The Puffer Forum

Hello my name is Jason, I,ve been keeping freshwater fish for about 8 years I currently have a 75 gallon, 55 gallon, 20 gallon long and 2 10 gallon tanks. I want to get into saltwater eventually and want to start a brackish tank with a GSP first.

fish i keep
Oscar named Budda,Fat sleeper goby,feather fin catfish
2 Brevis shelles from Lake Tanganyika, albino pleco, male Betta
Lake Malawi hawk fish, bristlenose pleco

I want to keep a GSP in my 20 gallon long and would like some advice on this set-up as I,ve never kept puffers before.

Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately 20g is not enough for a gsp. Minimum is 30g but more is definately recommended.

Yes I understand please check in the general advice section where I have explained this with another post.
thank you

Welcome to the group, Jason. If I was you I would go with a figure 8 puffer in the 20 gal. Low level brackish water puffer and awesome little guys. But that just me.

I am diffently leaning more towards the figure 8's. I was kinda going with the gsps because i wanted to get into full saltwater with my other tank which i was planing on putting them in eventually. But I think the figure 8's will be a better choice for me. Could I keep two long term in the 20 gallon long?

How long were you going to keep him in the 20g? The reason people are saying this may not be the best idea is that sometimes what happens is people say they will upgrade eventually and then the situation in their lives change, suddenly the gsp is stuck in the 20g many years and stunted.

I would say you would have about a year a max (correct me if I'm wrong) and the sooner the better would be best. Buy him as small as possible and keep the 50% wc's minimum on the tank though I would suggest you give him closer to 60% a week to keep the tank water cleaner and will make help him be healthier.

floridafishfan wrote:I am diffently leaning more towards the figure 8's. I was kinda going with the gsps because i wanted to get into full saltwater with my other tank which i was planing on putting them in eventually. But I think the figure 8's will be a better choice for me. Could I keep two long term in the 20 gallon long?

I would go with one Figure 8 in a 20 gal. to be on the safe side. They tend to be nippy like other puffer species.

Thank you to pufferpunk for your article on figure 8 puffers

Alright another florida puffer owner! LOL

floridafishfan wrote:Thank you to pufferpunk for your article on figure 8 puffers

Your very welcome!

Ok so heres what I have so far
20 gallon long tank
Fluval 205 cannister filter,casscade 100 internal filter(mostly for water movement), penguin 100 bio-wheel
caribsea crushed coral substrate
four smaller pecies of lace rock, large snail shell, some eel grass, and four plastic plants
lighting is a aqua ray 20 watt bulb
instant ocean salt mix, hydrometer, test kits

I hear bio-wheels are not good for brackish even low end is this true? what about a aqua tech 5-15 instead?
I like alot of filtration as all my tanks are setup that way

I have some API proper ph 8.2 could I use this?
my lfs keeps there figure 8"s in freshwater, about how long after intruducing him or her to there new home should I wait to start raising the salinty?

Please start a new thread on this in the BW Puffer forum. We're past the "welcoming" part here!