FOWLR... dogface puffer compat. Input please

[adee]

Okay, sooo we nitched our idea of a large reef tank. We picked up a dogface puffer and plan to put all our corals/inverts (That were plucked from the 125 for their own safety and placed into a smaller tank) in a 29 gallon biocube. We are going to put our other fish in that 29 too.
We have a dogface puffer... we would like to add a
blue hippo tang
yellow tang
emperor angel
trigger of some sort
flame hawkfish
a star of some sort?
what can i use as a CUC that would be safe?
Suggestions for what *you* would put?

 

[doggie]

I have a dogface and a niger trigger in my 125. The only cuc that has worked for me so far are mexican turbo snails and and a pretty large urchin. The urchin has been around for months now but the snails get picked off every now and then. I just keep buying more.

 

[adee]

I wonder if the mex. turbo snails will be safe in with the puffer.. I took everything out of the tank that was either invert or coral related to protect them from the hungry puffer.
What kind of urchin do you have?

 

[rcreations]

Large Mexican turbo snails worked for me too.

 

[doggie]

Well like i said once in awhile a snail will get taken. The urchin I have is a rather large purple urchin. I'll post a pic when it comes out.
I'd try the snails if I were you. At least they're cheap. a LFS around here sells jumbo mex. turbo snails 7 for $30.

 

[adee]

wow thats awesome!! Ours are about $5 each too.. I will for sure try them.. it had taste tested a couple hermits last night that I noticed before snagging them all.
Im glad I went through the tank and saved all the corals, there was a small section of zoos that had planted to a piece of rock (im talking only about 8 heads) which was too big to remove and I left in there just to see if he would eat them all and he had cleaned them all out by the time I got home from work. Hes got a big old belly this afternoon too! Ours keeps attacking himself in the glass... i see his fins get going really fast and his teeth press against the glass, doofy dogface!
Is it fair to say he will most likely pick apart any kind of starfish too? He plucked a leg off my brittle star while I was gathering all the inverts last night.

 

[doggie]

Sounds like your puffer is a bit more aggressive then mine. He might eat a snail every other week and he could care less about the hermits I had in there. The trigger loves hermits. I don't know about a starfish. I've been tempted to try but haven't yet.

 

[sea_fan]

From what I've heard, no stars are a good idea. We have a choc chip, but he stays in the bio cube.