The Puffer Forum

Hey everyone,im Lee from Singapore.
Im really new to this puffer thingy and its hard to find someone that really knows about puffer in Singapore.
So i hope you guys and gals would be help me with your expertise.
I have 2 young GSP that is around an inch,theyre both in freshwater for now but im planning to change soon.
Because i know that it is ok to keep them in freshwater for now when's they are still young,but till when will it still ok?
And before i do change,what are the things that i should keep in mind when changing and how do i go about changing?
Like how much aquarium salt?should i add gradually so my GSPs wont be shock?
And what are the things required for the change?

Welcome to the forum.

What sized tank are they in?

J-P wrote:Welcome to the forum.

What sized tank are they in?

Hey J-P,thanks for the welcome.
They're in a 15gallon tank for now

It is good to move them into BW ASAP.

Pufferpunk wrote:
It is good to move them into BW ASAP.

Thanks pufferpunk By BW you mean brackish water?
Yeah thats the reason why i asking around how about doing it,i wanna make sure that i do it right.
I dont want anything to happen to my puffers

How soon can you get a 65 ~ 70 gal for them?

The reason I ask is, because once the new home is set up it makes the transition to salt much easier. In a 15 gal the transition is very difficult because it will be constantly changing due to evaporation. That is the biggest concern when dealing with salt.

In a 15 gal with 2 GSPs you're going to have a hard time anyway. That is almost daily water changes of about 10% or twice weekly of 50%. I'd personally do the daily changes and make it a routine. A bucket out and a bucket in. Nice and simple.

Once the larger tank is in place, you can raise the salt level by .002 per week up to a point, then level off and raise it again.

It is kind of a moot point right now with a tank that small.

Your shopping list:
- larger tank
- refractometer
- FW test kits
- SW test kits
- a decent salt mix
- Eventually you'll need live rock but that will be towards the end of adding the salt.

Since you're in S'pore can you contact any local fishermen there or out of Malaysia to get you some live rock for cheap (and I mean almost free cheap)?

Some of the better stuff comes out of Bali but just about any live rock will do.

Im trying to get it asap,but till then what do you reccomend?just sticking to freshwater 1st?
And when i do get my 65 gallon tank,would i need to use like double pump filter that kinda thing?

Abt the live rocks,you for real?THAT cheap?hahahaha thanks for the tip,will take note

PP said move to BW, but I don't know. I think it depends on the time frame between now and the upgrade.

BW is certainly more healthy than FW for them.

What about if he just kept it at f8 brackish level of 1.003 there wouldn't be as much salt creep remove any bubbler you have in the tank, and then he could work with salt levels where he wouldn't really have to worry about the tank going through a cycle plus the puffers would also gain the benefits of being in salt?

We know that undersized tanks stunt puffers early and long-term. I (and PP) strongly suspect that FW does the same. When you add FW and small tank size, you have double the potential for harm.

If the upgrade is to be more than 2-3 weeks away, I would move to at least 1.005 specific gravity in the current tank. If the upgrade is to be more than 30 days, I would return the fish.

Understand understood,dont worry i'll get it to BW and the right size tank real soon
anyway at where you guys are from,does the LFS store the puffers at the right conditions?
because over here they put like 10 GSP in a 1 gallon tank,and you can forget abt the rest.
and yeah,i heard if you put them in a small thank it stops them frm growing bigger.is that true?

I'm still a little lost. I just got two puffer fish and the guy at my fish store said they will be fine in just freshwater is this true? I also have them in a fluval edge is that ok???? I'm freaking out now!

What puffers are they? However I doubt 2 of any type of puffer can live in a fluval edge.

Dwarf puffers

Dwarf puffers are true freshwater fish. We recommend 5g each and not to keep 2 makes together. The filtration of an edge is unlikely to cope with the bio-load of 2 dps.