Puffers & Plants

[cephalotus]

Hi! I wanted to know if there are any live plants that would be good with puffers; puffers seem to rip out any I put in.

 

[Fella]

In my experience the only ones which hate plants are the brackish species (which make holes like a whole punch) and my fahaka destroys plants in the tank with him.

 

[nmonks]

Fella's point about the brackish water species does chime with observation of GSP/Ceylon puffers in the wild -- they eat plants. So no, those puffers probably aren't a good idea if you have in mind something like an Amano 'nature aquarium'!

On the other hand, if you have lots of light and a decent substrate, I'd have thought the growth rate of Vallisneria and Hygrophila would be easily good enough to compensate for any occasional damage done by a small puffer like a figure-8.

Cheers, Neale

In my experience the only ones which hate plants are the brackish species (which make holes like a whole punch) and my fahaka destroys plants in the tank with him.

 

[connorsbala]

Id rather my puffers destroy my plants than the tankmates
My FIg 8 had little chunks out of the java fern etc, but didnt rip it to shreds. The fern kept growing so it didnt bother it too much

 

[SirMinion]

The only plants I've had success with in a puffer tank (specifically Martha Fahaka's tank) are broad leaved species that sprout leaves from the base.
Anything with a stalk gets ripped to shreds pretty quickly.

 

[zephi]

I've got a brackish puffer, called "common toad fish". I've noticed one of its strange behaviors, it targets the brown/black parts of the plants. It likes to bite at the dead parts of my egeria plant and sea grass. It probably thinks it is it's natural food in the wild - brown/black coloured mud crabs.