The Puffer Forum

I posted once before, but wanted to say hi. I'm looking to learn as much as I can about Green Spotted puffers. Looks like the best forum to do this

Looking forward to learning and sharing from you all here. I recognize some other members from another site, which is fun!

Gwen

Hello welcome to the forum : D
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask

viewtopic.php?f=68&t=28469

Welcome to the forum

puffykid wrote:Hello welcome to the forum : D
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask

I do have a question I'd like to ask you Puffykid, because I see you have one GSP in a 55 gallon. My puffer is doing well, eats well etc. I'm slowly raising my salinity, as he was in FW at the LFS. After all I read, I decided to stick with just one puffer. I'm feeling now I'd like to get another, with the idea that it would give him more "stimulation/interest". Is is okay to try it? I guess I could return the new one I bought, but they'd only take returns that same day, so I'd have to witness problems immediately. Each week with water changes (40%), I've made small changes to the tank (rearranging, adding more rock) and I still sometimes feel he's bored, as he will sometimes "glass surf", though not frequently. My water parameters are 0 ammonia 0 nitrites, and after a wc my nitrates are 0 and by the end of the week they are at 5, so my water is good. Right now my salinity is at 1.004.

Appreciate your thoughts on why you are just keeping one

Thanks all for the welcome!!

PufferMe! wrote:

puffykid wrote:Hello welcome to the forum : D
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask

I do have a question I'd like to ask you Puffykid, because I see you have one GSP in a 55 gallon. My puffer is doing well, eats well etc. I'm slowly raising my salinity, as he was in FW at the LFS. After all I read, I decided to stick with just one puffer. I'm feeling now I'd like to get another, with the idea that it would give him more "stimulation/interest". Is is okay to try it? I guess I could return the new one I bought, but they'd only take returns that same day, so I'd have to witness problems immediately. Each week with water changes (40%), I've made small changes to the tank (rearranging, adding more rock) and I still sometimes feel he's bored, as he will sometimes "glass surf", though not frequently. My water parameters are 0 ammonia 0 nitrites, and after a wc my nitrates are 0 and by the end of the week they are at 5, so my water is good. Right now my salinity is at 1.004.

Appreciate your thoughts on why you are just keeping one

Thanks all for the welcome!!

Thanks for asking a question I'll try and answer it as best as I can though if I miss anything people on this forum are really smart about puffers and can explain anything else. Puffers are intelligent fish, that require certain minimum standards in order to be happy and to grow up to their full size in gsp case its 6inches. PufferPunk who has a lot of personal experience with puffers raised 2 gsps in a 55g and eventually found them slightly stunted, and this was with 50% wc's a week and a very complex environment. (PP could you post your gsp 55g tank pic?) So although for other puffers that can be kept co-species tanks (f8's, dwarf puffers, sap etc) can be counted for ex: dwarf puffers as 5g for the first and 3g for the next gsp don't seem to be able to follow this guideline without stunting. So gsps can't be housed together without a large tank, but if you wait until you take the tank to full marine (saves you money in the long run) then you can attempt some tank mates, such as a tomato clown, or other semi aggressive quicker moving fish that you don't mind losing as gsps can be calm one day and go beserk the next. This is also based on how your gsp behaves and it's personality determine what tank mates are allowed. The final reason is more of a preference of liking really clean water as you said right now your water parameters are really good right now and you only need to do a 40% wc to achieve it, you'll probably have to up the wc's if you add in another gsp right now.

If he is only glass surfing sometimes then that is probably normal as they will just do that. Otherwise try adding in more decor, just fyi rocks displace a lot of water and so isn't the best decor cause it takes up a lot of space that allows less water to be inside the tank. Plastic plants are good or you can buy decor off of craigslist and its pretty cheap.

Welcome to the forum Gwen I was wondering when you were going to find us

Well, I love Pufferpunks' set up. Nice! How does going full marine "save money"? Seems opposite to me. And yes, "hello" Invertplanet. I love TFK but no one posts much about puffers! So, it is fine to keep him by himself for now, is what I'm hearing? I don't really mind the water changes, but I really don't want one puffer to get picked on, and I was hoping perhaps getting another would be okay. I guess I can wait, look at doing to a full marine tank in the future, and have some variety of fish to add. Full marine scares me, but I really don't know much about it, so that could be why I'm intimidated by it.

Thanks for the info all

Gwen

Oh, another thing, I really don't like fake plants. I do have java fern and java moss doing fine so far in the tank. My vals are wilting, and I've been taking them out with water changes. I have some nice "caves" for him. I won't rule out fake plants as time goes on

Gwen

Everything in that tank is fake. And that's not a "true" SW set up, as there is no live rock there. Just fake stuff & a skimmer. That is what's considered a FO (fish only) tank. I still had to do weekly 50% water changes on it, costing me 10 cups of $alt, every week.

The way to make full marine conditions cheaper then brackish is to go fish only with live rock. Live rock is a better filtration system then our hang on back filter boxes this means that you will have to do a lot fewer water changes once set up. 1 30% wc a month that can be adjusted based on your personal water parameters compared to 40-50% a week. The initial set up is what makes it so expensive, but over the life span of the fish they tend to be healthier and it is a lot cheaper for you the owner.


None of the plants in your tank can make the transition with your gsp to full marine and will have to be removed as salinity increases. Plastic plants can still look good if you get the higher end plants or otherwise go with less plastic plants and more plastic driftwood?

Thanks for that info. I guess it is possible I would go full marine someday. I need a larger tank, of course, and I'm still thinking of adding one more puffer with my cute guy