Im Getting Some Puffers

[black molly3]

hi im getting some puffers and a new tank for xmas. can anyone giv me any tips on how to keep them healthily in my new tank and also how often should i put salt in when i get it
thanks
black molly3

 

[DarkEntity]

What size tank, which puffers?

you would be better with this in the oddball section.

 

[Fella]

With the 2 stockings you have in your signatures, i personally wouldn't risk any puffers.

Also, as I seem to be regularly posting now, the majority of puffer fish offered in the aquarium trade DO NOT REQUIRE SALT.

I know this may not be the advice you want to hear, but from someone who has kept puffers with other fish (successfully, and unsuccessfully) I would not want you to risk your fish with them.

 

[nmonks]

I'm going to agree with Fella on this. While I have had good results mixing puffers of certain species in community tanks, the fishes that do get nipped include mollies and platies, which are either too slow or too stupid to avoid nippy pufferfish. This is certainly the case with South American puffer, the one species that comes anywhere close to being "a community fish". All the other puffers sold are at least as nippy and usually more so.

Upside down cats do seem okay with puffers and usually with anything. Either their squeaking or their spines or something seems to be make them immune to most sorts of negative attention. It's very curious. Of your fish, those are the only ones I can say for certain would be fine with SAPs or perhaps C. irrubesco red-tail puffers. The red tail sharks will probably be safe, too, with SAPs because they are aggressive, and SAPs seem to avoid fish with nasty tempers (dwarf cichlids like kribs and rams seem to be avoided). But the livebearers will simply get nipped to pieces.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Fella]

The red tail sharks will probably be safe, too, with SAPs because they are aggressive, and SAPs seem to avoid fish with nasty tempers (dwarf cichlids like kribs and rams seem to be avoided). But the livebearers will simply get nipped to pieces.

my experience is slightly different to this. I kept a garra flavatra, or Panda garra as it's known with an SAP and it chased it to death. The Panda Garra are similar in temperament to the RTS from what I can tell, and as such, I don't think I'd risk mixing them. The RTS would be safe from the SAP for sure like Neale says, but I wouldn't fancy having a skittish fish like an SAP (which isn't so great at swimming very fast in a straight line) with something like an RTS.

 

[nmonks]

Fair enough. SAPs definitely do not like to be harassed. They can and do jump, and I've lost a specimen that bruised itself by swimming into something at speed.

Never kept Garra spp. though. They sound a bit like sucking loaches in terms of aggression! I had a sucking loach that _more_ than held its own in a 200 gallon tank with Central Americans including a red devil and a jaguar cichlid!

To be honest, if I was starting with puffers, I'd perhaps go with a single specimen of a figure eight puffer, with a few bumblebee gobies if you wanted them. Figure-8s are brackish water, but they aren't difficult to keep and have a nice balance of colours, size, and personality. SAPs are perhaps hardier and easier to keep in some ways, but they have very particular needs in terms of being schooling fish that need _lots_ of swimming space.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[nmonks]

Fair enough. SAPs definitely do not like to be harassed. They can and do jump, and I've lost a specimen that bruised itself by swimming into something at speed.

Never kept Garra spp. though. They sound a bit like sucking loaches in terms of aggression! I had a sucking loach that _more_ than held its own in a 200 gallon tank with Central Americans including a red devil and a jaguar cichlid!

To be honest, if I was starting with puffers, I'd perhaps go with a single specimen of a figure eight puffer, with a few bumblebee gobies if you wanted them. Figure-8s are brackish water, but they aren't difficult to keep and have a nice balance of colours, size, and personality. SAPs are perhaps hardier and easier to keep in some ways, but they have very particular needs in terms of being schooling fish that need _lots_ of swimming space.

Cheers,

Neale