keeping a puffer with my cichlids

[jdluvsjane]

hi i have a 55 gallon cichlid tank with one male electric blue and two females, two electric yellows, one cobalt blue, one psuedo zebra, two common plecos, one auratus, one hybrid (convict with a severum very pretty), one really mean angle fish (he is my favorite), and one talking catfish.
and i was wondering if i could keep a fw puffer in the same tank (i think it is a sotted green puffer(it has aq yellow body, black spots with a neon green top head)). i need all the info on keeping and raising one either way. thank you

 

[pica_nuttalli]

no. any puffer too big for your cichlids to attempt to eat would do some serious damage if ever provoked. any puffer so small that a cichlid might attempt to eat it would either puff and thus strangle your cichlid or be sucessfully eaten and poison your cichlid.

beyond that the green spotted puffer is in fact a brackish fish that should actually be kept in a marine environment when fully mature.

no puffer should be kept with anything you would be upset to find eaten. a puffer in a community should be considered a timebomb--its a question of "when", not "if".