The Puffer Forum

Hello again everyone,

My latest post informed everyone I would be moving to California-I am there now and in the process of setting up a tank for my Gsp's who are still back in Colorado.

As noted before, I have 3 Gsp's-two in a 40 gallon and 1 in a 15. They have been growing and the two in the 40 started getting a little aggressive with each other-deff time to expand. I decided to purchase a 75 gallon here and am in the process of setting everything up. For the longest time I have had gravel-I was informed I would eventually need aragonite sand and decided to therefore go ahead and do that with this tank. Never had it before, so I rinsed it out as instructed tonight before placing it in tank. Boy! Is the tank pretty dang murky.



I realize its only been a few hours since I set this up, but I'm hoping this murkiness will go down, right? As in, soon? The bag said 24-48 hours but I can barely even see into the tank. I have filter going, and air pump. I will eventually be getting a powerhead but haven't purchased that yet. Do you think this tank will be large enough for all three of my gsp's, or should I keep the one I had isolated before in a separate tank? Or should I get dividers for this tank? What's your take on this? Already dechlorinated the water so should be good to start cycling-as long as the murkiness isnt a problem.

Besides that, as I said above, I am going to have to move my fishies out here. I have read the articles here on how to do so-not feed them for a couple days, place them into a styrofoam cooler/container to keep the heat in and have a battery operated air pump. Problem is? 3 fish. How will I keep them from not killing each other in that small of a container? Please if anyone has any thoughts on this as well, I would really appreciate it. I looked into possible overnight shipment and there is no one in my area of Colorado that I could find that would do that. I am driving back and figured this was the only way.

Okay that's a wrap on my confused babbling- Main questions I have in bullet form-That way you dont have to sift through my paragraphs:
1. Is the tank supposed to be this murky?
2. Tank size-okay for 3 gsp? Dividers? Separate tank?
3. How to move 3 gsps in a car, in a styrofoam container, without them killing each other.

Thanks again everyone!

1.The tank will clear up in a few days, new tanks with sand are always that murky, might take 2-4 days depending but that looks normal.
2. I had 2 GSPs in a 56g for a while, never had to separate them but from what I hear eventually you have to, no tank is big enough... they will kill each other... but someone with more experience can chime in. I"m not sure if dividers would work or be too stressful for the fish anyways as they can still see each other, maybe if there is a lot of cover in front of the dividers?
3. How far is the drive? Ever think of bagging them up like they do for shipping to the lfs? Then if they are in their own separate bags and in a cooler they should be ok for a while, they sometimes overnight them to our lfs. If you have a lfs nearby they might even bag them properly for you if they are nice. Some lfs even have oxygen tanks because they ship. You could bring them in as best you can bag them and they could bag them properly. I would definitely check with them first tho before you bring them in. I was told that bagging them is better than free swimming in like a bucket because in a bag the bad stuff doesn't accumulate until after you open the bag. That being said when you do get to your new place float them in the closed bag for about 20 minutes then as soon as you open the bag dump them in the tank.

Put a HOB filter on there, filled with floss (cheapest as pillow filling, at Walmart or sewing store) & keep changing it out, when it gets clogged up with the particles clouding your tank. How well did you rinse the sand?

library/puffer-care/moving-and-transpor ... and-tanks/

On some things I am a maverick. New tanks with new SW substrates I do not filter for the first 24-48 hours. They just sit and settle, no pumps running. There are no bacteria to be concerned about at this stage. They are also the first substrate particles to dissolve. That means they are readily available on an as-needed basis. Then I start pumps up and start work on the set-up and decor. Undisturbed fines settle pretty well.

FWIW.