[Davisjm04]

I have been asked to take in a green spotted puffer from a friend. All the compatibility information I can find deals with it in brackish water environments. I am wondering what type of potential damage it could do in a saltwater tank to snails, crabs, and shrimp in my tank. I have a sinking suspicion that this is going to be a no go, but figured I would ask. Thanks!

[Hosser]

Ive read where some brakkish fish have been succesfully acclimated to salt...however it was in a tank done over weeks and weeks ...your tank sounds already set up so Id advise against it personally. Most people dont know that all those pretty freshwater fish are more than likely brakkish fish....but are kept with great ease in strictly freshwater. If you have the room or equipment Id set up a new tank for him
IMHO

[generaltang]

I know this is an old thread, but I figured I would throw it out there. I kept brackish fish for a couple of years, scats, archers, monos, and green spotted puffers. I started with sg of 1.012, but after a couple of months I started raising it gradually to 1.018. I noticed that the colors of all fish(except the archers) became more vibrant. Scats and monos(fingerfish) eventually move out to open water as adults, I am not too sure if the gsp's do end up in the ocean. I beleive that they migrate to fresh water to spawn, but spend the majority of their lives in estuaries. Archers are only known to enter full salt water to spawn. I have often thought about acclimating a scat into my reef tank, because they are great at cleaning algae up, and shaking up detritus on the sandbed, they will also eat anything that is put in front of them and will pick a tank clean of stray food. I also love their personality, they are so much like having dogs! Everyday when I came home they would be right there to "greet" me. There was a pet store by me that kept gsp's in there reef tanks, without incident. However this was for short periods of time. Just like any fish, as they mature and get more comfortable in their environment, you will see their "bad habits" come out. Example; when I started, I had 5 peanut sized puffers that schooled together and seemed to get along very well. within a year i had to start thinning the herd b/c they started becoming territorial and a pecking order developed. The less dominant ones were swimming around with chuncks missing. As far as accclimating the brackish fish to full blown salt water, I have heard differing opinions (just like every other topic in this hobby of ours.). Some say that slower is better, because of the risk of shock. Others have said that in their natural habitat, they experince rapid(matter of hours) changes in salinity, so drip acclimating them is just fine. To sum this all up: Archers- not a good candidate for SW. Scats and Monos- will do well in FO tanks, monos need plenty of swimming room, they will get stressed with not enough swim room so the bigger the tank the better. I am curious about the scats in a reef tank, so if somebody knows something I don't please let me know. and Green spotted puffers- will do fine in a fish only tank( and I think they look much better than in fresh of slightly brackish water). I would not even think of trying them in a tank with invertabrates because.....well, because they ARE puffers. These are just my personal experiences and findings. I hope my fifteen minutes of writing may one day help somebody!

[Number_86]

I have had two GSPs in a 33 gallon tank for just over a year now. They are kept at a salinity of 1.018. This has been raised gradually throughout the year I have had them. I have read that they can be kept in full marine once they are older. But, as mentioned before I would never intend to keep them with inverts.

[Okayamapiper]

I too kept 3 gsps in saltwater for a few years. I raised sg slowly over a two week period to get them to saltwater. As mentioned, their colors became very vibrant and they grew like crazy. At every invert in the tank. Only thing they did not eat was a long spined urchin, but the undulated trigger got that. I eventually traded them at the LFS for credit on a skimmer.