The Puffer Forum

Right now I have a 30 gallon set up for my future GSP. Eventually, once I get him acclimated to marine conditions I was thinking of setting up a 55 and adding a clownfish or two. I heard that tomato clowns are the best? I'm partial to the common ocellaris clowns but I like tomato clowns too. I was wondering, can you add bubbletip anemone when you have a GSP? I was also wondering if there is anything in liverock that can hurt puffers or clownfish? Is there anything else that you can add to the tank invertebrate-wise? Urchins? Do any clean-up crews stand a chance?

Not in a 30 gallon tank. That is IMHO & IME 'way too small. A pair of Tomato clown will do best in a 75 alone. They are very feisty fish and highly territorial. They need the larger tank if you want to keep an anemone with them. Otherwise they could live in a 55, but I do not do clowns without anemones. Two or more clowns of the same species will always form a pair if started together young. The dominant fish becomes female, the second and others remain male. The oellaris and/or percula clowns remain smaller, but are still very feisty fish at maturity. I don't like them with other fish. They may appear cute and cuddly, but they still have very sharp teeth and use them freely.

If you go FOWLR (the most practical set-up technique), I'd use a 50 or 55 for a GSP alone.
Or if I wanted to keep the 30, I'd use a second 30 for the LR and skimmer.

But I am a very conservative fish-keeper.

FWIW, YMMV.

Oh, I agree that a 30 is way too small to add anything else lol I meant when I get a larger tank. I didn't know the clownfish would breed, thank you for the information. =) I am definitely going FOWLR when I get up to marine conditions for my puffer. Is there any risk of the puffer over-eating or getting injured by anything in the liverock after it is cured? I was wondering if they could pick off enough little inverts to be dangerous. Thank you!

If you have deep substrates (a.k.a. DSB, deep sand beds) you might get some very large bristle worms which are undesirable, or in any tank some undesirable small anemones, but those can be cleared with some tedious work. The biggest hazard to FOWLR to me is that the LR can eat so much space that the actual water volume remaining is too small for the fish. Gsps are not small fish - they need space and water volume for normal exercise. Because of Fahakas and T.mb being larger, we think of them as medium-sized puffers, but to me they really need large tanks. They are high-mass fish and deserve room. Then they show more normal big-fish activity. I have seen too many fish in tanks where they can hardly move or turn around - I can't stand that. It is cruelty to animals in my mind.

You are so helpful RTR, I appreciate everything. I don't like seeing fish in too small tanks either. It's really sad.

Many hobbyists do not realize how quickly fish such as GSPs can grow. The hobbyist intends to scale up in size "as needed" but then reality and investment cost in new equipment slows the up-grade. I gave up "moving up" in tank size long ago. If I cannot move from the QT tank to the fish's permanent home, I don't buy the fish. It saves a lot of time and effort and minimizes the total cost IME. It also saves me a lot of work, and I am quite lazy.

RTR wrote:Many hobbyists do not realize how quickly fish such as GSPs can grow. The hobbyist intends to scale up in size "as needed" but then reality and investment cost in new equipment slows the up-grade. I gave up "moving up" in tank size long ago. If I cannot move from the QT tank to the fish's permanent home, I don't buy the fish. It saves a lot of time and effort and minimizes the total cost IME. It also saves me a lot of work, and I am quite lazy.

Do you use live rock/sand in any of your puffer tanks, RTR?

RTR isn't on here anymore, unless I message him to respond to a special question. He just can't see well enough to scan all the posts.