Porcupine Puffer

[bullseye21]

I just got a 45g saltwater tank, and today I got a small porcupine puffer fish. My problem is I can't find any fish that are compatible with it. I want a clownfish for my tank but I don't know if it is compatible with my puffer fish. Do any of you know if clownfish can be tankbuddies with a porcupine puffer?

 

[NaH2O]

*moved to Lee's Forum

Out of curiosity - how old is the tank?

 

[csababubbles]

porcupine puffers tend to eat smaller, slow moving fish as they get larger. a clownfish has a good chance of being eaten.

a more pressing issue is the small size of the tank. as you will soon see with your own eyes that puffer like to eat and eat he will and that means he will grow very fast right in front of your eyes and that 45 gallon you will see will be terribly small. and since these guys like to eat a lot that means they poop a lot. so it will be very hard to keep that small tank clean so he may end up with a lot of health problems like cloudy eyes, etc. i would suggest you either return him to the fish store right away. if you would still like to have a porcupine puffer then get a much larger tank and set that up. a 125 would be the very smallest you could get away with.

 

[leebca]

These Puffers are endearing when small, but they grow to an amazing size of up to 12 inches relatively quickly. That is to say:

1. Put in that tank NO other fish; and
2. Within the year move the fish to a tank no less than 125 gallons until it reaches about 6 inches, then into a 300. They need swimming space, so put in little landscaping and leave wide-open spaces.

After 2. then you can use the 45 for a pair of (certain kinds) of Anemonefish.

Acquiring any of the large-growing Puffers is a commitment to owning a large marine system.

 

[Reefergeorge]

A clown fish will most likely be ate.
While I was cycling my new tank. I put two clowns from my nano into my porc tank. Two days later one was missing. Within the week he got the other one. They both seemed large enough to be safe. They are fast, but everything needs to sleep.

 

[bullseye21]

Thanks for advise about the procupine puffer and the clown fish.

 

[WPH]

Your porcupine should be okay with fish that cannot fit in his mouth....porcupine pufferfish are lazy and they prefer not to hunt food down but rather take food from your hand....porcupine puffers do not need to be fed every day as you will see that on some days it will eat a lot and then on some days it is not interested in food at all....I am maintaining a tank for a customer that has a porcupine puffer and 3 occelaris clowns.....they seen to get along quite well.....keep the puffer fed and make sure that the other fish is atleast 1 1/2 times the size of the width of the puffers mouth....I agree with leebca and csababubbles that as the puffer grows larger(and they do grow quickly) he will definately need a bigger tank in a few months or the aggression of the fish will set in....ALoha

 

[chrisprkh]

mine use to be with a snowflake eel until it recently died. i have a 45 gal. as well. puffers and eels go great IMO they mess around with eachotheer sometimes but still no harms done.

 

[chrisprkh]

on the subject of tank size if it's a baby puffer he'll be good for a while. I've seen 5 and 8 year old porcs and the 8 was about 9" and the 5 year was about 6" if that. It depends on how often and much you feed your porcupine. But tank upsizing is inevitable but IMO it's not as imminent for puffer around 2-3". mine was really really active and swam against currents like... all day and he loved live food, i guess it depends on your puffer. .. man i really miss mine... I'm still pretty soar and just incase, watch your riser tubes to see if he gets stuck in it. cool

 

[Roly]

I have a porcpine puffer with a XL maroon clown and they get along well. I have an XL clown trigger along with them too. I think that as long as they are all pretty big and as was stated before, dont fit into each others mouths, they'll be fine.

 

[clekchau]

my porcupine puffer is fine with my damsels, foxface, tangs, harl tusk, soft corals, everything. only drawback, it is an absolute pig and will eat its own bodyweight if i let it.