The Puffer Forum

Before I begin, I apologize if these are noob questions and I understand that I should’ve done more research to begin with but at this point, I want what’s best for the fish. I just bought these two green spotted puffers for my 45gal aquarium at a fish store. I have two small koi, an indian mud moray eel, and a pleco in the tank. The guy at the fish store told me these guys were easy to take care of and they’d be just fine in my tank as long as I fed them properly and cleaned my water regularly. I noticed on day 3 that one of their bellies started to turn black and later on the other one too. When it was time to feed them, only one of them swam up to eat and then all the black on him quickly went away and his green became brighter. The other stayed near the floor. I gave him some krill by hand and he started moving around while the black simultaneously started to go away. They seem alright now but that led me to do a bunch of research on these guys since I figured the fish salesman just wanted to sell them to me and didn’t care about letting me know exactly what I needed to know. I’m now aware that these guys must live in brackish water in order to thrive and that the blackness generally means they are stressed out or something. I am now more aware of their diet and how to properly take care of them. I read in many places that these guys are often sold by fish stores in freshwater when they are babies but require BW to stay healthy as they grow older. So here’s my predicament: I really want to keep these two as I love their personalities but I can’t change my tank water to brackish because of all the other fish in there. I don’t want to return them either because I’m afraid the fish store guys will just dump them back into the freshwater tank they were in at the store and then sell them to someone else who probably won’t care as much as me. Is there any type of solution here? Besides me buying another tank? I am considering buying a second tank but that would mean me spending $150-$200 on a tank that I would assume would have to be at least a 20 gallon and then I’d need supplies, a filter, and more. If I do go that route, what should I prepare to buy? Please, if anyone can give me some good advice here, I would really appreciate it.

Hi, sure wish you ask these questions before you bought them! That size tank is only good for one adult.. GSP, so that's a size you're going to have to buy, 20 gallons won't do. See if you have a local aquarium club that can take the puffers.