Fish Compatible With Puffers

[s357nl45fc762r]

I've had puffer fish take chunks out of many different fish, it ate my freshwater barracuda that was much larger and faster than it. What fish could be compatible with them?

 

[DarkEntity]

What type of Puffer. Most wont tolerate any other fish at all. There are exceptions however.

 

[kanzaris]

Hi

I have got a GSP with Monos, Archers, Cat Sharks and he don't bother any of the fish.
In my smaller Brackish Tank I 've got a Figure 8 Puffer with Mollies and Gobys. The Puffer is scared of the Mollies and I can't see him ever doing anything to them.

Sabby

 

[ferco]

Hi
The Puffer is scared of the Mollies

LOL sorry but that is quite funny

 

[nmonks]

I've had puffer fish take chunks out of many different fish, it ate my freshwater barracuda that was much larger and faster than it. What fish could be compatible with them?

Depends a lot on the species of puffer involved. Puffers can be divided into four groups:

1. Puffers that eat whole fish, such as Tetraodon miurus. These can't be kept with anything except perhaps heavily armoured catfish.
2. Puffers that eat the scales and fins of other fish, such as Auriglobus spp. These may not kill tankmates outright, but they will certainly kill them inch by inch.
3. Puffers that are territorial and view tankmates in much the same way as cichlids. Tetraodon mbu seems to be this sort of fish, and its level of aggression towards tankmates is subject to age, sex, size of the tank, and so on.
4. Puffers that are non-territorial and generally ignore their tankmates except perhaps the occasional nip if they're curious. Colomesus asellus is the classic freshwater example of such a species, but most of the marine species seem to fit into this group as well.

Really, only types 3 and 4 can be mixed with tankmates, but even then with caution. I don't like aquarists saying that their behaviour is "unpredictable" because it is unscientific. What is a fair comment is saying that pufferfish behaviour is difficult to predict because we don't understand all the variables. In most cases we cannot sex puffers, and since it is the males (in territorial species at least) that defend the eggs, we can safely assume that male puffers will be much more aggressive than females. But because we can't sex them, we can't pick out females for community tank settings. We also don't really understand the other variables either, such as the types of tankmates, aquarium size, the effect of different feeding strategies, and so on.

I have got a GSP with Monos, Archers, Cat Sharks and he don't bother any of the fish.
In my smaller Brackish Tank I 've got a Figure 8 Puffer with Mollies and Gobys. The Puffer is scared of the Mollies and I can't see him ever doing anything to them.

My puffers are similarly docile and have been for over two years now, so I don't think it's a fluke. The tetras routinely steal food from them, and the dwarf cichlids chase them out of hiding places. I have a hunch that puffers work best in busy communities with lots of fast moving tankmates. Under those conditions, the puffers have to work hard simply to get out of the way of the other fish and to snap up food at dinnertime. Where the puffers become the dominant fish in the tank, my guess is that their behaviour is less accommodating.

Cheers, Neale

 

[el_vulture619]

I kept a green puffer for years in a 55g with SA chiclids, it was a good size 2.5-3in. It occasionally took a nippble at fins but paid the price for it! The puffer often got a good ass kicking.
It did go after smaller fish. I fed it shrimp and krill, would also throw in meaty chunks of fish. IMO if you keep a puffer well fed with meaty foods it wont feed on its tankmates.