Green Puffers

[Phoenixbaby]

ok so theyre brackish, atm theyre in fresh water, and im slowly adding salt as not to kill my bacteria in the filter, and i know my plants will die off

what plants can i have?

also do they need a starve day?

 

[Bonsai_girl]

ok so theyre brackish, atm theyre in fresh water, and im slowly adding salt as not to kill my bacteria in the filter, and i know my plants will die off

what plants can i have?

also do they need a starve day?

Are you sure they're green puffers, and not a mislabel at the lfs?

What sort of salt are you adding?

They are high brackish to marine salinity fish, so I'd look for marine plants if I were you

 

[Phoenixbaby]

yes they are yellow with black spots white belly and a green patch on their heads

i know they are the higher end of brackish lol and ive got marine salt for them

also what other fish like bottom dwellers can be kept with them?

 

[Bonsai_girl]

If they're yellowy-green with black spots (and not big black patches), they're actually Green Spotted puffers (Tetraodon nigroviridis), and not Green puffers (Tetraodon fluviatilis). Your GSPs will require a minimum of 30 US gal each.

GSPs tend to become even more aggressive with age - depending on the personality of the individual puffer, it is possible (and I stress only possible) to keep them with other species, but I personally wouldn't recommend it. They can 'happily' live with other fish for a while and then one day completely decimate your tank.

If you actually do have Green puffers instead, they'll require a minimum of 40 US gals each - they're a bit less aggressive than GSPs, but if these are your first puffers I would strongly recommend you keep them to themselves.

The other thing you'll need to do is make sure your tank is heavily decorated, preferably planted as well, to break up lines of sight so territory disputes don't break out - puffers can be and are aggressive/highly aggressive with their own species as well as virtually everything else.

Occassionally you get a puffer that is very timid or laid-back and they can live with very selected fish well, but this is far from the norm and I personally wouldn't risk it.

How big your puffers are will determine how often they should be fed - how big are they and how many have you got?

 

[Phoenixbaby]

ive got 3 and they are about an inch long

the species i have get to approx 10cm, or so im told

http/whozoo.org/Intro2001/munjungs/MJS_GreenPuffer.htm

these are what i have, and this is what they were labelled up as, and the lass at the lfs who is a friend of mine gave me loadsa info on them, plus i trust what she says 110%, shes never been wrong

 

[Bonsai_girl]

Don't rely on puffer information from an lfs - it's invariably wrong....as people tend to find out when they're fish become ill. I've seen Greens being sold as 3" fish, which is laughable considering they reach around 8". GSPs reach 6.5". I've also seen many species of puffers, including T. fluviatilis and T. nigroviridis being sold as community fish, which is even more ridiculous!

If they're all around the same size, they should get on ok, but please be aware that GSPs in particular become more and more aggressive as they get older and could all happily live together for a year or more and then kill one or two of the others.

I'm sure you probably already know this, but you also need to stay on top of water parameters and water changes - all puffs are extremely sensitive to ammonia and nitrites, and they're also extremely messy fish - hence the large tank sizes needed.

If you can provide a photo I can give you the correct species.

 

[ac106]

Don't rely on puffer information from an lfs - it's invariably wrong....as people tend to find out when they're fish become ill. I've seen Greens being sold as 3" fish, which is laughable considering they reach around 8". GSPs reach 6.5". I've also seen many species of puffers, including T. fluviatilis and T. nigroviridis being sold as community fish, which is even more ridiculous!

If they're all around the same size, they should get on ok, but please be aware that GSPs in particular become more and more aggressive as they get older and could all happily live together for a year or more and then kill one or two of the others.

I'm sure you probably already know this, but you also need to stay on top of water parameters and water changes - all puffs are extremely sensitive to ammonia and nitrites, and they're also extremely messy fish - hence the large tank sizes needed.

If you can provide a photo I can give you the correct species.


Edit - those are Green Spotted puffers (T. nigroviridis), not Green puffers (T. fluviatilis ). Green puffers have large black patched on their backs and are often confused with F8s because of this. I'm sorry to say your friend has misidentified - first time for everything. By all means, ignore my advice

People would argue that Green Puffers are more aggressive then GSPs. I have found that a lot of the horror stories regarding GSPs were like 3rd hand "a friend of a friend on a board on the internet...."

It's like people who are deathly afraid of feeding trumpet snails. Has anyone ever had a puffer break its beak? And even if it did, does it happen enough to warrant hysterical posts about it?

I agree those pics are GSPs. The care of the 2 species is pretty similar so ultimately it doesn’t matter so much. Saltier as they get older, carefull with tankmates, good water parameters etc.

I have 2 GSP that started out the size of marbles and not both are 6 “. They have had a variety of tankmates since purchase.

While they are preyed upon sick or injured fish, they have been more often then not, bullied by tankmates. Right now they are in the FOWLR setup and a 3 inch clownfish pushes them around.

Maybe I got 2 puffers on valium. Maybe not.

 

[Bonsai_girl]

http/www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSum...ame=fluviatilis - T. fluviatilis, also called Green puffer, Ceylon puffer, and Topaz puffer.

http/www.fishbase.org/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=7763 - T. nigroviridis, also called Green Spotted puffer, Leopard Puffer, Spotted Green Puffer. Occasionally incorrectly as Green Puffer.

 

[Phoenixbaby]

its the 2nd pic of ur link

either way im not fussed as i will take great care of them, and if they fight badly, i will keep just one

yeah i know about the saltier water as they get older my friend at the lfs filled me in on it all

so thats why im building the salt up slowly so as the filter doesnt cycle itself again with them in

 

[Bonsai_girl]

I'm glad you're increasing salt very slowly - not just for the filter, but for your fish's sake. Increase at a rate of 0.002 per week until you hit around 1.015 SG.

How big is your tank?

As GSPs, they'll reach between 15-17cm as adults.

 

[Phoenixbaby]

theyre in a 20gallon at the moment as theyre only small, but ive just down sized all my tanks so make room for a bigger one in the alcove in my room, looking to get over 100gallon tank for em

 

[ac106]

I'm glad you're increasing salt very slowly - not just for the filter, but for your fish's sake. Increase at a rate of 0.002 per week until you hit around 1.015 SG.

How big is your tank?

As GSPs, they'll reach between 15-17cm as adults.

The fish don’t care. They are Euryhaline. You could probably dump them from fresh to seawater. You certainly can with Scats. But dripping them for an hour would be sufficient for any salinity level change.

 

[Bonsai_girl]

theyre in a 20gallon at the moment as theyre only small, but ive just down sized all my tanks so make room for a bigger one in the alcove in my room, looking to get over 100gallon tank for em

Good - the bigger, the better. Glad to see you've got a plan.



ac106 - You're more than welcome to try. Just remember euryhaline doesn't mean instantly adaptable to catastrophic salinity change.....and the osmoregulation of all Tetraodontidae is still a matter of biological research and debate. I don't doubt they'd more than likely survive, but whether they'd be comfortable or thrive is a different question. For me, just "not dying" isn't quite enough to make it a feasible experiement with a pet.

 

[Phoenixbaby]

theyre in a 20gallon at the moment as theyre only small, but ive just down sized all my tanks so make room for a bigger one in the alcove in my room, looking to get over 100gallon tank for em

Good - the bigger, the better. Glad to see you've got a plan.



ac106 - You're more than welcome to try. Just remember euryhaline doesn't mean instantly adaptable to catastrophic salinity change.....and the osmoregulation of all Tetraodontidae is still a matter of biological research and debate. I don't doubt they'd more than likely survive, but whether they'd be comfortable or thrive is a different question. For me, just "not dying" isn't quite enough to make it a feasible experiement with a pet.

i mean if they fight, and i keep one, can it live in my 20gallon happily?

indeedy i have, i do like to take good care of my fish, and a nice big tank would look awesome

 

[DarkEntity]

No not for life. For a few months yes