Fixitdude, how do Puffers and snails get along?

[efrank]

I noticed on fixitdudes site that he has a valentini puffer in with snails, crabs, corals, hermits etc.
Is this possible? Everyone always says that the puffer will eat its way through all of these and that they should not be in a reef tank.

 

[saltwater marauder]

I ahve never had a valentini puffer but from experience I can tell you that the puffers not to have in an invert or reef tank are porcs. and dogfaces as they are messy eaters, eat inverts like Rosie O'donnel eats Ho Ho's and will chomp on rock and corals.

 

[evilfett]

I have a question for you too fixitdude. At your website you have a picture of your tank at night. What are those brownish tubes on the bottom left? I have one growing on my LR but dont know what it is. Mine is kinda whitish with the same round brown top. I'm new to saltwater so I don't know species yet. Thanks.

 

[fixitdude2001]

Ok for the puffer question, he has never ate anything but algea and the morsals we give him, all snails and crabs are safe from him so far, he is still small, and for the brown tubes on the bottom, they are brown pollups that are only open when the intense lights are on, with the actinic only they close up and look like a brown tube.

 

[jacques]

Our big, bad puffers wouldn't even eat live ghost shrimp we put in the tank for them. I've heard puffers devour everything, but I've not experienced that yet. Maybe when I get a dogface or porcipine.

 

[pufferlover]

Trust me if you get a Dog or Pork you will see a eating machine in action. As I always say if they can get it in their mouth its the long sleep for whatever it was.

 

[jacques]

Hey Pufferlover,
How quickly will a small dogface or porcupine grow? I was thinking of converting a 29 gallon fresh into a f/o salt? Would either of these outgrow this too quickly?

 

[pufferlover]

Well my 2 Porks started in a 20 as I remember then went to a 45 then a 58 then a 150 then a 125. Get the idea. I think a 29 would work with a baby for about a year. Now my Dogface in 3 years grew from a baby to a 15 incher and lives in a 58 by itself (should have a bigger tank but it is doing ok for now and seems to have stopped growing longer just grows fatter. As I have said Porks due to their personality really deserve a tank of their own with a couple of friends to big for them to have for dinner (I love that line from the first Hannibal movie, which by the way is what I named my baby starts and stripes puffer, my newest Puffer friend). Dogs tho when really big in my estimation need to be alone period they tend to be much meaner to tank buddies then Porks, and they have the teeth to make their point.