Agressive Puffer

[cinciboy]

I have two dwarf puffer along with cory and a pleco in a 10 Gal tank. One of the dwarf puffer is very aggressive with cory and bit the tail off (50% gone). So I moved the aggressive puffer to a bowl. My question is whether this puffer will stabilize over time or I have use the flush.

Thanks in advance

 

[whitetiger_CJ]

Puffers are known to be an aggressive fish, and do best in a species tank, or with fish that are of equal or greater speed and size. I do not believe that the fish will mellow out, however I view it inhumane and wrong to flush a perfectly healthy fish. If you are looking for a way to give the pet away, call up some LFS in your area and see if they will take it off your hands.

 

[cinciboy]

I will try my LFS. Is it ok to have the other puffer in the tank ?. Also I have planning to put some snails in the tank as food for puffer. I heard that snails replicate fast. What snail I have to buy from LFS so that I can use it in the food cycle.

 

[whitetiger_CJ]

It should be ok to leave the puffer in the tank, just keep an eye on him. The snails that you can buy at your LFS are not the kind that reproduce in large quantities. The snails you want are considered a pest in the average aquarium. Look in the live plant area of the store, there might be some in this bin that the LFS would be more that willing to part with.

 

[lyquidphyre]

Never ever flush a fish that is perfectly healthy especially when it is doing something that occurs naturally to him.

Thats like taking a dog out back and shooting it because it chewed up a slipper

Anyways, wait until pufferpunk comes around and she will give you some killer advice

As for snails, like whitetiger said, they eat the small snails that are found on plants that reproduce like crazy

 

[Drake]

I have two figure-eight puffers in a 10 gallon tank. Most of the time they get along fine but one is a little more dominant than the other but still have never wounded him. One thing you could do is put a divider in the tank if you really want to keep the aggressive one. But it is better to have a larger space for them.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

The other puffer may attack the cory when it get's bigger, I would recommend returning the cory (even if you give it back to them for free) and put the other puffer back in, the plec should be fine (hope it's not a common plec or you'll be needing a new tank in about 3 weeks since they grow to over 18" long)

The puffer is doing what it knows, something moved and it must be edible since it's smaller, pleco's do well because they are armoured and big. cory's don't have the size advantage.

and as others have stated, NEVER flush a live fish, you shouldn't even flush a dead fish, the garbage is the best way to go.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I wish you had done some research on puffers before purchasing them. Saying "aggressive puffer", is like saying a feminine woman, they go hand in hand. Please take that puffer out of the bowl, it will die in there! I am shocked that you would even consider killing a perfectly healthy living creature of God, just because it didn't behave the way you expect it to! You can try putting a lot of decor in there for the other fish to hide in. that way the puffers shouldn't bother them, but you just never know. If you really feel this way about your puffers, maybe you should return both of them to the LFS.

As far as the 2 F8s, they really should have 10g each.

 

[cinciboy]

I wish you had done some research on puffers before purchasing them. Saying "aggressive puffer", is like saying a feminine woman, they go hand in hand. Please take that puffer out of the bowl, it will die in there! I am shocked that you would even consider killing a perfectly healthy living creature of God, just because it didn't behave the way you expect it to! You can try putting a lot of decor in there for the other fish to hide in. that way the puffers shouldn't bother them, but you just never know. If you really feel this way about your puffers, maybe you should return both of them to the LFS.

As far as the 2 F8s, they really should have 10g each.

Thanks guys for your advice.

Pufferpunk, I will get more plants and rocks so that cory can hide. It is a very good idea.I will watch them closely for sometime. If it doesnt work I will return the cory back to LFS. Regarding Pleco, I bought it because I need a bottom feeder. After buying only I learned that it will become very big. Then I bought the Cory. I think I have to return the pleco also.

I didnt know that LFS will take back the puffer fish. Otherwise i would not have posted as I am going to flush it.

 

[Pufferpunk]

If the idiots were stupid enough to sell you a killing species of fish w/o warninng you, you better insist they take it back (if it is still necessary)!

 

[Nippyfish]

I keep dwarf puffers too and I can tell you they do best in a species only tank. I keep mine in a very heavily planted 10 gal with zebra danios who are very fast and this set up works well. They do take a little more work then some other fish because they are very picky eaters and are more sensitive to nitrate then most fish. You'll need to remove him from the bowl and keep him in a cycled tank. Try not to let the nitrates run above 10 ppm.

I'm glad to hear you're making sure he gets his snails. They are aggressive hunters and any pond snails you keep in the tank will quickly be eaten before they can reproduce. I have a separate 10 gal where I let my snails propagate and then move several over each week into the puffer tank.

Thanks for not flushing.

 

[cinciboy]

Went to LFS and got some (dense) plants and also got some plant snails. I am watching it closely. Lets see what happens. The puffer seems not interested in snails at least for the time being. I will post the status.

 

[Pufferpunk]

The rule of thumb is snails as big as their eye. That's a tiny snail for a DP!

 

[cinciboy]

Today morning I saw the puffer picking on the snail. Good sign.

 

[TCTFish]

There is something I've come to realize about puffers and other naturally brackish water fish that are considered aggressive in freshwater aquariums. The lack of salt contributes to their aggression levels.

Naturally brackish fish should always be considered marine fish that wonder into brackish and freshwater territories. A lot of them do this for breeding. The lack of salt in the aquarium may trigger hormonal changes in relation to reproduction. We are more familiar with this in Salmon.

I've come to this conclusion after witnessing these animals aggressive behaviors in freshwater, yet seeing them quite accepting of tank mates in saltwater aquariums.

 

[Maillis]

There is something I've come to realize about puffers and other naturally brackish water fish that are considered aggressive in freshwater aquariums. The lack of salt contributes to their aggression levels.

Naturally brackish fish should always be considered marine fish that wonder into brackish and freshwater territories. A lot of them do this for breeding. The lack of salt in the aquarium may trigger hormonal changes in relation to reproduction. We are more familiar with this in Salmon.

I've come to this conclusion after witnessing these animals aggressive behaviors in freshwater, yet seeing them quite accepting of tank mates in saltwater aquariums.

Good theory but dwarf puffers are not brackish fish.

 

[TCTFish]

I was always informed of having salts for puffers with the few exceptions such as the bumble bee puffer from South America, but as I look through my atlas, I see what you are saying. However, as I'm looking there are smaller puffers that like a higher pH value and general hardness. This is where my mistake comes in. "Soda" type salts or hard mineral type rocks are probably what would be more natural to them instead of sea salt. These dwarf puffers however, I have seen in saltwater aquariums numerous times and do very well without reaping havok as they would in a freshwater aquarium. It's got to have something to do with the salt, but what? Any clues?

 

[Pufferpunk]

Sorry, but a DP even in BW would cause death to the puffer. It had to be a different puffer you saw in SW. There are actually many strictly FW puffers that should have no salt of any kind in their tank. These FW puffers are some of the most aggressive puffer species there are.

 

[Nippyfish]

TCT, I'm thinking it probably was another small puffer species you were seeing in the SW. Dwarf Puffers are pretty sensitive to additives in the water. (Can't even use many common medications with them) I don't think it would survive with salt. I can't speak for any other puffer species though. DPs are the only ones I've had experience with.

 

[TCTFish]

The particular species I've seen living in saltwater aquariums are Tetradon biocellatus and Tetradon schoutedeni. If I'm not mistaken , these are the common figure eights and green spot puffers. Next time I come across one I'll try to snap a photo. Another species, which I cannot recall a latin name is the Snowflake puffer, but that's not a dwarf puffer.

There have been several occassions where customers would bring in their puffers to us fully acclimated to saltwater SG of 1.023. We'd have no choice but to place them in a saltwater aquarium. They are accepting of other tank mates in a saltwater environment. They ate and were very curious and active as a puffer should be.

That's ok. There are times one comes across a situation that totally denies everything you know about it. Happens all the time. I've seen so many oddball combinations I'm convinced that anything is possible when you put fish in a see through box...LOL