Green Spotted Puffer, Info Please?

[DMan99]

Hey everybody,

It's been a long time since i've posted on here! Today i went to one of the more further a field LFS, in stock they have the most amazing little GSP's at 3.25 Uk sterling (don't have the pound sign on here).

Just wanted to know if you all thought that was a fair price and what everybody knows about them. Adult size? Eating habits etc...

Thanks
Danny

 

[Dangerousdan]

hhj

 

[nmonks]

Danny,

The executive summary is this:

Green spotted puffers are one of two species that are difficult to tell apart, but fortunately almost identical in requirements. While hobbyists use names like "green puffer", "topaz puffer", and "Ceylon puffer" for one or other species, retailers and importers don't seem to, at least not with any consistency.

Both need brackish to marine water conditions (opinions vary, but I'd say an SG of at least 1.010), plenty of oxygen, and good filtration. They are fairly large when fully grown, around 10 to 15 cm. Behaviour is inconsistent; some specimens settle in as tolerably good community fish, while others become inveterate fin-nippers. Many specimens will be good for months, and then turn aggressive almost overnight. The sex of the specimens may have something to do with this, with males presumably being more aggressive.

Feeding is a problem. Not because they are difficult to feed as such, but because they need to be given 'shelly' foods like whole shrimp and snails. This serves two purposes. Firstly, these fish need to abrade their teeth since these grow constantly (like rodents). Secondly, these fish are programmed to 'gorge' themselves, and if given too much good-quality food (like cleaned shrimp or mealworms) the resulting production of nitrogenous waste puts a heck of a strain on the filter. In the wild they feed on what biologists call a low-grade diet, that is, a diet high in fibre of a kind, with lots of shell and bones and only some protein. On the other hand, they feed almost constantly, and so their metabolism is designed to work with a constant supply of food.

(Fish-eating puffers are different, and while they gorge when fed, they are otherwise totally lethargic.)

There's some more about puffers and some links to useful resources in the Brackish FAQ.

The price you quote sounds fair, assuming the fish are healthy. With puffers, it's always worth spending a bit more to ensure you get healthy stock that's feeding well. An ailing puffer is very difficult to help.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[DMan99]

Thanks Dan and Neale.

That link does look useful so i'll certainly be having a good read of that before any final decision.

You've pretty much answered all my questions, thanks Neale. I'm definately still interested in these puffers, there were 4 of them in the tank at the LFS. What sized tank do they need to be housed comortably if they were to be the only fish in the tank?

I've kept DP's before and loved them and saw these GSP's today for the first time around here so really wanna keep some!

Thanks again,
Danny

 

[nmonks]

They're pretty active fish, so I'd be tempted to set the minimum at around 90 cm long by 40 cm wide, and work up from that. Obviously if they are still juveniles you could get away with less for a while, but you may as well plan around what you'll need sooner or later. Almost always, these fish are kept one to a tank, and as mentioned before, adding non-puffer tankmates is a gamble.

(Side-note: if you want a community puffer, and will be going brackish, consider the dog-faced puffer. It's expensive, normally sold as a marine, but reliably tolerant of non-puffer tankmates and full of character.)

There are a couple of good puffer books out there... In the UK, Chris Ralph's little book on puffers can be picked up for under a fiver, and while it's not a perfect book, it's better than 90% of the general aquarium books out there as far as pufferfish go.

Aqualog have an even better book, but it's pricey and, to be honest, there's some stuff in it that I don't agree with. The author tends to describe certain species as "peaceful" or "community fish" which may be true for some specimens but certainly isn't true all the time. But the author is recognised as being among the most knowledgeable aquarists where puffers are concerned, and if you get into pufferfish seriously, this is a must-have book.

Titles, ISBN numbers, etc. can be found in the Brackish FAQ.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[DMan99]

Still sounding good. At the moment i have a 90x30x45 (cm) aquarium containing a Dwarf Ancistrus. There is another tank that my brother has that could conveniently take him, from what you've said this tank sounds fairly ideal at least for now. The staff at the shop seemed fairly knowledgable, the adult size they quoted was very similar to the one you did.

He did however say that they were being kept in freshwater so how do you advise is the best method to slowly raise salinity without creating brackish water, then buyin the GSP only for him to struggle with the immediate change?

Any recommendations with tank arrangements? Bogwood, sand, slate, real/ fake plants...?

Thanks for all your information so far, don't mean to keep asking questions!

Danny

 

[nmonks]

With true brackish water fish (in science-speak, euryhaline fish) such as spotted puffers, there's no particular need to take too long adapting them from one salinity to another. Since these fish are adapted to swimming between rivers and the sea, they can 'switch over' their osmoregulation systems very quickly. To give one example, recently I adapted some black mollies from a reef tank to a freshwater aquarium in about two hours with no mortalities.

However, filter bacteria don't adapt so quickly. If you have a freshwater tank running, and the the puffer is in fresh water, then put the puffer in there and up the salinity with each water change. Although there isn't much known for certain, the assumption is that the freshwater bacteria die off but are replaced with saltwater ones as the salinity increases. This happens at about the same rate as setting up a new filter from scratch, so I'd plan to change the salinity from fresh to, say, half-strength sea water over three or four weeks, at least.

In other words, don't worry about the fish, worry about the filter.

As for decor, there's lots in the Brackish FAQ about this. At the salinity you want, real plants probably aren't an option, except perhaps for mangroves. In fully marine conditions you can of course keep all sorts of macro algae. Bogwood works fine in brackish, but does tint the water (though it hardly effects pH if you keep the salinity high). Rocks are good, too, and given these are hardwater fish, you can use things like seashells as well. If you pop off to the supermarket and buy some oysters, you can use the shells to create an oyster reef. This is a very authentic habitat for puffers... I've caught wild puffers in Florida by netting them among oyster reefs, along with seeing fish such as gars, killifish, sea catfish, and snook. Use silicone to glue them together. Those big barnacle clusters work well, too and are very true to the natural habitat of these fish. I'd decorate the substrate with river sand or fine gravel, topped off with some broken seashells.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[ChrisC]

I have an 80x35x40cm aquarium, is this ok? At the moment he's still small and is in an 8gal freshwater. As far as increasing salinity goes, I think 0.02 a week is the general rule.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[nmonks]

Hi Chris,

I'd think this tank would be fine for a small spotted puffer. As and when it grew, you'd need to watch its behaviour to see if its fine in a relatively small tank like this. But puffers don't grow that fast, so you should be for a couple of years at least.

Increasing salinity by the rate you suggest sounds a good idea, but I'd advise using a nitrite test kit simultaneously so that you can monitor the situation on a daily basis. You're essentially creating a new biological filter, and need to plan accordingly.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[demonmagus]

sorry ) if its already been asked, but what would be a good tank size for a fully grown GSP?

Also, are tankmates possible?

 

[nmonks]

There are some more experienced pufferfish people in the brackish/oddball sections of this forum who'd be able to answer this better than me. But going by my personal knowledge of other puffers, I'd recommend a tank at least 90 cm long for a 10 or 12 cm GSP. A smaller specimen could doubtless get by with less, but you may as well give some thought to its adult size now rather than a year down the road.

Putting them with other fish is very dicey. Some fish behave themselves, while others are psychotic. Some are fine for months, and then suddenly attack other fish. My South American puffer is well behaved except for nipping the fins of two species of fish: white-cheeked gobies and platies. Ignores everything else, even slow moving things like bumblebees and rams. Mind you, the rams seem to be adopting a Bush-like approach to keeping the peace -- they often attack the puffer (and the catfish) on sight!

Anyway, I'd recommend asking around before deciding on what, if any, fish you can safely keep with a GSP.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[demonmagus]

I'm just wondering whether the tank length matters with puffers (like cichlids)

for example, if there was a choice between a 3ft tank with the same volume as a 2ft, would the 3ft tank be preferable?

Just wondering, thanks

 

[nmonks]

If you watch puffers in the wild, you'll see that they are very "three dimensional" in terms of swimming. They don't go from A to B directly, but swim up and across any structures along the way. This makes sense if you think about it: the animals they eat are hidden among rocks and plants, and so the puffers need to scan the entire surface of whatever they're exploring.

Watching my S.A. puffer in my aquarium shows a similar thing. Plants aren't swum by, they're explored. So rather than worry too much about absolute space in a tank, think about how much stuff you can fill their home with. Are you going to create a mass of rocks at the back? What about fake plants? Bogwood? Seashells?

I suspect that the more complex their habitat, the less bored pet puffers become, and so the less likely bad habits are to develop. My feeling is that a lot of the unpredictable traits of puffers come down to boredom, just as with dogs and cats. Puffers are, after all, among the smartest of all fish.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[demonmagus]

If you watch puffers in the wild, you'll see that they are very "three dimensional" in terms of swimming. They don't go from A to B directly, but swim up and across any structures along the way. This makes sense if you think about it: the animals they eat are hidden among rocks and plants, and so the puffers need to scan the entire surface of whatever they're exploring.

Watching my S.A. puffer in my aquarium shows a similar thing. Plants aren't swum by, they're explored. So rather than worry too much about absolute space in a tank, think about how much stuff you can fill their home with. Are you going to create a mass of rocks at the back? What about fake plants? Bogwood? Seashells?

I suspect that the more complex their habitat, the less bored pet puffers become, and so the less likely bad habits are to develop. My feeling is that a lot of the unpredictable traits of puffers come down to boredom, just as with dogs and cats. Puffers are, after all, among the smartest of all fish.

Cheers,

Neale

Thanks for the info, I shall fill the tank with everything I can find

 

[ChrisC]

Thanks neale, currently I have a very small (about 1.25") GPS in a 8 gal.

I'm going to move him in a couple of weeks to a 12 gal where he will remain for at least until the end of the year, depending on how quickly he grows, I'll probably end up buying a larger tank.

Thanks,
Chris

P.S: The tank he's in is COMPLETELY planted lol, theres hardly any swimming space lol. Before I added the extra plants, he used to swim up and down the glass dissaprovingly as if expecting more to explore!

Thanks,
Chris