Mite Be A Seriously Silly Question But

[typhoon]

do puffers go with mbuna i cant find owt in the pinned bits about this thanks

 

[The-Wolf]

mbuna are freshwater and most puffers like it salty.
given the predation habits of puffers, no you shouldn't really mix the two.

 

[Fella]

mbuna are freshwater and most puffers like it salty.
given the predation habits of puffers, no you shouldn't really mix the two.

http/www.fishforums.net/Puffers-In-Aquaria-t168310.html

Incorrect Wolf! The majority of puffers offered in the trade prefer entirely freshwater.

But yes, you're right. Puffers and Mbuna would be a bit of a risky mix.

 

[OohFeeshy]

The majority of puffers offered in the trade prefer entirely freshwater.

Mhm, sort of depends on your context. For instance, the most commonly sold puffers tend to be dwarf, SAP, F8 or GSP, of which the last seems most common with the SAP least common. While you get other species, they tend not to be the sort of thing people would buy due to high price tag, looking like a rock etc. of other common species.

 

[nmonks]

Well, Fella's right and Wolf's right.

Most puffers (by about 2/3rds versus 1/3rd) are marine water fish rather than brackish/freshwater fish. So Wolf is right on that count. There are also lots of marine puffers in the trade, particular Arothron and Canthigaster spp. but increasingly various "Fugu" type puffers as well.

But Fella's correct that freshwater pufferfish are numerically the most common puffers in the trade. Since marine puffers aren't reef-friendly, they aren't all that popular. But the various small freshwater puffers seem to be steadily becoming more popular.

Back on topic: almost certainly mixing mbuna and puffers is a bad idea. Some people have done it with Tetraodon mbu. You used to quite often see this combo in Maidenhead Aquatics showrooms for some reason. Perhaps still do. Some Tetraodon mbu do seem to be peaceful enough to mix with mbuna, and in the wild they are found in at least Lake Tanganyika if not Lake Malawi, so their tolerance of hard/alkaline water is significant. Is it a good idea though? Probably not, because some Tetraodon mbu do become territorial and aggressive. Fish shop owners can perhaps pick out the peaceful specimens and remove them at the first sign of nippiness; home aquarists likely don't have that option. At the very least, T. mbu should be treated as a "tankbuster" fish that needs a giant aquarium, so on that tack at least it isn't perhaps worth keeping at home at all.

If you wanted to mix puffers and cichlids, the combos I'd suggest would be either chromides and figure-8s (in brackish) or kribs/rams and SAPs (in freshwater). Both these combos have been used with better than random degrees of success.

Cheers, Neale