Porcupine puffer tank mates?

[stellablu]

I am thinking about buying a porcupine, but I was wondering if I can house another type of saltwater puffer in with it. I was wondering if having two different puffers that reach the same adult size (and are bought at the same size) with plenty of hiding spaces and a tank seperated into "territories" would work? I know some can be more aggressive than others (and even that comes down to the individual fish, not just species) but I'm not finding much information on keeping porcupines with other puffers. Does anyone have experiences with keeping other puffers with the porcupine? Thanks a lot

 

[Navarre]

What size tank will you be keepign them in?

tank size is important as this will be their respective territories. Too small and they may well fight.

 

[stellablu]

I'll be keeping them in a 55g. Once the porcupine gets around 8" I'd move him into a 90g. It makes a huge difference if you introduce the puffers at the same time instead of having one established and introducing the second because the first may have chosen it's territory already, right?

This is off topic but I have a quick question for you...did you have a hard time getting the mangrove established? Did you start from a pre-rooted plant or was it a propagule? I want to add some red mangrove to my brackish but can't find enough information about it.

 

[Navarre]

I would say that even a 90g is too small for them. They grow enormous (i think the porcupine reaches lengths of 3ft (i might be wrong on this though)).

I would advise keeping just the one as puffers are large and quite aggressive. They are also messy eaters and thus put enourmous strains on the bioload... " puffers would possibly overload it.


As for the mangroves, i had them as pods. No roots or leaves. Simply place them in the tank and leave em.

There are 2 ways to do this. either float them so the stems are out of the water and the roots can hang down. This makes them grow slowly but makes very strong roots that will support the plant on its own.

Or imerse the plant in water and let it grow.. this grows far faster and the roots grow quickly but these roots wil be soft and the plant will need some other form to support itself.


Red mangroves are also very delicate at the early stage so make sure no pruning ir done until there is a good set of leaves or the plant may well die

Hope this helps.

 

[Opcn]

Porcupine fish are acctually there own branch of the uffer family, and as I recall there are more than one species, I might be wrong but I know that they are one of the 4 branches of puffer (the others being fresh/brackish puffers such as the GSP, Dogfaced puffers such as the white dogface, and puffers propper such as the blue dot)

Also Mangroves need alot of light and must be washed off regularly to keep the salt from chokeing them, Good luck with them, they do wonders for your tank, especially if you like tannins in the water (because they release them when they get older)

 

[Navarre]

Never washed my Mangroves.
In fact 5 of my mangroves were kept fully under water whilst they grew.

 

[Fishy411]

they get to 1'6" not 3 feet. they do best by themselves

 

[Navarre]

36inch Porcupine Puffer

I know there are smaller Porcupine Puffers but they are all on the large side if you ask me

 

[Opcn]

So now we are quite certain that there are more than one kind of porcupine.

Mangroves secrete exess salt throught the stromata on the bottom of the leaves, if the salt is not taken off it blocks the pores, Under the water the salt is desolved, outside of the water the salt is taken off by the rain.