I've Finally Got A Tank For Brackish Fish

[Anthony!]

Thanks for reading this. I've got a 45 Long that will hold my GSP that is now in a 10 gallon, this will be my first brackish tank, I'm so excited! I've been looking forward to this for so long . So, as any newbie would do, what sort of thing(s) could go with my GSP? I was hoping a F8 puffer, but since they grow to half the length of a gsp, I ruled that out a little (please prove me wrong there ) So,... a good couple of questions, as promised.

• What complications will I have with water changes/ any besides adding salt to the salinity of the tank?

• Will there be a diffrent kind of filter that I need to buy?

• I'd love to try for real plants for a change..... is there much besides Java moss that could work?

Thank you so much for helping me out

 

[Dave Legacy]

Honestly the GSP should be kept alone. I've kept mine with a pretty aggressive tankmate that eventually died from what I believe was stress enduced by the GSP. GSPs will need mid-high range brackish water so you're going to be looking to some seagrasses and mangroves for plants. If you go full marine then you'll be able to use all kinds of macroalgae, but avoid caulerpa because of it's evassive nature.

 

[nmonks]

Don't rule figure-8s out just yet. At 8 cm when long when fully grown, they're plenty impressive, and in a 45 gallon tank you could keep two or three specimens easily enough. They would interact with each other, which would be entertaining for you and stimulating for the fish. While keeping fish singly is often simpler from the aquarist's perspective, they haven't evolved to live a solitary life, at the very least needing to meet up for breeding purposes. So consider using the 45 galllons of space you have to create a mini-habitat with lots of rocks, plants, and wood within which the pufferfish can thrive. A single GSP in a 45 gallon is fine from an animal husbandry perspective, but for a 15 cm fish that's not a huge amount of space, and the lack of tankmates could make it rather dull after a while. Remember, pufferfish live for 10+ years, so plan ahead.

Consider the f-8s, some gobies, and maybe some fast surface and midwater swimmers like wrestling halfbeaks or glassfish. The latter work well with South American Puffers at least in my 180-litre tank, and I don't think f-8s are very different in nippiness to SAPs. Both halfbeaks and glassfish will tolerate SG 1.003 to 1.005 just fine, as will a variety of aquarium plants such as those described in the pinned topic here.

Cheers,

Neale