The Puffer Forum

Hilly has a great sticky on these guys btw! This is my next tank/dream fish setup that won't happen till I move but want to do as much research as possible before hand. Just want to make sure these ideas will work best. My area's water is typically neutral and med-hard at most. This would be some my setup as of now:

*55G - figured this is plenty, no? Won't get too into filtration, but was thinking of a heavy duty canister, and a moderate HOB on the other side for more water circulation.
*Keep the SG ~1.005 at most. And do weekly water changes with a 12-15 gallon jug depending on what I can find.
*to help raise and buffer the pH - african cichlid sand. I like the look too. As well as maybe a little crushed coral in there, or at least in the filter(s). Also use large texas holey rock. Hopefully find a piece with a big enough hole to swim through. May have to do that manually.
*nothing special for the lighting. should I find a dimmer bulb though? Would this increase activity?
*thought of getting some java moss and anubias if it'll survive. Hoping to get a lot of vals too especially with the tall grass/seaweed look. And it can swim through it.

Thoughts?

Aragonite sand is by a wide margin the best substrate for boosting/maintaining water hardness/alkalinity. You do need to add more periodically as the substrate slowly dissolves.

A larger tank and/or larger water partials will reduce the alkalinity drop between partials and will reduce the nitrate titer. If your water source is not hard, preconditioning the make-up water helps too, but does require another tank.

HTH

Where are you gonna find one?

is it fine that the aragonite is live sand?

I was also planning on preconditioning the water in that tub a day or two before a WC. Mainly for SG, but also pH, temp, & something to increase the hardness. Would keeping a large piece of limestone/holey rock in the tub help over a 1-2 day period? If not, what would you recommend?

LS won't be live, when placed in BW. The bacteria & critters in there will die, causing a HUGE ammonia/nitrite issue.

I premix my SW in a Brute garbage can in the basement. The external pump has valves plumbed to turn for pumping to tanks upstairs. Obviously, the same can be done with BW.

remind me to ask you more about that setup later. Are these guys really that rare? As rare as cross rivers?

Haven seen a true saba or cross river before. Saba are very often confused with larger GSPs. There's a variety of GSPs with tighter and smaller spots.

I have heard that they get confused easily with GSPs, especially with one of their nicknames being the Giant Spotted Puffer (good choice). I'm assuming it's easier to tell with a more mature individual?

Probably the ONLY way to tell.

what's the earliest this would be in terms of age and size?

So far as I know, I have never seen a real one myself, in ~50 years of puffer-keeping.

so this really is more of a dream tank then...now i'm sad. Could always go back to my idea of a couple figure eights, but I want a good medium sized puffer (~6", active, not a lurker, and not an aggressive monster like a Fahaka)

Sounds like a Ceylon will fit the criteria

Or GSP.

I do like that puffer, has similarities to GSPs too, but I forgot to mention I'd rather not go SW. Any other FW or low-end brackish ones you could think of?