorted day - their tank light is one only during the time that ywo or more lights are on in most of the tanks. If those are out in house, they get a white moon-light on during the dawn & dusk times, lapping over the single-tube on time at both ends.

I have to admit that I hate waking up to bright light myself, and see no reason to "abuse" my fish with such suddenly (anthropomorphism on my part I know). But underwater in the tropics the light does no come in and go out full-force at dawn and dusk either.

I have no clue as to how important or trivial that is, but it is relatively easy for me to do do, so I do it. If it looks like an improvement to me, and it is relatively easily done, it likely is standard in my tanks. Multiple filters, multiple lights, multi-tank linked setups etc., are all things which I considered "improvements" in some situation or another and all have become pretty standard for my tank operations. My fish certainly do not complain. They continue living long and/or breeding well for me. That is my bottom line.