The Puffer Forum

Hello! I have had a Green Spotted Puffer fish for almost 3 years now, and I am planning a new home for him. He is a little over 2 inches long, and is very active. His temperament is on the rather aggressive side. He will be moving into a 29 high or 30 long marine tank. He has been more or less alone in his 20 gallon tank since I got him. Currently he is in high end brackish, but I will be acclimating him to full marine prior to moving him into his new tank. I would like to create a stimulating environment for him that is also interesting to me. I plan on having a 2 bulb t5 fixture and live rock. What kind of coral or macro algae has anyone had success keeping with a GSP? I'm worried he would pretty much destroy anything in the tank. Also, I'm trying to decide between a sand or mud bottom. I've had some experience with sand in my reef tank but would mud be better for macro algae and/or the puffer? I imagine he would also need some sort of clean up crew. What has anyone had success with in that area?

May I suggest a 55g for him instead? Why mud? Stick with softies, like leathers & xenia.

Agreed with PP you should do a 55 gives you more room to create a stimulating environment while still having plenty of water volume.

Why do you have that big, ugly sponge filter in there?

The ever discreet pp XD

Thanks for the replies! To answer a couple of questions: I'd love to put him in a 55, but unfortunately I am in a 600 sq. ft. apartment and I am already pushing my space limitations by having multiple tanks going. I am, however, looking into different, larger, tanks that I would be able to fit. I mentioned a mud bottom only because I was taking a guess at mud giving me more options with macro algae and/or mangroves. I'd like his environment to be almost entirely natural. I've pretty much ruled out any tank mates, but what about any sort of clean up crew? Is that possible with these guys? I understand any invertebrate would eventually become puffer food, but is anything worth a shot? I was thinking he wouldn't be able to able to kill large turbo snails but I have tried things like this in this hobby before, only to realize it was a horrible, horrible idea. Thanks again for the input!

I would recommend a larger tank as well. As far as cuc, macro, and coral every puffer is different. I have several hermits, turbos, nerites, emerald crab that have been able to stay off the menu. Along with alot of softies, a fair amount of lps , and a couple sps. As long as you go into it knowing anything you put in the tank is possible food you cant really be disappointed it is after all your puffers home first.

I'm taking measurements so that I can set him up with the best tank possible. Welch4, it's good to hear that you've had some success with some inverts. I was hoping that was the case. I'm planning to create a lot of nooks and crannies in the rock work so hopefully that will help with invert survivability. I'm looking forward to experimenting with corals and macro to see what could work. Thanks again everyone for the ideas!

Just to clarify, i do not say that what i have done is recommened, nor is it a success story. All of the inverts and corals have slowly been added over the past year. With the life spans of our beloved wet friends the scenario is very new. I still plan on finding all of them devoured with a happy blimp hovering around the tank. All situations are different just be ok with full loss due to puffering. : )

Welch4 wrote:I still plan on finding all of them devoured with a happy blimp hovering around the tank. All situations are different just be ok with full loss due to puffering. : )

Love that line! XD yeah, I'm trying to remind myself everything is a risk that goes into either of my sw tanks... Either olive will eat/pick on things or Roger will wreek havoc on my corals or snails... I know only to get very big trochus snails for his tank -.-

Haha yeah, I'm optimistic that he will allow some sort of coral or macro in his tank, but who knows? I do know that back when he was low end brackish he allowed some freshwater plants and feeder shrimps to live for sometimes a surprisingly long time. Recently I acclimated some misbehaving blue leg hermits (suspects in multiple snail killings and the last straw - the disappearance of a pom pom crab) from my reef tank to high end brackish and banished them to the puffer tank to fend for themselves. I believe one or two are still alive in there and they will go to his new home with him. The first corals I try will probably be frags from my reef tank, so it wouldn't be quite a total loss if he didn't allow them to live in his tank. Thanks again for all the input. If there's anything I've learned in this hobby, it's that nothing is a sure thing. That being said, if everything I add fails, and I end up with only sand, live rock, and a puffer fish, well, that's fine with me. Totally preferable to the gravel and plastic plants I've got going on for him now. So for now, I will remain optimistic that although he is very aggressive, he is also incredibly lazy and I'm hoping I can use that to my advantage - or rather to the advantage of any potential additions to his tank. Thanks again!

Leathers & xenia should be fine.

Update! Pete the GSP is enjoying his new home! He now spends most of his days chewing on the sand and picking at the live rock as well as harassing clean up crew members. He's been in his new home around 3 weeks and so far hasn't shown any interest in destroying the corals in there. However, he did seem to think the pulsing xenia was witchcraft at first and still seems skeptical of it. Just wanted to share a few pics of his new home with the puffer community

LOL... witchcraft!