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Hey ya'll! I went out a got me a 29Gal tank this weekend and am wanting to set up my first brackish tank for green spotted puffer. I am new to this type or tank and puffers so any info would be great i've been reading a lot on the net but it helps to have someone to talk to! I added some marine sand on sat. night and still got some floating that im trying to take care of. Got everything set up but my filter cuz im waiting for sand to settle, whats a good hob filter for this tank and do i need two? Also what do you feed puffers?

i am not familiar with brackish, but i know people with the fresh water puffers and they feed blod worms, live snails (from an aquarium [ie ramshorm]), brine shrimp, tubifex worms, nightcrawlers, and pretty much anylive foods... but this is from someone who had a dwarf puffer not a green spotted puffer

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Yep, you'll want some type of snails in their diet to keep the beaks from growing too large. Other than that I've seen them take all sorts of frozen foods, and live foods as well, but they aren't likely to take flakes and pellets IME.

As for keeping a brackish tank, I treat it a lot like a freshwater tank with some salt in it. There's not a real precise level of salt you need in the tank, but I think the least you want in there is a teaspoon of salt per gallon. I'd aim for more than that though.

I'd probably use a penguin biowheel type filter or an aquaclear filter that has their biomedia in it.

Good luck .

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Thanks!!! I got a aquaclear are they good? I know they dont make much noise! I just started fishless cycling lastnight. should I add the salt now or wait till it's cycled? Also with the food do you mean the frozen cubes? Like i feed my cichlids? I've got some of the freeze dry krills that my cichlids cant eat less i break it up? With the worms are they alive or like dryd/froze? And now snails do you just buy a few a month and put in it's tank or do you need a little tank with them and just give once a week? Last question for now is do you need 2 filters? And in a 29gal can you put some bumble bee gobies with the puffer?

dont put anything in with the puffers as they are e to kill their tankmates.

the worms cand be frozen or live (live is better) and the snails can be kept in a jar or large tupperware and need to be fed bi-weekly. you could just kepp a few extra in the tank to keep reproduction up... but i would just buy a clear ruubermaid container and bring a handful of ramshorns home, make them and algae rock once a week and keep like plants in the tupperware container. (fyi algae rock is a large river rock in a bowl or container of water that is left on the sun to collect algae then is trasnfered to the tank as food).

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Ok thanks. Whats bout live worms how would you keep them? do most petstores have the snails?

most petstores will have snails, but if you buy live lants they will show up, just pick a few out and let them do their thing, soone enough you wil have plenty of snails (make sure you have hard water for them in their "breeding tank."

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

You'll need a hydrometer & marine salt. Way more than 1tsp/g for this fish. They are even best kept in SW as adults.
GSP Article http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/an-introduction-to-green-spotted-puffers/

Feeding Your Puffer: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

would it be better to have 2 figure 8, or one green spot?

in our 55gal we have 2green spotted puffer,,ollie and
stanley, and they have 8 dino's,, 1 regular pleco,,2 bushy
nose pleco,,,and a shrimp,,,they all get along very well,,
we feed the puffers freeze dried bloodworms by azoo,,
freeze dry shrimp or krill as you call it,,snails from the
pet store, we put in abt 6 snails and they eat 3,,save the
others for later they will find them when their hungry,,
went to grocery store bought baby clams abt size of quater.
open one drop it in they went nuts,,look like watching
parhina's eating,,ha ha,freeze clam in tupperware give one
a week,,our's is sunday treat....as for salt mix the puffer
forum is great info,,,we mix 2 table spoons sea salt from
instant ocean, clorout 40 drops,,in a 5 gal water jug,,and let sit for 5 days,,when we do 20% water change we use 5gal first and fill remainder with water,,of course we have 180gal
storage tank all pre treated for the week,,but we have 8 fish tanks,,,we are up to 2 1/2 table spoons and its been about a month and half,,I would use 1 table spoon salt for
a month then add 1/2 tablespoon each month untill you reach brackish water settings,,,well this is our experience
hope this helps and good luck...mike