GSP puffer questions

[Electrobes]

Hey all.. i was ondering what do the LFS feed Green Spotted Puffers while staying at the LFS? I wanna make sure my GSP that I get will actually eat snails and shrimp unlike my last one of a long time ago. Thanks!

[Madame_X]

My LFS feeds the puffers brine shrimp and frozen blood worms.

My little guy loves freeze dried blood worms and krill. I give him snails and live ghost shrimp so he has something to hunt. Keeps his interest up.

I've heard that its difficult to get some puffers to eat, but I didn't have that problem. Mine has been a voracious eater since I got him.

[loganj]

Mine too...I think he'd share pizza and beer with me if I'd let him. He eats mostly shrimp, but I feed him the occasional snail too.

[Electrobes]

live shrimp??

[cdawson]

Ghost shrimp,
BTW GSPs are brackish and require near marine salinity in order to stay healthy. They will not last long in just freshwater.

[loganj]

I give mine mostly freeze dried shrimp and occasionally toss in a few ghost shrimp. I have some snails in my 55 FW that are breeding like rats...he gets the overflow from that population as well. The staple diet is the freeze dried stuff though.

[PrettyFishies]

I have a figure 8 that would eat ME if he got the chance... Trust me, they'll eat something... Brine always starts em off...

[Electrobes]

Okay I am pretty much done desgning the environment of my tank.. very large piece of driftwood, medium size natural gravel, two rocku white flower pot halves (don't really look like flower pots though... which is why I picked these), Jave ferns on the driftwood... what I wonder though is that should I get anything that would keep the pH high (some rock or something).. and if so what should I get?

[loganj]

Bear in mind that the GSP is not a FW fish. They need at least brackish water to do well as adults. Mine is in full SW (35ppt salinity) with my morays. They will have less problems with disease and will live longer in salt water. Is it possible to keep them in FW? Yes...for a while, but they won't do well and are VERY susceptible to ich.

[Sati]

All you puffer people need to have photos of them in your gallery!! I want a puffer or two badly :]

[cdawson]

Commenting on the GSP in FW, they do go from fw to SW throughout their lives. So having them in FW for the first 2-3 months (if they're under 2") is possible if you don't feel comfortable in your abilities at first. However, keeping puffers when you're not very experienced in the hobby is not a good idea in general.

[loganj]

If I had read the post more carefully, I guess I would have seen your post about keeping the GSP in SW...sorry Anyway, I agree with you on that.

[madasafish]

Re: Sati.

Now I've got some puffers! Check out my gallery (if the pics have been approved) and my new post!!

[Electrobes]

heh I have had a puffer before, and yes it is a brackish tank, what made you think i was referring to a FW tank?? :P

[Electrobes]

Hey everyone, for those of you who have/had puffers similiar to a GSP (aka like a figure eight) is sand as a substrate really THAT prefereable.. and how much of a pain is it to stir up (to knock out gas pockets) and clean compared to regulae gravel?
Also what exactly is "fine" gravel? Is it smooth edged rock (so it doesn't scrape the bellies of fish when they lay on it? thanks!

[cdawson]

They sometimes bury themselves in the sand to sleep (my SA puffer used to do it all the time in the silica sand I used to have in my older tank). Sand looks much nicer in a brackish tank, but crushed coral looks even better and must be present in a brackish tank to some degree. If you play on going with marine conditions eventually crushed coral also looks better with live rock.

[Electrobes]

wow I didn;t even take into consideration of crushed coral.. I am not exactly sure what it is or what it looks like... but I take it it does hav a part in helping raise the pH or soemthing? Also is it smooth so it doesn't harm the puffer is they choose to go laying, digging, or sleeping within it? thanks!

[loganj]

Originally Posted by Electrobes

Okay I am pretty much done desgning the environment of my tank.. very large piece of driftwood, medium size natural gravel, two rocku white flower pot halves (don't really look like flower pots though... which is why I picked these), Jave ferns on the driftwood... what I wonder though is that should I get anything that would keep the pH high (some rock or something).. and if so what should I get?

I think it was the mention of the driftwood and the java ferns that got us to wondering about the tank being FW.
My puffer tank has about 40lbs of LR and a 4" sandbed using sugar sized aragonite. There are a couple of caves in the LR that the GSP likes to hang out in. I have an old Fluval canister running on it...no media except for the occasional application of AC. There is also a Seaclone skimmer...planning to replace that with something better though...probably an Aqua C.

[Sati]

Originally Posted by Electrobes

two rocku white flower pot halves (don't really look like flower pots though... which is why I picked these)

What are those? I have never heard of them.

[Electrobes]

hehe they are flower pots in lowes, but they were the orange ordinary kind.. imagine a cement pot that had almost like barnacles growing on them which also look like rock... so you cut them in half and voila... caves that look natural