The Puffer Forum

My LFS sells GSP's, naturally, but unlike (spit!) WalMart they know better than to pretend like they're a freshwater animal. They have several young GSP's not over an inch in length in 50/50 brackish water. Don't know the exact salinity of their brackish water but their saltwater is 1.025, so I'm assuming they mean half freshwater and the other half .025 marine.

My question is, how fast could one of these young GSP's already in brackish be converted to full marine water?

And no, I'm NOT thinking about placing a GSP in with Camille; she would likely kill another fish that small, puffer or not. Just asking for future reference...

First, you would need a cycled tank at whatever that theoretical 50:50 mixture really is. Will they share some cycled media with you (many will not, due to potential liability issues).

If you have an existing SW biofilter, cycling a new filter should be straight-forward. Then you can drip acclimate the young GSP to full-strength marine conditions and transfer it into the newly cycled tank. Minimum stress on you and the fish.

There are pro and con discussions on putting young fish directly into full marine, but neither side of the arguments seems to have any data. The who;e issue is theoretical as far as I can see. Fish may or may not respond well under either scenario. Fish care between hobbyists is not sufficiently standardied to be able to compare from one person's experiences to another's experiences. I am neutral at this point. If I were getting a fish at 50% marine, I would take it to full SW asap.