Brother-in-law Added A Puffer Fish To Trop Aquarium.

[fapjat]

So here is the thing, he added a green spotted puffer to the aquarium; which I have read that the fish like brackish water that requires salt in the tank periodically. My questions are...will this affect my regular trop. fish in my 100 gallon? What type of salt do I add? How much do I add, so that I will not affect everyone in the tank? And lastly, I can't get away with flake for this new guy, can I?

Thanks!

 

[paul123]

a puffer fish is a marine fish it needs to live in like fresh salt water or something along those lines.

it cannot live in your usual tropical community tank



highly suggest you do not try this as the fish will suffocate.

 

[shelaghfishface]

you say he added it to your tank.. how come you didnt stop him?? i would have been furious if anyone tampered with my tanks, you will need to return him to the lfs or re home him asap

 

[shroob]

I very much doubt it will eat flake, the best thing you could do is return it to the shop if you arn't prepared for it.

You would need to add marine salt to make a brackish tank, I don't know how this will affect your other fish as I don't know what your stocklist is.

To work out the correct amount of salt you will need a hydrometer, to measure the salinity, but if you are planning on adusting this do it gradually.

The best thing to do though, would be to return the fish ASAP. Do some reading on GSP and brackish aquariums then decide if you are willing to do whats necessary to keep the fish, oh and put a ban on your brother in law buying any more fish. Have a look on this site in the Brackish section, they got some good info there.

 

[tenohfive]

Whoa...hold your horses. The majority of commonly sold puffers are freshwater. Read this:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=168310

What sort of puffer is it?
What other fish do you have in there?

If its a normal community tank you'll need to get rid of the puffer or you'll end up with lots of corpses and very few fish. There are some fish that are compatible with some types of puffer - generally oto's and armoured catfish - but most will end up dead.



To emphasise the above:

Find out what type it is, but either way - if you've got a normal community tank it won't be compatible so speak to a fish shop to see if they'll accept it.

 

[shroob]

Whoa...hold your horses. The majority of commonly sold puffers are freshwater. Read this:

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=168310"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=168310[/URL]

What sort of puffer is it?
What other fish do you have in there?

The OP has ID'd it as GSP (pic would be useful for comformation though).

 

[tenohfive]

Sorry, just got off a night shift - didn't read it properly.

Much simpler then, rehome it - its brackish, and that won't work with the rest of your fish - unless you rehome the other fish and make it a brackish tank. You can't mix the two.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

Green spotted puffers are brackish and its not periodic salt. They like waters that are in between 1.005 and 1.015 salinity. I have never heard of any puffers taking flake food, so good luck with that. What other fish do you have in your tank? If you have any plecos, corys, tetra, or rasbora, you will upset them if you add salt. If you have a separate 10 gallon tank, you can just keep the puffer in there for a long while with the proper water. If you decide to keep it, it would be worthwhile to buy a hydrometer or a refractometer.