Acclimatising a green dwarf pupper to saltwater

[Cafe Jeff]

Hi,
I have just been given the go ahead to start my saltwater aquarium. In my 55 gallon fresh water, I have a small dwarf puffer. I would like him to be the first inhabitant of my first saltwater tank. My question comes in two parts.
1. If this little guy can be acclimatized to saltwater, how do I do it?
2. If the answer to the first question is yes. Would it be possible to just set up the saltwater tank (but without the salt) and slowly titrate the water in the sw tank over a matter of weeks. If you took your time, could you even cycle this way?
All the best. Jeff

 

[poppab02]

If you have a dwarf puffer, you cannot put them in saltwater because they are freshwater fish. IF you have a green spotted puffer (much larger than dwarf puffer) then you would be able to.

 

[Cafe Jeff]

Time to get out the fish books...
How do you tell? He indeed has green spots, but I got him at a fresh water fishstore and I have the little fellow in freshwater at the moment.
He was sold as a dwarf green puffer. However, the quite knowledable sale's person (not the owner) said that he and a coleague had checked out the source of the little puffers and were convinced that they were not dwarves but green spotted puffers. He told me this so as to warn me that he might grow and become agressive. I really have come to like the fellow and wish to give him a more appropriate home. Jeff

 

[loganj]

My GSP was less than 1" long when I got him. I kept him in FW for a couple of months until I was sure he was healthy and eating well. Then, I started increasing the salinity by adding SW back into the tank when I did water changes. It took a while to get the SG up to 1.025 that way, but the puffer is doing great. I don't even remember how long I've had him in SW now...been a long time.

 

[fireman26m]

Logan....I've got my green spotted puffer and Figure 8 puffer acclimated to sw for about a month now. I'm getting ready to change the substrate to a DSB w/LR. Are there any cleaners (snails, crabs, starfish, urchins) I can add to keep some of the algae down?

Thanks.

 

[Corty]

Wow.. my dwarf would be lost in a 55..

Dwarf Puffers end up around one inch, I think GSPs get to around five, so the size difference should tip you off.

Either way, you have a great fish on your hands.