possible puffer problems

[grovey]

i'm aquireing a porcupine puffer this week and have several crabs in my tank and an anemone i'm sure he will eat all of the aformentioned inverts but is there a possiblity of a young one being introduced and learning to accept them.. although i'm sure instincs will be to strong to not.. i'm not going to be terribly upset if this occurs as i'm planning my coral tank and would have to purchase all new inverts anyway and wouldn't have an anemone in my coral tank but i just wanted your input or experiences with this situation

 

[meow]

Even as babies, in the wild their diet consists of crustaceans. Stick a puffer in a tank with crabs, no matter what the size, he's gonna eat them.

 

[lionstorm]

the only crabs that I've had success with Puffers are very large hermits but even they are not necessarily safe. Smaller shelled hermits can be sucked out of their shells, snails also tend to get eaten. I have a porcupine pufferfish in a tank with a pencil sea urchin and a bubble tip anemone (BTA) and all are getting along fine and have been for the past year.
Crabs to avoid are any that lack shells, ESPECIALLY sandsifters, sally light foots, emeralds, and shrimp are not good either he will eat them too.
Hope that helps.

 

[leopard_babe]

I kept large snails, and trochus snails with my puffer. he never touch a single member of my clean up crew. Trochus snails have very strong "feet?" they are have a strong suction, and they are hard for a fish, even a strong one to pull off a rock, or glass. Depending on the personality, and how well feed the puffer is will depend on if it eats snails. Everyone has a differet experience. I had great success keeping snails, and starfish with my puffer.
thought I would give you my 2 cents.
Leopard

 

[innsmouth]

My dogface puffer ate the legs off of 3 serpent stars and killed every snail in the tank.

 

[lionstorm]

will porc puffers eat brittle starfish?? cause we had one in he tank that we haven't seen in a little while

 

[leopard_babe]

is your porky snoopy? Do you notice its personality as nipping things in the tank? My angel is that way. She nips at my urchin, my star, and my snails. My porky just liked to eat, sleep, and swim. He never touched anything that wasn't krill soaked in garlic. So if you have a nosey puffer, I am sure it could eat a star. How big was the brittle? I bet that if the puffer nipped it pretty bad, it might have hid, and perhaps died. Just a thought I don't know. I have heard of puffers eating stars, but I don't know about brittle stars. I can't say I have heard anyone ever say that.

 

[leopard_babe]

In my experience, I have found dogface to eat more inverts, stars and snails, then porky. However that is just with the fish that I have kept.

 

[grovey]

oddly enough my dogface messes with noting but my porky is a little more of a picker although he is doing great they did eat my horseshoe but oh well they leave my hermits alone and my emerald doesn't come out long enough to get eaten i just need a good clean up crew for the puffers

 

[lionstorm]

my brittle starfish was about the size of my hand with his legs spread out, he was pretty big. No small thing.
I hope he didn't get eaten