The Puffer Forum

I bought 4 GSP puffers and the pet shop salesperson told me that it's FW fish. All died except one after few days. Thanks for forum. I guess these puffers need BW. After replacing the tank with BW, the puffer seems to survive and I'm looking forward to get a few more but at this point of time it's better for me to make sure I got everything right first.

I noticed that the florecent green color faded from time to time especially when the little fella was resting or in-active. When it starts to swim the color comes back. Is this normal?

Live little shrimps is what it likes. No chance for the shrimps to survive. They were all eaten up within a minute but my puffer seems to get bored with shrimps after a day or two especially if there're many in the tank. Now it doesn't even want to look at them even though the fella is hungry. Is that something wrong? Should I change its diet to frozen worms?

First of all, GSPs need a varied diet. Have you read the GSP articles in the library?

Second, you mentioned looking forward to getting a few more. GSPs are somewhat demanding in their requirements, starting in low end BW and moving up to full SW as they mature. They require about 30 gallons each, can live for 10 or more years and may not be willing to share a tank with other fish or even other GSP. Are you willing and able to provide proper care for multiple GSPs?

Color change is normal. He's sleeping.

Kim

Thanks for the advice. I've one left and it occupies the entire tank. It's about 1 1/2 inch long T.Nigroviridis. If I managed to keep it for a month or two then I'll consider getting few more of the same species. Moreover, it's difficult to buy T.Nigroviridis here.

I've been to 4 or 5 fish shop but can't find any.

Sounds good. I have two GSPs and I really enjoy having them. Take time to learn all you can about them and ask lots of questions on the forum.

To be honest GSPs that size really can do well in fresh water. My two GSPs did great in freshwater and now low end brackish. They are really docile...until I come to the tank, then its fight for the front. It really upsets me when they chase each other like that, but it seems it only happens when I close to the tank looking in.

How long did you keep them in FW?

Young GSPs and F-8s and Ceylons all are acceptable in FW temporarily. Saying that they do "well" in FW without restricting it to short-term holding is IMHO poor to bad advice. They do not do "well" in FW long term.

Pufferpunk wrote:How long did you keep them in FW?

Well not long at all, just making the point that the freshwater prolly isnt the main reason they croaked. My fish were in fresh for arounf 2 weeks before i slowly added salt.

I went back to the pet shop and they told me that all GSPs came in FW and they'll keep them in FW tank. Even at the pet shop the fatality rate is 20-30%. I'm quite upset with the pet shop owner for not knowing how to keep those cute little puffs.

I'm not sure how to prepare good BW quality. So far I mix the pipe water with anti-chlorine and aquarium salt (quite a lot) and I have a bio-filter. My little fella looks happy and comfortable. The colors are bright.

However, I remember reading it somewhere preparing BW needs marine salt instead of aquarium salt. I'll get the marine salt and tester and will change the water. I hope the little fella will get use to marine salt water. A little worries though.

The other problem I'm facing is the aquarium plant don't seems to grow. Is there a difference between BW plants and FW plants?

Joshcwj wrote:I went back to the pet shop and they told me that all GSPs came in FW and they'll keep them in FW tank. Even at the pet shop the fatality rate is 20-30%. I'm quite upset with the pet shop owner for not knowing how to keep those cute little puffs.

I'm not sure how to prepare good BW quality. So far I mix the pipe water with anti-chlorine and aquarium salt (quite a lot) and I have a bio-filter. My little fella looks happy and comfortable. The colors are bright.

However, I remember reading it somewhere preparing BW needs marine salt instead of aquarium salt. I'll get the marine salt and tester and will change the water. I hope the little fella will get use to marine salt water. A little worries though.

The other problem I'm facing is the aquarium plant don't seems to grow. Is there a difference between BW plants and FW plants?

Dont blame the LFS owner blame the supplier that told them the fish were freshwater. My LFS actually kept theirs in brackish, which I thought was nice, but almost all suppliers list them as a freshwater fish.

Live plants dont' really like salt in their water, especially as high as GSP's need to go.

Aquarium salt definately does not make brackish water, you need marine salt for that. But remember to raise it very slowly, only .002 each week or less so your tank doesn't recycle.

Stores all over have a hard time with puffers. There isn't too much info about them (other than this site really), since not many people have figured out how to keep them alive long term and many people simply accepted that they live a few months and then die. Thank goodness people figured out how to keep them alive for several years and all got in one place to share the info.

Most types are not bred in captivity (dwarves are, so are a few other types but not GSP's, Figure 8's), so the ones you see in the store are almost all caught out in the wild, probably full of parasites and diseases, shipped across the world, thrown into a small tank with tons of other puffers, argue amongst themselves as they do naturally being an aggressive fish, and many succumb to something along the way, as the stress weakens their immune system so much that any little thing can kill them, rough handling, infection from a bite, ich, even the parasites that they were living with fine in the wild get an unfair advantage and take over.

It doesn't help to get mad at a store, just educate yourself about proper care and share that info in a helpful manner... its very likely they won't listen but they are much more likely to if you do it in a friendly way. I go to a local store that always scoffed at me when I'd comment on their puffers, until one day a worker grabbed me and said "okay, you know so much, tell me what to do to get them to eat! They are starving to death and won't touch any food!". Scraped some pond snails out of anohter tank, asked for some of their crickets they sell and the feast was on. After seeing that, they were much more open to suggestions and I see they've now seperated out the differnt types instead of tossing them all in one "brackish" tank and have notes on the tanks about their feeding needs. Its still not perfect but its a HUGE improvement over stores that keep all puffers in freshwater with a hint of aquarium salt and say they are "good community fish, just a little nippy".

This is my cute little fella which survives.