henward Posted October 16, 2007 Report Share Posted October 16, 2007 I am obtaining a beautiful green spot puffer., the person has trained it into adulthood to freshwater. I have read that they do best and been told they do best in full salt or brackish when adults. It has been in fresh for more than a year, its about 2 years old. i would like to make it brackish or full salt. 1: is this a good idea? 2; how do i do it? 3: will it make the animal reach its bigger potential, its currently 2.5 inches but they can grow up to 5 or 6 inches in the wild. i dont have much salt water experience you see:) but want to know if there is benefit on re training it for brackish or saltwater as an adult...... let me know how thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaNs Posted October 16, 2007 Report Share Posted October 16, 2007 Slowly bring up the salinity in its tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbob Posted October 16, 2007 Report Share Posted October 16, 2007 Hi Henward, congrats on getting a green spotted puffer, they are cool fish. i got 2 about a month ago, a little bigger than your one. Yes, your green spotted puffers should be in brackish water, and should NOT be kept in fresh water, this will definitely slow down their development and make them generally less happy... (dont need to be full salt yet, when they are around the 4 inch mark you should consider putting them into full salt, but dont have to as such...) a great article on them is here: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/an-introduction-to-green-spotted-puffers/ at the size yours are you should probably have a salinity of around 1.010 to 1.015 (mine are sitting at 1.014 at the mo) do not instantly bring the salinity in your tank to this level but raise it by about .002 every week. To do this you just need to do a few calculations based on the dosing level on the back of the pack of salt you buy. if you need a hand with this then just reply and ill get back to ya. Another point, you should use the proper red sea or instant ocean salt mixes the marine people use, NOT standard "sea salt" or such from the supermarket. this stuff is expensive though, cost me about $70 for 10kg of it (treats 300l to full marine) so in the interests of cheapness 1.010 would be a good salinity, then the 10kg bag will treat approx 630 litres. im far from an expert but did a fair bit of reading when i first got my 2. good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted October 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2007 wahts your opionion it has been in freshwater for at least a year. will this be an issue? if i put it back slowly to brackish - has this stunted its growth forever? or will it recover from that and grow more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbob Posted October 16, 2007 Report Share Posted October 16, 2007 I dont know from experience, but id say it will be absolutely fine gsps are born in fresh water lakes, so they are in fresh water for a while, then they gradually migrate through the river and estuary and into the sea as adults. returning to freshwater only to spawn. my 2 cents is that it will be completely fine, but will definitely grow faster, be healthier and live longer if you acclimate it to a salinity around 1.010 now, and as it grows gradually raise the salinity to near full salt water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbob Posted October 17, 2007 Report Share Posted October 17, 2007 also re growth time the author of that article said in an faq it generally took about 2 years for a gsp to get from 2 inches to full grown. I would not worry about the fish being stunted, brackish fish are generally very tolerant of changing salinities etc, due to swimming around in estuaries, but it will be healthier, and grow faster in the brackish water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted October 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2007 fantastic! sounds great looking forward to getting them ramshorn snails are ok to feed them? these things are tiny and they can easily chew through that. cos i read that they need to be fed shelled things i currently have a pig nose pufer. i feed ti shelled prawns regularly, i see its mouth open and the beak doesnt seem to be over growing. if i feed GSP regularly with shelled shrimp, does thsi help or does it have to be something extremely hard like snail shells or mussels shell type things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbob Posted October 17, 2007 Report Share Posted October 17, 2007 yeah, ramshorns should be fine. i need to go and get some more snails for my 2 as i fed them all my stash... my guys have been getting shelled prawns, mussels and snails so far... let me know what success you have in feeding other foods as i want to try them on new foods too yes, i think the hard food thing applies to all puffers (well all the ones ive looked at anyway, which isnt really that many ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snookie Posted October 17, 2007 Report Share Posted October 17, 2007 try earthworms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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