Can I Put A South American Puffer In A Community Tank?

[kajones]

You can't read full stop can you? I said so in my original post!!!

Thanks fella and rocker, i will take both your advice on board and have a think about it. At the moment i am leaning towards having 3 sap's in a 40 gallon tank of their own.

 

[Rocker]

Thanks fella and rocker, i will take both your advice on board and have a think about it. At the moment i am leaning towards having 3 sap's in a 40 gallon tank of their own.

 

[Fella]

We all make mistakes. and i got it mixedup with a ceylon puffer. as far as the stocking goes im helping the owner sort out his tank. before he has fish that cant turn round..

It's not a goldfish bowl it's a decent sized tank, the 9 fish are all tiny and frankly look lost in there at the mo.Also, they all get along great. The point is i am well aware they will outgrow the tank, eventually, i really don't need telling that. I was after some views on wether there is a puffer that would live harmoniously in this tank while they are all young, with a view to the bigger fish evantually moving out, I was hoping to hear from people who have a puffer in a community tank.

Anyway, I've decided to buy another tank probably around the 30-40 gallon mark to house a puffer or a community of puffers. If there is anyone who knows what they are talking about who would like to advise which FRESHWATER puffers would be a good choice i would be glad to hear their views.

well im no mindreader and didnt know that you knew that your fish were going to outgrow your tank. and yet again its been proved most puffers are not community puffers.

That's not true, 1 of us said it was possible, the other disagreed.

I kept SAP's with all manner of fish, ranging from irrubesco puffers, to bumblebee catfish, to ottos, and plenty inbetween, and have never had any trouble.

Keeping 3 SAP's alone is fine, they don't need other tankmates, but, if you wanted to add other tankmates, that are carefully chosen, move fast, and wouldn't present themselves as a target, I would say it is do-able. of course take on Rockers advice as well, because we've both kept these fish, and other fish, with differing experiences.

 

[DiscusAngel]

once again fella theres one word that is playing the wholepart in this most i said most puffers dont do well in community tanks. when some do.


Jeez, anyway kajones, 3SAPS in a 40g will befine.

 

[newtotropical]

I have two SAPs you are just fine together no fighting!!!
Hope that helps!!

 

[nmonks]

I'm going to stick my oar in here a little...

Re: SAPs and brackish. In the wild SAPs, Colomesus asellus, do occur, albeit infrequently, in slightly brackish water. However, another species of Colomesus, Colomesus psittacus, is the naturally brackish to marine species of the genus. So the two are ecologically dividing up the Amazon between them but with a certain amount of overlap. The SAP takes in the inland river and slightly brackish coastal streams, and Colomesus psittacus the estuary, mangroves, and adjacent sea. Because SAPs do occur in brackish water naturally, they can be adapted to around SG 1.005 without problems.

Re: SAPs and communities. I keep two specimens in a 180 litre community (of sorts) and have done for about two years now. No problems at all, once I figured out that certain fish (platies, Corydoras, gobies) were being nipped while other things (bleeding heart tetras, glassfish, Synodontis) were simply ignored. Funnily enough, at the moment one of my SAPs has a bite mark on his head from a dwarf cichlid it seems (there are multiple teeth marks, so it's not another puffer) and I have seen the cichlids fight with the puffers on occasion.

If you want to have a safe community with SAPs, I'd definitely recommend going with Synodontis, plec, and dorad-type catfish for the bottom, and perhaps fast moving loaches too. For midwater, bleeding hearts and similar tetras are so bloody fast nothing catches them. Avoid the dozy tetras like neons. Glassfish seem to work very well too, being both smart and fast. I'd imagine medium-sized barbs would work well too. At the top, I've had good results with halfbeaks, though big, old halfbeaks do show the odd nip once every couple of months. Largish danios might be a better bet. Avoid stuff like angels, gouramis, bettas, Corydoras, livebearers, and anything else too slow or stupid to avoid a puffer. Cichlids are a mixed bag: while dwarf cichlids like kribs and rams seem to handle the SAPs fine (attacking first, asking questions later) having a "balance of power" isn't always what you want. But certainly in a tank with plenty of caves and plants, something like kribs will do fine in a community alongside SAPs, though a *breeding pair* of kribs could cause damage to the puffers.

Cheers, Neale

 

[ac106]

once again fella theres one word that is playing the wholepart in this most i said most puffers dont do well in community tanks. when some do.

Regardless, that sort of vague advice is rarely helpfull anyways, so why even post it?

 

[pica_nuttalli]

once again fella theres one word that is playing the wholepart in this most i said most puffers dont do well in community tanks. when some do.

Regardless, that sort of vague advice is rarely helpfull anyways, so why even post it?

some people just have to show off their communication skills

 

[DiscusAngel]

once again fella theres one word that is playing the wholepart in this most i said most puffers dont do well in community tanks. when some do.

Regardless, that sort of vague advice is rarely helpfull anyways, so why even post it?

some people just have to show off their communication skills

1, im stating that few puffers can live in communitys while most cant. you may get a right arsey SAP or a softy SAP., also what advice are you giving? you comment has nothing to do with the post... and if you wanted to say something like that PM it to me

2, wha do you mean show of cummincation skills. i am puzzled by this statement.

 

[ac106]

1, im stating that few puffers can live in communitys while most cant. you may get a right arsey SAP or a softy SAP., also what advice are you giving? you comment has nothing to do with the post... and if you wanted to say something like that PM it to me

2, wha do you mean show of cummincation skills. i am puzzled by this statement.

look "DiscusAngel"

First you say that SAP are brackish and tell the guy to rehome every fish he has without really considering the sitiuation

this is especially annoying regarding clown loaches since they grow so damn slow. All i hear is "They get 12" long!" Has anyone ever seen one this big in captivity? It takes like 20 years!

Then you admit you mixed up SAPs and Ceylons, which is absurd. If you would ever mix up these two fish then you shouldn't be commenting on the subject in the first place. It would be like me posting advice and confusing well... Discus and Angels

3rd You made a statement like "Most puffer fish.... etc." Many puffers can be housed with carefully chosen tankmates: Figure 8s, SAPs, even GSP and many marine species. More broad, puffers are different so statements really are useless.

I don't mean to single you out but how many damn posts on this forum start of with something like

Well I am not sure but...
I have never kept "fish x" but
I think i heard that...

Honest to God these posts should be deleted immediately!

 

[DiscusAngel]

1, im stating that few puffers can live in communitys while most cant. you may get a right arsey SAP or a softy SAP., also what advice are you giving? you comment has nothing to do with the post... and if you wanted to say something like that PM it to me

2, wha do you mean show of cummincation skills. i am puzzled by this statement.

look "DiscusAngel"

First you say that SAP are brackish and tell the guy to rehome every fish he has without really considering the sitiuation

this is especially annoying regarding clown loaches since they grow so damn slow. All i hear is "They get 12" long!" Has anyone ever seen one this big in captivity? It takes like 20 years!

Then you admit you mixed up SAPs and Ceylons, which is absurd. If you would ever mix up these two fish then you shouldn't be commenting on the subject in the first place. It would be like me posting advice and confusing well... Discus and Angels

3rd You made a statement like "Most puffer fish.... etc." Many puffers can be housed with carefully chosen tankmates: Figure 8s, SAPs, even GSP and many marine species. More broad, puffers are different so statements really are useless.

I don't mean to single you out but how many damn posts on this forum start of with something like

Well I am not sure but...
I have never kept "fish x" but
I think i heard that...

Honest to God these posts should be deleted immediately!

1, im sorry that i aint perfect and get everything correct on the dot and got 2 puffers mixed up
2, kajones may not have know that cown loaches grow to 12" plus i know someone that had there clown loach grew 7" in a year. so it doesnt alway take 20 years.
3, i said im sorry for making the mistake about SAP's nd GSP's this is why i hate common names.
4, well you may think that the forum should be run like that but its not everyone has a right to say something and give infomation. if you want a forum like that make your own.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

1, im sorry that i aint perfect and get everything correct on the dot and got 2 puffers mixed up
3, i said im sorry for making the mistake about SAP's nd GSP's this is why i hate common names.

ok, well, FYI: there's only two species of puffers in South America. only one of these species is available in stores. thus you can be reasonably certain that "South American Puffer" means Colomesus asellus. there should be no confusion between this and "Green Spotted Puffers" (which admittedly can refer to a number of species.)

while there's nothing wrong with making a mistake, what this little incident should tell you DiscusAngel is that you need to do a little more research on puffers before responding to any other puffer threads in the future.

also, please read posts more carefully, as the OP did state his intention to upgrade his tank in the near future. it is insulting and profoundly frustrating to provide information that is immediately ignored by uninformed responders.

 

[poopsydrew]

I dont know why everyone is bashing discus do much...i read the whole thread and yea discus you could have stated it more politely but honestly, i am pretty new to the hobby and when i read all the types of fish he had in his tank i thought, "wow that sounds really overstocked" I am getting a 50 gallon soon and dont even think i will be keeping balas because they will eventually outgrow it. I understand he will be moving them when necessary but isnt the tank already overstocked and mismatched with fish? And as for discus making a mistake, who cares? discus admitted she was wrong. I really like this forum and just dont understand all the hostility sometimes? I hope i havent offened anyone and as stated earlier i am new so feel free to give any criticism you would like...

 

[DarkEntity]

I dont know why everyone is bashing discus do much...i read the whole thread and yea discus you could have stated it more politely but honestly, i am pretty new to the hobby and when i read all the types of fish he had in his tank i thought, "wow that sounds really overstocked" I am getting a 50 gallon soon and dont even think i will be keeping balas because they will eventually outgrow it. I understand he will be moving them when necessary but isnt the tank already overstocked and mismatched with fish? And as for discus making a mistake, who cares? discus admitted she was wrong. I really like this forum and just dont understand all the hostility sometimes? I hope i havent offened anyone and as stated earlier i am new so feel free to give any criticism you would like...

The whole thing was becuase it was someone asking a question specifically targetted at the Puffer, if someone isnt sure or possibly mistaken then really they shouldn post the asnwer as it could a) cost someone money for a fish that is totally unsuitable, B) cause chaos in their current tank c) Possibly put a fish in the complete wrong environment or all of the previous etc.

Puffers are imo one of a group of serious specialty fish that should only be kept by experienced people so need exact, specific and correct info without any dubiaty.

 

[poopsydrew]

I dont know why everyone is bashing discus do much...i read the whole thread and yea discus you could have stated it more politely but honestly, i am pretty new to the hobby and when i read all the types of fish he had in his tank i thought, "wow that sounds really overstocked" I am getting a 50 gallon soon and dont even think i will be keeping balas because they will eventually outgrow it. I understand he will be moving them when necessary but isnt the tank already overstocked and mismatched with fish? And as for discus making a mistake, who cares? discus admitted she was wrong. I really like this forum and just dont understand all the hostility sometimes? I hope i havent offened anyone and as stated earlier i am new so feel free to give any criticism you would like...

The whole thing was becuase it was someone asking a question specifically targetted at the Puffer, if someone isnt sure or possibly mistaken then really they shouldn post the asnwer as it could a) cost someone money for a fish that is totally unsuitable, B) cause chaos in their current tank c) Possibly put a fish in the complete wrong environment or all of the previous etc.

Puffers are imo one of a group of serious specialty fish that should only be kept by experienced people so need exact, specific and correct info without any dubiaty.

I see your point, i just was trying to understand why all the hostility. I hope i didnt offend you or anyone else as i am not looking for a fight or enemy, you need as many knowledagble friends as you can get in this hoppy c ya