i was doing research for f8 puffers and I was on aquahobby and about half of the people on there said they kept f8s in a community tank, even with fish such as angels and plecos. I was wondering if anyone else has had this success? I dont really want to jeprodize my fishes tails but I would have a back up tank.

i wiouldnt. first of all f8 puffers are brackish, which those other fish you named are not, so if they are keeping them together they shouldnt. just because you can doesnt make it a good idea. i highly reccommend not doing it as they are highly aggressive. good luck.

I dont have those fish just other people said they had kept f8 with them.


FW or BW was another thing that had conflicting answers. Half said BW and half said FW. I think I'll get one for my 10 g

10g is too small for a figure8. Dwarf puffers are a much better option, checked the pinned topic at the top of the forum.

It's a complicated issue, but essentially Tetraodon biocellatus is a freshwater pufferfish in the wild, but unquestionably the balance of experience of captive specimens is they do better in slightly brackish water (SG 1.003-1.010, as you prefer). Specimens kept in freshwater conditions tend to be more prone to disease and do not live as long.

This isn't an unusual thing; both mollies and bumblebee gobies are true freshwater fish in the wild, but they also do better in slightly brackish water. The explanation may have something to do with the way sodium chloride reduces the toxicity of certain chemicals (such as nitrate) and that the carbonate/bicarbonate salts in marine salt mix buffers against rapid pH drops.

Cheers, Neale

kay thanks guys. Ibguess puffers arent the fish for me.

Why not go for Dwarf Puffers as suggested? I have 5 of these little fish and they are a great puffer to keep I started with them and have now got 2 F8 puffers in a nice big tank

i have one in my 5g. he is super cute but i wanna bigger fishie


& i think im going to look for your book Monks. do you know if i could find it in the US?

This post has been edited by daemon: Jun 28 2008, 02:26 AM

You'll need a bigger tank if you want a bigger puffer.

I can highly recommend Neale's book! He has a link to it on his siggy and I expect you might find it on Amazon or something

Thanks Jennybugs! Kind words indeed.

Yes, the book is available in the US; in fact the publisher is an American company, TFH. List price is just under $40, but Amazon usually sells it at a discount.

Cheers, Neale



This post has been edited by nmonks: Jun 28 2008, 09:44 AM

Mmkay thank you very much!

You can mix puffers with other fish. When they do mature and get huge you may need to seperate if they start being to agressive

I have mine with.

1. Elephant nose
2. Peacock Eeel
3. Discus
4. Gourami
5. Moray Eel
6. African Butterfly
7. Clown Knife
8. Upside Down Cat
9. Green Spotted Puffer
10. Mono Fish
11. Needle Nose
12. Three Bichirs (ornate, albino, senegal)
13. Tiger Salamanders
14. Newts
15. Frogs
16. Crabs
17. Crawfish

Is this a wind-up or for real? Seriously, that's not a textbook selection of fish for any community! Lots of potential for things to go disastrously wrong. Furthermore, monos, morays and green spotted puffers unquestionably need brackish water to succeed in the long term. Morays invariably go on hunger strikes if kept in freshwater for too long, and GSPs become stunted and live for only half as long as in brackish water tanks. Monos can last a long time in freshwater, but are much more sickly and they won't settle in properly.

Obviously clown knives aren't even remotely compatible with discus. Morays and puffers view crabs/crayfish as food. Amphibians shouldn't be mixed with larger fish (and I'd argue fish of any kind). Needlenose are peaceful schooling fish (though predatory) and will be hammered by a territorial clown knife. Elephantnoses and spiny eels are difficult to feed in tanks with catfish and other active nocturnal foragers.

And so it goes on... While there's nothing to say you can't physically put these fish in the same tank, there's absolutely no question at all that it will be a total train wreck in the long term. Over the months fish will starve, be eaten, bullied, become diseased, and so on. Please please please review the needs of these fishes before things get out of hand!

Cheers, Neale

I currently have my tank at a lowered SG @ 1.005. I have over 200 gallons of filtration and a 120 gallon protein skimmer on the 55 gallon tank. Most the fish are juviniles. When they do get to large to live together, I plan on taking out the puffers(one of the main problems once they get big). I'll probably setup a saltwater tank in the future and take out those puffers and the mono's. For now they are all healthy and happy.




The clown knife is very peaceful and doesn't attack any other fish. The puffers haven't touched anyone, they will eat rosies and ghost shrimp. The frog has been fine, nobody has messed with him and everyone is to big for him to eat. The needlenose is happy he is the only guy to swim in the top middle of the tank; he hangs out there and happily grabs rosies when I throw them in. The red claw crabs mostly sit above water on the turtle docs with my tiger salamanders. The elephant nose feeds daily on frozen blood worms. The moray eel eats rosies and goldfish and shrimp.

Tank has been setup over 3 weeks now with no problems / no deaths.

This post has been edited by Earthling84: Jun 28 2008, 06:43 PM

Neale, quite a few of us tried to tell him that yesterday and he is choosing to remain ignorant and dumb instead of really doing research to find out what's better for his fish.

what size tank is all of this in btw?

Search through Earthling's posts...you'll find it in the brackish section!

This post has been edited by jennybugs: Jul 6 2008, 03:14 PM

Title of Response: absolutely NO F8 in community tank! (succumbing to cutie big eyes)

Hi - I'm new to this site.

Just thought I'd respond to this as I have just made the costly, silly, mistake of introducing a F8- to a community 50g tank.
And whilst I have now read lots of "No's" on the subject- I thought I'd let people out there know exactly what happens if you stupidly do put one in your tank....... so you can learn from my idiocy.

24hrs ago I had a happy community of Cichlids all getting on great ........ until the F8. I wrongly ASSumed (Following a little research - but not enough)- that the bigger cichlids would be more than brute enough to keep this little cutie in check. Well by this morning the blue acara's missing some tail (in fact -I can see damage on many of my fish) and the keyholes are frightened back to the colour thay came from the lfs - an insipid pale imitation of their former glory ( I love them). The tank was literally terrorised by the little antagonist.

I just wish I'd found this site before succumbing (and not listened to the stupid owner - who got is so amazingly wrong - wrong species, wrong water type, tried to sell me two (thank god I listend to my inner reason which said lets see how one does first), all wrong wrong wrong!).

Now I've spent all day today sorting out my tanks ( poor thailand newts have had to relinquish their palatial 20g tank to a temporary inferior cheap model) to accomodate the wee beastie (which is now its name).... its all on its own looking sad..(healthy but sad) ..fingers crossed it can put up with the stress of being moved twice. (p.s. My partners gonna flip when he comes home to find yet another tank! but he'll be easier to deal with than the F8.)

[b][Quick Q- will 20g be enough for the little menace? - He's under 2cm at present - I figure he might need to go up a click or two (say 30g in a while) I just had to get him into a cycled tank quick (best of a bad job) and the newts are alot more robust with change. He's still in freshwater but I figure I can salinate to brackish slowly to stop any additional stress at this time] any advice you have would be excellent[/b]

So The result: I've had to do water changes and equalising, buying of new tanks and plants, changing of living room to install new tank, facing wrath of partner for new tank, anguish and damage to fish, risk of loss of said F8. Some grumpy newts, A sunday of intensive activity rather than chilling and spent over £50 i didnt expect to. The fin nipping on the other fish may also result in long term health problems which I need to treat.

(Also as a rule i introduce fish on a Saturday so that I can watch them to see how they settle in- if theres a problem I have the rest of weekend to sort it. If I'd done this before work, not monitored or known my tanks behaviour, and left him in there for longer - I doubt I'd have any fish left to talk about now.)