Brackish Puffer/Goby Tank

[BTB0923]

I'm thinking about setting up a brackish tank to house some kind of puffer and a dragon goby. I know nothing about puffers but it seems like they might be fun to keep.

If I was to get a 55-75 gallon tank what are my options for types of puffers to get? Do they all get huge?

What other interesting brackish water fish are there?

 

[JakeH]

Puffers rarely tolerate tankmates, but a small group of Green Spotted Puffers (tetraodon negrovitis) would be cool. Be careful, though. Brackish tanks are sometimes hard to cycle in...

 

[BTB0923]

So dragon gobies with puffers is a no go?

 

[JakeH]

I can't say for sure. I used Mollies to cycle my brackish tank & the plan was to use that very combo (GSP's & Dragon Goby), but now (a year later) I still just have 2 GSP's & a breeding population of Mollies... The puffers will occasionally take down a Molly if I forget to give them Ghost shrimp to hunt. Its really their natural instinct to hunt around rocks/plants/decor looking for snails & shrimp.

 

[BTB0923]

I just read up a bit on figure 8 puffers and they look really cool. How risky is it to try and keep them with gobies, or scats?

I've found conflicting information...some say figure 8s are better in full freshwater rather than brackish, is that true?

 

[BTB0923]

I can't say for sure. I used Mollies to cycle my brackish tank & the plan was to use that very combo (GSP's & Dragon Goby), but now (a year later) I still just have 2 GSP's & a breeding population of Mollies... The puffers will occasionally take down a Molly if I forget to give them Ghost shrimp to hunt. Its really their natural instinct to hunt around rocks/plants/decor looking for snails & shrimp.

Cool! Why haven't you tried adding the gobies?

 

[JakeH]

I'm not sure about the Figure-8's, but I've always heard they were brackish...

We did add the Goby. He was in there for a while, but my wife decided she didnt like the Goby (her tank at home), so we re-homed him to a favorite LFS owner. I think she was a bit turned off at the Molly massacre that the Goby caused... He would snap up any Molly that wandered near him, but sometimes he would miss & shear them in half, or just take off their tail, etc. When that happened, the wounded Molly would either run across a GSP (and be finished-off) or just swim around all jacked up & make her sad. Since then, the GSP's take out a Molly every month or so (usually aggressive male Mollies) by either "removing" their fins & leaving them to drown on the bottom, or in one case the larger GSP just bit a Molly's face off...literally...one clean bite straight thru as if the skull wasnt even there. Birthing female mollies have also had their abdomens bitten in this way. Good thing they just keep breeding...


EDIT: Check out the Puffer section & look through PufferPunk's articles. She is the most informed puffer keeper I've ever seen.