puffer

[jloos1988]

im upgrading to a 180 gallon for my big guys and i got my 75 gallon with a O. Bichir, striped rafael cat, and a needle nose gar. i want to add one more tankmate and i was thinking a large puffer because of how mean they are when they eat. is a fahaka puffer get too big for a 75 gallon? and what other puffers might be good for a tank this size? i know some puffers require brackish and dont want to go brackish since my other fish get iffy with salt.

 

[Oddball]

Fahaka puffers grow too large and produce too much waste to be housed in a 75. Plus, you'd be hardpressed to find a fahaka that would tolerate tankmates. Especially sedentary bottom fish. Any tankmate sitting on the bottom will receive test bites from any fahaka. And these test bites can be extremely traumatic. You might be able to fit a palembang puffer in that 75 comm. However, as with any med to large puffer, it's a roll of the dice as to whether the puffer will remain peaceful or tear up anything moving in the tank.

 

[Miguel]

Fahaka puffers grow too large and produce too much waste to be housed in a 75. Plus, you'd be hardpressed to find a fahaka that would tolerate tankmates. Especially sedentary bottom fish. Any tankmate sitting on the bottom will receive test bites from any fahaka. And these test bites can be extremely traumatic. You might be able to fit a palembang puffer in that 75 comm. However, as with any med to large puffer, it's a roll of the dice as to whether the puffer will remain peaceful or tear up anything moving in the tank.

Agreed, totally.

 

[Hilly]

The prblem lies in that there is a large gap in size in freshwater puffers, The mid size ones (6-8") are opportunistic piscivores like suvatti, baileyi, palembangensis and are generally inactive lieing in wait for their meal to come by. The larger target puffers like leiurus and Barbatus are also piscivores so again your tankmates are probably going to feel the wrath of them, these 2 are rarely available though. Then you jump up to big bigger sizes like Pustulatus, Lineatus and Mbu all of which are unsuitable for that size tank.

A lot of the smaller puffers are generally intolerant of tankmates like the smaller target puffers and if you went for the even smaller species like Dwarfs and Redeye puffers even these could cause your current inhabitans problems or worse still your tankmates wuold attempt to eat them and if they are still retining some toxicity from the wild you could end up with a lot of casualties in the tank.

Probably best to steer clear of a puffer in this tank while it holds its current inhabitants.