Green spotted puffer in saltwater?

[cjdkfd88]

O.K. pufferetc.., I have my Green spots in a salinity of 1.019. And I bought them in fresh. I brought them home, had him in 1.006 for one evening. The next evening I moved it to 1.008 and then I put some of the full salt water in with him and let him sit for about 2 hrs. Then put him in full salt. But he was in full fresh when I bought him. And the guy I bought him from has been in business for 20 yrs and said this was what he does.

 

[pufferlover]

Hey sometimes it works but I would have gone a bit slower. Funny this came up because yesterday I was at my lfs and the owner was telling me he has problems again with his salt tanks, so of course I said what problems. He has lately decided to put all new fish in special tanks at .1009 to rid them of any pests and I suppose that is good but where he has let it break down is that when they have spent their time in those tanks he drips them right into his .1021 tanks. He said he had found a few fish dead that morning and some that were sick and he was dripping them back to .1009 to put them back in the lower salinity tanks. I looked in the bucket and recognized that these were the fish I had seen in the .1009 tanks last week. I asked him (we are sort of buddies after a lot of years and money from me) were the dead fish from the .1009 tanks and when did he move them and he said yes and he moved them the day before (now a light bulb should have come in for him but it didn't). I very nicely pointed out didn't he think moving them up that many points that fast might stress out some of the fish and cause the problem (the bulb then went on I could see). He is now going to reserve a couple of tanks and set them a few points higher as a transition stage before the final drip in to his full salt tanks. Moral here is with some fish you get lucky but others can't tolerate that fast a move. Green Puffers tho do move back in forth in nature altho at their own pace so that is probably why it worked out for you. If you have noticed the posts by Trey and others about hypo salinity for disease control you may remember he said lowering fast is OK but going up should be more controlled (hope I quoted it right).
Anyway enjoy your Puff they will become one of your favorites thats for sure.

 

[egg]

Well my "look but don't touch" technique seems to be working. The other fish have lost interest in the "puffer in the bubble". I'll let him go tommorrow I think.
I tried him in the tank for a little bit, and he wasn't attacked, but was bothered slighty... tommorrow i think....

 

[pufferlover]

Sounds good and I would make sure I have a spot for it to hide (again pvc cheap and works well) till it figures out its new home. Good luck.

 

[puppy]

hmmph. i have a small green spotted puffer in full salt water, do you think he will be okin my 50 gallon with my humu humu trigger? so he can have growing space..

 

[pufferlover]

As long as Trigger is not a lot bigger it may work for a while but if you put it in and the Trigger goes for it then it will not work (sometimes you just have to try and see re action. The idea of putting it in a small critter plastic piece for a bit and with the top on you can let it settle to bottom of tank and see what happens. Mt lfs does this with his very small new arrivals and they seem to do fine that way for a few days, of course you have to see that you get food to the fish during that period of time.

 

[fishinchick]

Hey!! I have two spotted green puffers. Puffy and spotty (the kids named them). Originally purchased as fresh water I was told that they dont live very long that way. SO with a little research on the internet I was able to locate the SG for them. They like a slightly higher ph - like a chiclid (spelling?).
I brought my tank up to brackish, I believe it was like 1.018. I can look it up if you are interested. This took about 1 1/2 months so I wouldnt shock the little buggers.
I have had them for 2 years, and eventually brought them up to 1.024 which ended up being a good thing because their tank cracked and I had to add them to my reef tank. Boy that made me worry!! But they got along in there just fine, they stared at everything!!
I have to add this - funny story here....
My larger puffer likes to swim in circles around this plastic starfish one of the kids stuck to the wall of their tank (tank safe deco). Its his game, or something. Well in my reef tank I have a similar looking fish - choclate chip starfish. He started circling this critter and that poor puffer was clearly confused at how it started moving. He now stares at that plastic starfish int he tank and bumps it a little trying to get it to move. He hee hee.
BTW green spotted puffers go absolutely STUPID for live brine shrimp!! They love the freeze dry stuff too, avoid blood worms they HATE them. Ick, me too.
Good luck!
If you want any of the resource information I was able to find give me an email and I would love to chat about my silly little puffers!
fishinchick69@yahoo.com

 

[egg]

Just to update: I've finally got my green spotted puffer into he tank, and it going great! (his name is melon, cuz hes round) The clown like to bother him if he strays into the clowns favorite hangouts, however other than that he is unmolested now. At times he hangs at the top of the tank, but gets bolder each day, and eats well.
Yeah, they really do like brine shrimp, however I've found that mine likes sinking "Shrimp Pellets" even better. He chases those things all over the place, taking big ones from my fingers and chomping it down to nothing.
As for the change from fresh to salt, hes doing awesome. I think 1.5 months is excessive for the change. Mine was fully fresh, and I changed him to fully salty in about 3 hours. He was fine throughout the procedure and is great now. I don't have many tanks, and couldn't justify setting one up for a few weeks to change a $5.00 fish to salt. but a gallon bucket for a few hours works great.

 

[pufferlover]

You know all these posts on this subject got me to feeling sad I had given my 2 pairs of spotted away to make room for other fish. When I was at lfs Thursday night helping a friend pick out a new fish (bluehead wrasse) I saw my guy got about 10 or 12 little itty bitty (I mean small figure 8 puffers and he has them full salt). Decided I am going to pick up 4 of them and see how they do in one of my 20's by themselves (they are way to small to be with any other fish). Now see what you people cuased me to do. These are the smallest I have ever seen maybe at best a quarter inch long just adorable. In case you wonder a figure 8 and a spotted are pretty much the same the figure 8 has a bigger area of black on its back versus the spotted effect on the green.

 

[fishinchick]

Good we are glad to addict you further. I think the spotted puffers have too much personality to be ignored. Aside from the fact that they seem to have less advwerse side effects - more so than the rest of the "puffer clan".
I sure adore my little guys! When I get that 180 up I was considering putting them in there, I think they would love it. They dont seem to mess with corals, anenomes, or polyps. They even leave the cleaner shrimp and the peppermint shrimps alone (a concern of mine - but no9 longer).
Good luck with your new aquisitions!!!

 

[egg]

I didn't think my guy would be the type to bother a shrimp, but now I know, I think I'll buy a shrimp!!
I love holding shrimp pellets in the water and watch him alternating between eating the pellet and trying to eat my finger, hehehehehe

 

[oceanblue]

awwwww geeez, like puffer I had a couple 8 spots and were some of my fav fish ever!! now you guys wanna make me get some!! ok you can stop now really! lol good luck to all, they're great fish!! Dave