Preparing for a GSP

[OrandaMan]

You know what? How big is he?

Guys, if I took him, would I want to directly put him in brackish or should I start fresh and slowly increase salinity? Based on the answer about size, what size tank could I get away with until I get something bigger? (I think GSPs need a 30 gallon, right?)

[cichlidchic]

15 gallons per fish minimum. only one to a tank. i made the mistake of putting one of these in with my south american cichlids, and would you believe he killed a 7" oscar? yea they are little devils. gave him to our school nurse and she thinks hes a doll. has him in a private 10 gallon (hes' only an inch long,) and plans to give him a 20 to himself. she thinks he's darlin...little demons...

[daviesri]

A GSP gets to be about he size of an avocado when fully grown and they say a 30 gallon is a good size for them. I will say that puffers are little demons with other fish but are the closest thing you can get to a dog that live in a closed environment filled with water. They have a great deal of personality.

[OrandaMan]

Yeah, I wouldn't keep him with another fish. I have a fifteen gallon - had plans for it, but they can wait.

So I just need to get it cycled and then I'll take him. The cycling shouldn't take long because I have a lot of things to add from other tanks (including filter media).

So... since he's been living in freshwater, should I start with fresh and slowly increase the salinity?

[Mzungu]

So... since he's been living in freshwater, should I start with fresh and slowly increase the salinity?

Yup! That's the best way to do it. :)

[imagirlgeek]

I had put this in another thread about GSPs, but figured it might be good for this thread too.

Okay, I just whipped out my trusty Puffer Reference Manual so I could backup the whole brackish vs. freshwater issue. Here's the deal.

I always wondered why some LFS sell GSPs as FW, when everywhere you read they are labeled as BW or even Marine. It boils down to this...brackish water puffers can be kept in freshwater, BUT any deterioration in water quality will clobber them quick. You won't even notice that there is a problem with the water quality (ie - ammonia, nitrite, nitrate), but your puffer will get listless and even die. With GSPs, you are taking a risk with freshwater because they are collected in so many different areas and you don't know if yours was brought in from a FW collection point, a BW collection point, or a SW collection point. So if your GSP has lived a long time in freshwater in the wild, he's going to do just fine in your FW aquarium. But if he was collected from a BW collection point, your freshwater tank might just make him sick or weak and his lifespan is cut down considerably. And if he was collected from a SW collection point, he's going to go belly up in freshwater in no time at all, but might be okay in BW.

My trusty puffer reference book says that a week is a good acclimation timeframe for bringing your FW to BW. Just add a little saltwater each day to bring up to the desired salinity.

[OrandaMan]

You guys rock. Thanks.

Now what about plants in a brackish environment? I know for sure that saltwater is no good (why do I never see seaweed in anyone's saltwater tanks?), but are there plants that I can use to help eat up the nitrates? Also, how will the change from freshwater to brackish affect the bacteria in the tank?

I suppose I should post these questions in another forum, eh?

[imagirlgeek]

I'll move these posts to a new thread in the Puffer forum. :)

[imagirlgeek]

But to answer your question about plants, yes, there are some plants that can take a BW environment. Mzungu is probably the one to give more detail on this than me.

And slowly moving from FW to BW won't hurt your bacteria.

[OrandaMan]

Thank you so much, girlgeek. I will always maintain that geeks rock. Myself included, of course.

[imagirlgeek]

Hey! I didn't know you were a fellow geek!

So, I also found this. I can't say this info comes from experience, but here it is anyway.

"Green Spotted Puffers prefer saltier conditions with around 3-5 tablespoons of marine salt per gallon of water, or a specific gravity of 1.010-1.020."

I'm not trying to assume you don't know this stuff, just thinking through all the questions I might have if I were adopting a GSP.

[madugo]

i think some anubias can take brackish water...
i dont know if they will eventually die in the long term tho...

[Mzungu]

There are a lot of plants that can tolerate salt, but not many can live in a truly brackish environment. :(

There's always widgeon grass, which is a true vascular plant that lives in brackish water, not just salty fresh water. But it's not the easiest to keep. Once you get into the brackish/SW grasses, you definitely need a setup geared to their needs. (Nutrient-rich, age substrate, flow, high lighting, etc.) I read a lot about these plants a couple years ago.

I'll go look for a link that I found in the past that was pretty good in the way of explaining which plants can do well in salty FW and brackish water...I'll be back. :)

[Mzungu]

Low-salinity brackish plants:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/bracplants.htm

Higher-salinity brackish plants:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/brpltsnealeart.htm

[OrandaMan]

I definitely appreciate it. I've read quite a bit about them and I know, for instance, they need a higher salinity than figure eights. But I do appreciate any advice and saying 3-5 tablespoons is much easier to understand than what I've read at a lot of sites, lol.

By the way, don't know if you're a Linux geek, but if you are here's a little geek humor:

If you log in to the c shell, you can do the following:

/home/username> make fire
make: *** No rule to make target `fire'. Stop.
/home/username> why?
why?: No match.