Questionable Quality Care

the older mono's get, the more salt they need.
as juvies they should be kept in low brackish to almost fresh, with the salinity generally increasing as they mature, eventually into a full marine fish,
that will only venture into fresh and brackish for food or sex.

some dude found a way to breed them by slowly decreasing the sality in a large tank of adults. so they must swim up stream to boink.


if the monos you saw are juvies, they should probably not be in that tank, but if they were big, they're probably cool.


as far as puffers go, i have no idea.

Monos are very large, very fast, and need to be in schools in a very large tank. 50 or 60 gallons is not in running.

Green spotted puffers and Ceylon puffers follow the same path as Monos - low BW when very small, moving slowly up in salinity to high BW to full SW by sexual maturity (about 1/2 adult size). Many folks use full SW for either/both because it is easier to mange with skimmers and 24/7 macroalgae refugia.. We have insufficient info to know if full SW shortens lifespan in any way. It does not appear to adversely affect health/color/activity. GSPs do hold their colors better at high BW to SW. Ceylons improve color with age, so hard to tell.

now thats tricky.
i'm breaking some rules when it comes to mono's, i only have 3. ($$$ related)

monos get real frekin big, and pretty quick. if you got one of those lil guys, in less than a year he'd be about 5 inches tall with a real mean disposition.

so these are just some basic tid bits i found about monos.

tank size should be a min of 55-60 gal. (with plans to upgrade)
you should keep them in a group of no less than 5. :huh: :huh:
they are herbavores, and need a diversified diet. b.worms, mysis, brine g.Shrimp alge, pellets, lettuce, guppies, crickets, small rrosies and golds, some aquatic plants, etc
can be (mine are ) very aggressive towars smaller and less aggressive fish.
need a specific gravity starting around 1.004 (very very young, fry) to a mid range of 1.008-1.016 in addolecence, and a full marine 1.020-1.203 when reaching maturity

but here in lies a problem. monos are a group fish, and ive found that they should be kept in a group of no less than 5. thing is you're a lucky SOB if you can find 5 at the same time, and afford it.

then have fun affording a tank set up big enough to house 5 adult mono's happily. (and if you can i hate you, you lucky prick.)

so i got three, and plan to get a 110gal full marine setup that i plan to keep them, and some other real knarly fish in as well.

you cant get two, then one, then two on different occasions. in my experience these fish are pissed.
i found one at a crappy LFS, it was in a freshwater tank too. i took the guy and acclimated him very slowly in a ten gal overnight (faster than i'm supposed too) and set him up in my 75gal brack. i got a more reliable lfs to order more, i got three, and apon their additon to the tank, the original one whent haywire and immediatly killed one. i seperated him in my breeding net for a week, and he still was an ***, but not life threatening.