The Puffer Forum

has anyone ever kept one? i have one with my gsp, and a couple of bolivian rams. I would like to know your experiences keeping this fish. However for me, all it does all day is bury himself and shifts his position during the night.

Thats how sole behave in the wild... an invisible one is a happy one. Never kept one in a tank tho.

I kept a true freshwater sole, brachirus harmandi for a while, and it was one of the best fish i kept. It didn't do anything, it didn't eat while I watched. It didn't move, and it didn't pester any of the other fish. it just sat around, being a sole. It was great.

Most soles I believe, are brackish. The ones that are traded though. They can be tricky to ID though.

I have had one in my 35 gallon Figure Eight tank for about a year. He is very friendly, eats from my hands, 'flops' around when he sees I'm home (means it's dinner time!), and my rather docile Figure Eights don't pester him (so far). I'm cringing at the idea of keeping one with a GSP though; it's risky enough to keep one with rather docile Figure Eights and GSPs are notorious for being aggressive and nippy. With time I'm afraid he'll be sampled. Mine hides in his soft black sand most of the day, but his eyes are quite visible and vulnerable to inquisitive puffers.

The only ones I have seen for sale are all Trinectes maculatus, or 'Hog Chokers', which grow to 8" (about 7" in diameter without the tail). According to WWM can be kept in low brackish to marine. Mine is very happy and healthy in 1.005-8 SG.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebInde ... unders.htm

My only other word of caution about keeping these guys with puffers is broken snail-shells in the substrate are very sharp and can pierce their skin when they rummage around for food. My Sole was peeved at me for a few weeks after I had to capture him and remove a painful shell lodged near his eyes.

PS- I removed your other thread, multiple threads can be confusing!

Hey thanks. my only concern is feeding it. i drop krill pieces into the tank at night, but i don't know if it eats it or not. also, will it ever stop being shy? i would like to see it eat when the lights are on.

I think you might need to fit a moonlight bulb to see it come out at "night"

The krill may be too large. Mine is about 4" long and he still cannot fit krill into his mouth. I feed him bloodworms, tiny pieces of squid, mysis shrimp, small bits of mussel- all things that are small enough for my mollies to eat. When I put krill the tank he tries to eat it but his mouth is too small.

If you want to see him feed try to get your fish used to you feeding them at a specific time of the day. That way he'll begin to associate you with food, rather than associating 'lights-out' with food time.

okay. the only problem is everything is eaten before it hits the floor. three rams and a gsp eat everything. i'll try some squid.

Do you have another tank for the rams when you increase your SG? I'm pretty sure they will die when the GSP needs his water more brackish.

moua wrote:okay. the only problem is everything is eaten before it hits the floor. three rams and a gsp eat everything. i'll try some squid.

That is the challenge with these fish; often if they are not in a species-only tank they will require either large tank feedings or target feeding. Although some people will call these guys useful as scavengers, they create much more waste than to be useful as such because they are slow to feed. With aggressive tankmates such as your Rams and GSP it will take a lot of food before something falls to the substrate, and then you have to worry about obesity in your other fish.

And, as Nick pointed out, your GSP needs to be in brackish conditions now (1.010 SG) and marine later (1.20-24 SG). Your rams aren't going to survive so getting a different tank to separate the fish is a necessity. As for the sole, from what I have read they have been found in all waters- fresh, brackish, and marine, and do best with at least 1.005 SG, so he should be fine with the GSP aside from nipping dangers but I haven't read anything on anyone successfully keeping a FW Sole in Marine, so I can't tell you how he'll do in those conditions.

well they are all in .005 as of now. they're all doing okay. so my only sole solution is to feed it at night, and settle with a very inactive sole right?

moua wrote:well they are all in .005 as of now. they're all doing okay. so my only sole solution is to feed it at night, and settle with a very inactive sole right?

There's no such thing as an active sole. They've evolved to be as inconspicuous as possible.

Fella wrote:

moua wrote:well they are all in .005 as of now. they're all doing okay. so my only sole solution is to feed it at night, and settle with a very inactive sole right?

There's no such thing as an active sole. They've evolved to be as inconspicuous as possible.

Well, not entirely true. Mine has actually gotten used to me and associates me with food. When I walk in the room, after about 5 minutes I see him 'flopping' around the tank and popping his face out of the water (making a loud splash) trying to get my attention. Of course this is not the norm, but it means it is possible his sole may warm up to him.

moua wrote:well they are all in .005 as of now. they're all doing okay. so my only sole solution is to feed it at night, and settle with a very inactive sole right?

While the GSP seems ok now, he will need to be in full marine conditions before he reaches his full 6"+ length. He will be a huge risk with the sole, so I would seriously consider re-housing the puffer. Also, with out the aggressive puffer in the tank, the Sole may feel less threatened at come out more. Aggressive tank mates often cause the peaceful ones to starve or hide.

GSPs don't *need* full marine conditions at maturity. Sure, they do well in them, but it's the excellent water quality you get from using living rock in the tank that matters here, not the salinity. If you kept a GSP at SG 1.012 with perfect water quality as well, it'd do fine.

As far as I can tell, GSPs do not live in the sea in the wild. They are found only in freshwater and moderately brackish waters, particularly estuaries. But not in the sea. The idea they are "born" in freshwater and "grow up" in the sea is based on the mistaken assumption they are anadromous fish like salmon. They aren't; they are non-migratory fish that spend their entire lives in the lower parts of rivers.

Cheers, Neale

Mod edit- OL: deleted the double post