Green spotted puffer in saltwater?

[egg]

The LFS has very cute Green Spotted Puffers, but freshwater (brackish actually). A while back I saw these fish in a fully salty marine system. Some LFSs tell me they can be salt or fresh (or brackish), while some tlel me fresh or brackish only. The internet has shown at least one person with these guys in full salt. Whats the deal? Can I put one in my salt aquarium?
Also, I have a 2" panther or maybe leopard grouper (white w/ black spots), and a fat 2.5" clown (sebae). The puffers I'm thinkg of are small, only 1" or so. Would this be OK?
Finally I have a piece of mushroom coral, is this generally compatible with said puffer?

 

[pufferlover]

Yes they can go full salt altho not real high salinity. I have kept them at .1019 and .1020 and had 2 pairs for a couple years each. They only get to about 5 inches max but I am worried what a grouper might do to the smaller ones. They are timid and like to spend their time in a corner or sitting on the bottom waiting for chow time. They are cheap to buy (around here 6 to 10 bucks). I had them both brackish then full salt and found they did better in full salt for me. I don't think they would bother mushrooms but if they get hungry who knows. I suspect you are looking at either figure 8, spotted, or Fugu Puffers as they are the most common ones I see here for sale.

 

[egg]

Great!! I think I'll try one out. Maybe I'll get one of the larger ones to discourage the grouper.
That grouper really is something else. I've had them before, and theyre always the friendliest fish in the tank. The swim to the glass when I enter the room, and the perch on the rock to watch me when I'm sitting down. Tapping on the glass "calls" him out of whatever hiding space he's in. But, you're right, friendly as he is, he has quite the appetite. He'll eat spirulina flakes happily, however once when I tried to feed my lion fish, he has 3 minnows half his length before the lion got any!!!
Thanks for your help

 

[heath]

check at your lfs to determine what salinity and ph they are in now-
don't just go dumping them in saltwater if they've been in brackish-
yes, they are used to fluctuations in salinity, in the wild they travel through estuaries to the ocean.
but they need slowly acclimated to the change-
heather

 

[pufferlover]

heath brings up a point I should have mentioned just in case you are not aware to bring them to salt from brackish if the spread is great should be done slowly (very slowly). I used to have a small 10 gallon tank that I would start them out in and every day raise them a couple of points till they were ready for the salt tank. Worked well never had one die but in time I gave them away to make room for new fish (I am so fickle about new fish and so short on room for them). Sometimes if lucky the lfs maight bring them up for you if they have time and space to do it. Always wondered why so many stores sell them brackish or even fresh, maybe cause they are smaller and not as colorful as full sized Puffs.

 

[egg]

Ya'll beat me to the punch, I was about to ask how to change them from salt. I've seen an LFS sell em "salty" once, but the vast majority sell them fresh. Thanks for your help.

 

[jacrmill]

ive seen the fish you were talkinb about, they are really cool. i was going to get one when i had a freshwater set up. but i was told they were aggressive, and i saw them chasing some little sharks around the tank. they also fought with each other. dont know if they are stupid enough to attack any fish the size of what you have but just might wanna watch for some fin nipping. also this could have been due to so many fish being in a 10 gallon tank. they probably had 5 puffers and 7 little sharks. that would make me aggressive too. good luck, and let me know. my girlfriend loves those fish.

 

[saltwatersensae]

When I had fish only I had one of these guys they are great mine had such a personality he would eat directly from my hand and he even let my cleaner shrimp clean him until he ate him (I didn't feed him for three days)

 

[pufferlover]

In answer to the above these little ones are more shy then anything else if in a proper sized tank. I kept mine in 20's by themselves since they were pairs. I did have another that I put in a community tank and it spent all its time hiding from the others till I moved it. I have a friend who bought one at my suggestion and he keeps it in a 75 mini reef with a coral beauty, blue damsel, and a dotyback (I can't recall what else if anything is in that tank) and the spotted gets along with all of them but prefers to live in the left rear corner of the tank. Just happened to be over there last week and the little one is now about 3 inches from about a inch a year ago. He paid 6 bucks for it.

 

[egg]

Well, that settles it, I want one.
Unfortunately, my LFS is out of the spotties, they only have figure 8s now which are less cute. I'll wait for them to get spotties again

 

[egg]

How bad are puffers with crusty inverts like crabs and shrimp. Will they kill any size? or will they leave ones larger than themselves alone? More or less agressive to inverts than triggers?

 

[pufferlover]

I would say they and Triggers share the same love of seafood dinners available to them for snacking purposes. I would not try a Puff with inverts considering they can crack clam and snail shells with their teeth it gives you a idea how powerful their mouths are.

 

[egg]

OK. Pufferlover, where do you get your livestock? I'm north of you, in the Libertyville/Mundelein area. There's a few stores about, nothing very elaborate. Once upon a time there was a great one called Aquascape, but it disappeared.

 

[pufferlover]

Ok egg for the info you will have to go thru my homepage and there I can help you out. They do not allow such items on the board any longer I'm afraid.

 

[cjdkfd88]

Egg, I have 2 spotted puffers in full salt. I did not acclimate them slowly, 2 days is not slow but as soon as I put them in the salt they started acting more agile. My first one is about 7 inches and very fat. I have them in a 10 gal with about 5 or 6 hermit crabs. They mess with the hermits but only playing. I feed them chunks of squid and ghost shrimp. They love snails!!

 

[pufferlover]

cjdkf,etc; What you did not tell us tho is what salt level were they at when you bought them (I assume they were in high brackish content at store?). The thing with brackish Puffs is that they (in the wild) move back and forth from semi salt to full salt. Unlike other sw fish one could drip them into full salt (would not be my way of doing it but it can be done) right off and they probably would live thru it. Also, some hobbiest keep their tanks at .1015 or 16 as opposed to others who prefer .1019 to .1023 so it depends on how many points you have to move them when you get them. I only bring this up so some members don't get the idea you can just dump them into salt and it will always work out ok. Long ago I tried that once (in my stupid days) and of course the little thing lasted a few days then poof the big sea in the sky for it.

 

[egg]

Ok i got one, fairly large, just a touch smaller than my other fish. I "salted" him as you guys said to, and he seems to be doing well, but my other fish don't like him. They peck, but not violently, they seem like theyre almost testing him (I dropped him in around the time the other get fed, oops). I speparated him in a floating quaratine thing, the other fish swim up to it a perr at him. I've noticed my current inhabitants are usual;yy quite intolerant of any new fish, they've killed several (percula clown, blue lightning goby).
What shall I do? Was putting himin at feeding time a big mistake? Will allowing them to look but not touch for a day do any good?

 

[pufferlover]

egg dear member how many times must I say that Puffers (except Dogs ) are timid things especially the small brackish variety. In your original post I did not catch the size of the clown and grouper or I would have said get a larger Puff or pass for now. When those green spots are small they are pretty shy around larger fish. Now what you have done is good maybe giving them some time to get used to it will help. Another trick I have used is make sure there is something in the tank that only the Puffer will fit into (a piece of pvc will work fine and is dirt cheap- can be just a straight piece a little larger then the Puffers body width) that way if when you release it they come after it it can get out of the way. If this does happen you may have to bite the bullet and take it back because if it is bullied it will just hang up top in a corner and waste away. I had no luck with that species in fo tanks but did well with 2 each in a little 10 or 20 gallon tank of their own. Now the other side of the coin is I have seen them at my lfs in mixed fish tanks and they seemed ok but I noticed the tanks they were in had fake plastic plants floating at the top and they would go there when bothered (I prefer the pvc to the fake plastic stuff).

 

[egg]

Hmm, oops, when you said, "I am worried what a grouper might do to the smaller ones." I figured you meant ones smaller than the grouper. This one is as long as my grouper, and certainly much wider, I thought it'd be ok.
I'll try out the PVC and let you know.

 

[pufferlover]

Ok I stand corrected. I thought you had a small Puff when you must also have a fairly small grouper (I see grouper and I think Huge). Then I think it is just a point of giving them time to sort it out. Unless some major fighting goes on hopefully they will decide they can live with each other. The PVC may be the help you need to give the Puff some place to call its own.