Help With Puffers

[sharz]

Hi everyone, i currently have in my tank.. 1 male fighter, 5 cardinal tetras, 2 apple snails, 1 hoplo catfish and 2 south american puffers. My tank is 100 litres with sand and lots of plants. I wanted to get everybodys opinion on adding one figure 8 puffer into the tank. I know he requires low brackish conditions but im willing to keep him in jus fresh water and many people say they do fine in those cinditions, my water quality is superb aswel so im sure that helps. I just want to know if he would attack my south american puffers and other fish.. cheers

 

[nmonks]

Oh, where to start!

Your SAPs are going to shred that poor fighting fish. So you will need to separate them. SAPs are fine with fast moving tetras and robust catfish. Cardinals are a bit dozy, but if you have enough plants, they will hide away if they get annoyed too much. Corydoras tend to get nipped, but Hoplosternum should be boisterous enough that this doesn't bother them too much.

Figure-8 catfish should be kept in brackish water. Whether or not you are "willing" to keep them in freshwater is hardly a moral justification for keeping this species in conditions that will stress it, and likely make it sick. Keep a freshwater tank with SAPs, or a brackish water tank with figure-8s. Actually, SAPs will do fine in low-end brackish conditions too, so at SG 1.003 at 25 degrees C you could keep both species together. Don't really see the point myself, but there's an option.

If you want a second puffer species, consider Carinotetraodon irrubesco. This is a very peaceful species (probably the most peaceful freshwater puffer traded) and it gets along very well with SAPs.

Cheers, Neale

Hi everyone, i currently have in my tank.. 1 male fighter, 5 cardinal tetras, 2 apple snails, 1 hoplo catfish and 2 south american puffers. My tank is 100 litres with sand and lots of plants. I wanted to get everybodys opinion on adding one figure 8 puffer into the tank. I know he requires low brackish conditions but im willing to keep him in jus fresh water and many people say they do fine in those cinditions, my water quality is superb aswel so im sure that helps. I just want to know if he would attack my south american puffers and other fish.. cheers