Puffers and pandas

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ghostknife

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I have a 2ft tank set up in my room containnig a pair of red eye puffers Carinotetraodon lorteti but whenever someone looks in there tank they always say 'theres nothing in there!' so i would like to add some tankmates to keep them company and to make the tank look more active. So i was thinking maybe:

4 panda cories
and possibly 4 marbled hatchetfish or a butterflyfish

would this work

Also has anyone heard of a pseudocetopsis sp. tiger because i saw them in a shop the other day.

thanks

gk
 
The only other fish that are usually safe with puffers are bottomfeeders. Although I've heard people have had sucess with bumblebee gobies, just check they're the right type (brackish/FW).
 
Hatchetfish and butterflyfish would be nipped and nipped to death. Panda cories would also get nipped, though less, but, as they are quite fragile, they are a bad idea. Honestly, the only thing you may be able to add is a small plec. It will also get nipped once in a while if it tries to move and a puffer sees it. Some people have also tried khulie loaches but, like with the cories, they'll get nipped. Puffers are not community fish but bumblebees may just work but that won't help make your tank any mroe active-looking than it is now. I think you should simply try to re-arange your decor to make the puffers more obvious and skip the extra fish idea.
 
Hi ghostknife :)

Please do not even think about putting panda corys in a tank with your puffers! :eek:

C. pandas are particularly delicate corys and are prone to bacterial infections and early death if conditions are not just the way they like them. If the puffers don't get them, the stress of living in fear of them will. :/
 
No no no no NO!
oops2.gif


Red-eye puffers are the most aggressive & terratorial of all the small puffers, some individuals are like mini fahakas!

They are also active hunters at ALL levels in the tank and would kill ALL of the fish you've mentioned.

There is NOTHING that can reliably be kept in a tank with carinotetraodon lorteti without risk. Nothing.

Once again, just to drive the point home about puffers & tankmates, this is what happened when we tried to add tetras to our dwarf puffer tank. and red-eye puffers are 100 times more aggresive & predatory than dwarfs, and tetras are fast
chunk.jpg
 
My femake killed her mate after spawning with him 3x. I suggest that tank is heaviy decorated & 10g/fish. If you wanted a fish you chould see, this is not the species for you.
 
i seem to have been very lucky with my male/female pair of c. lortetis to date - i have had them with a trio of dwarf puffers and two rubbernose plecs, plus two oto's for around 5-6 months now without incident. to date the only aggression that i have encountered is intraspecific aggression between the male and female lorteti - the male especially will make a lunge at the female if she gets within his reach. The female lorteti will quite happily swim alongside any of the dwarf puffers - they tolerate each other better than the DP's tolerate each other in fact. However my experience does seem to be the exception rather than the rule, as i was reading posts of somebody else on another forum who introduced dwarf puffers to a tank of lortetis and they didnt even last 24 hours.

as pufferpunk says keeping the tank well planted/decorated definitely helps on the aggression side of things - i had a blue/green algae problem recently and stripped out all my plants for a couple of days whilst i treated the tank - with the plants gone the aggression between the two red-eyes increased greatly.

know what you mean about not seeing them very often though - they are usually skulking about in the thick of the plants or around/inside the holes in the jattai wood most of the day, venturing out in the open usually only at feeding time.
 
If you wanted a fish you chould see, this is not the species for you.

Maybe your right. If i was to get some panda cories instead how many should i get (four?). Is there any oddball i could put in there with them. Got anyideas for Interesting Tankmates?




Also has anyone heard of a pseudocetopsis sp. tiger because i saw them in a shop the other day.

any comments/info about this?!?
 
cories and puffers are well-known for not mixing well. the cory cats are just too small, too shy, and too tempting. its just not worth it.
 
If i was to get some panda cories instead how many should i get (four?).

It depends on how many dead corys you like to see in your tank. You could probably have an endless supply of them, but they will still all end up dead. :byebye:
 
QUOTE
If i was to get some panda cories instead how many should i get (four?).



It depends on how many dead corys you like to see in your tank. You could probably have an endless supply of them, but they will still all end up dead.

i'm afraid you are mistaken i am now talkin about how many i could get if i removed the puffers.
 
Hi ghostknife :)

i'm afraid you are mistaken i am now talkin about how many i could get if i removed the puffers.

Then, that's an entirely different story!

If you are intent on having panda corys, I would suggest getting as many as possible. Six of these little fellows would be the minimum.

Nevertheless, I would recommend that you consider some of the other kinds of corys that are available. Pandas are delicate and often hard to keep, even under the best of circumstances.

A similar cory is the C. metae (aka Bandit Cory) which is another small cory, but there are many corys that would be much easier to keep.

Depending on the kind of fish you settle on, temperature might be a factor in the selection of your corys, too.
 
ghostknife said:
If you wanted a fish you chould see, this is not the species for you.

Maybe your right. If i was to get some panda cories instead how many should i get (four?). Is there any oddball i could put in there with them. Got anyideas for Interesting Tankmates?




[
Badis, peacock gudgeons, and candy striped gobies would all do well with cories, and the largest (Candy stripe) attains a max size of 4" :)
 
Badis, peacock gudgeons, and candy striped gobies would all do well with cories, and the largest (Candy stripe) attains a max size of 4"

I have never heard of Candy stripe goby before any info? I have seen neon stripe gobies and another species of goby for sale are they similar?

Any info on badis as i have always found them interesting? i recently saw some for 90p each!!

Are peacock gudgeons the same as peacock gobies?

Can Butterfly fish be kept in a 2ft tank?

cheers

gk
 

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