tawamiami Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 went to walmart today...saw in their wall of fish a tank of around 10 green spotted puffers. is it strange of me to find this strange?...is it safe to buy?...they're around $4.00...are they shipped as brackish, then suddenly rudely shoved into fresh, (obviously the walmart tank isn't brackish) or what??? anyone else seen these in walmarts? they seemed fairly neon green, some pretty dark, all were active. Link to comment
offsprg01 Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 hey bro. i don't trust walmat tanks. they are disease ridden. but at 4 bones a pop i probably couldn't pass that up either. just QT their asses. and treat with copper. as to being rudely shoved to fresh..... they are brackish. and there are these things called tides.... and rain storms. the salinity level of brackish areas varies on a day to day basis, some thimes hourly if there is a sudden storm up river or the tides comes up quick. so they weren't hurt. brackish fish are pimp at taking abuse. i vary the salinity in my brack tanks every time i do a water change. i find that the sudcden drop or rise in salinity helps fight parasites. :x Link to comment
zzpw3x Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 Puffers are very very sensitive to copper, so I wouldn't treat them with it. Most brackish puffers are shipped in FW. Most of the puffer experts say you should increase / change the salinity no more than 0.001 points per week. I have been much more aggressive than that in my personal experience, but I am unsure of the long term affects. GSP's live a long time (15-20 yrs) so you need to treat them good. Link to comment
offsprg01 Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 sorry i did no mean to say copper. there should be a not next to the do in my prior post. i need to be more careful with my typing before i tell some on to go nuke thier tank. lol treat them with non copper meds if the show signs of disease. reef safe meds would be the best becuase they should have no copper in them. Link to comment
FateX9 Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 lol i was under the impression that we were talking about green star polyps from title my fault ive had a green spotted puffer in a fresh water tank and it did fine for a few years until i decided to go to saltwater good luck Link to comment
kirei Posted September 21, 2004 Share Posted September 21, 2004 GSP's can reach 6 inches and need 30g of space each. They are def not a nano tank fish. Not to mention I've had mine "sample" many types of corals. Also they eat every type of invert you can think of except hermit crabs. So forget about having any clean up crew. Link to comment
slaeyer Posted September 21, 2004 Share Posted September 21, 2004 Originally posted by kirei I've had mine "sample" many types of corals. Also they eat every type of invert you can think of except hermit crabs. So forget about having any clean up crew. I am to take it that you successfully acclimated your green spot puffers to full saltwater? I have a 29 Gal with 1 GSP and 2 knight gobies. I would like to acclimate them to full saltwater, to help the puffer's meals live longer than a few minutes (currently, I feed a few small snails every week, and a crab or two on occasion as well) Is this a wise move? I would assume that although the puff would eat my cleanup crew, I could have live rock and live sand in the tank. I've also been told that they will eat many types of worms, say bristle worm eradicator anyone? Just a thought I've had Link to comment
bill33 Posted September 21, 2004 Share Posted September 21, 2004 wal mart sucks done get anything Link to comment
kirei Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 Yes I have mine in a salinity of 1.025. But I'm not sure how that would help you keep their meals alive longer. Mine just seem to stuff themself silly regardless of how much food I give them lol. I've seen mine actually bite pieces of coraline off the rocks to get at the spagetti worms. I have them with about 20 hermit crabs. They can't seem to suck them out of the shells, but i would hesitate at adding anything else. Oh also you shouldn't convert to full saltwater until your GSP is at least 2.5 inches. There hasn't been any research into how keeping a smaller specimin in saltwater effects them long term Better safe then sorry. Link to comment
cartophilus Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 If you run a searh on green puffers, there is a guy who had one for several months in his ref tank. I remember the post because he was being flamed for keeping a brackish water fish in a sw tank. I think it spoke highly both of the fishes hardiness and his husbandry abilities. Link to comment
Zoffoperskof Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 While working at a walmart pet dept. over the summer, I had to count every dead fish I dipped from the tanks. Our GSP's were surprisingly hardy (maybe one dead a week) and they were there a while, as they weren't our most popular sell. They never got ick/velvet/etc. that I remember. If the tanks look healthy, and you think you can care for the fish, I say buy it. And if it does die, you can take advantage of their insane return policy (our was 90 days and no water sample). And lay off the walmart bashing. Their only weak point is the employee's have no idea what they're talking about. Their equipment is very good: a huge Marineland biowheel, UV sterilizer, carbon filtered water supply. It's tough selling hundreds of dollars worth of fish with no training whatsoever. Link to comment
kirei Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 Several months is nothing to a fish whose life span is 10-12 years. Mine were in saltwater when they were 2 inches, but i'm just saying, there's been no tests to see how this effects them. And GSP's actually will migrate into the ocean when they get larger. Link to comment
offsprg01 Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 yea kieri! yup gsp will move to full salt as they age. many brackish water fish do this. Link to comment
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