Who can I put with my porky puffer?

A

ambrazas

Guest
I am new to puffers and I would like to know what kind of fish he will get along with AND NOT DEVOUR!!!! We love our puffer and after days of not really eating he has gone mad and begun attacking the smaller fish in the tank. Please help! who could be his tank buddies?
 

pufferlover

Active Member
Well first what is it in with that it is attacking. What size tank and how big is the Pork and how long have you had it. Give me some help here with info and I'll try to give you a idea or two. Will check for your answers later tonight.
 
A

ambrazas

Guest
well he ate two blue devils. I can't remeber the name of the other fish but it was 5in long and had a long snout. he murdred that fish. he ate six goldfish today as well and some shirmp.we have a 3in grouper,a hawkfish,lawnmower and a spotted manderin but he does not bother those (so far). we love our big puffer he is 12in and that is his name "Big Puffer". he didn't really eat for a few days we have had him for 6 days and now he has a voracious appetitie. He is in a 125 gallon tank. Any info would be good thank you so much :rolleyes:
 

pufferlover

Active Member
Well the fish it ate with the long snout was probably a birdmouth wrasse. Frankly a fish that size I am guessing if you got it from a lfs I bet someone brought it back because it got to big for their tank. This Puff has bad manners and I am afraid at 12 inches it is going to be very hard to change its outlook on its tankmates (as dinner items). If you got it from a lfs you need to get the low down on where it came from and was it brought back for doing what it is now doing in your tank.
Now here is what I see. Anything it can fit in its mouth is going to go there because it obviously is used to live food (that is bad). I would not feed it any more goldfish or live shrimps no matter how sad it is going to look like. The tank size is good and I hope the other fish have places to hide at night as that is when the dirty deed with Puffers is most likely done. The fact it is the biggest fish gives it the edge and it is using it to keep its tummy full. If it ate 6 goldfish today it probably would not eat every day as it has to be very full. Puffers will eat till they are so full they sink to the bottom of the tank for a day or two till the food is digested. So do not overfeed it. My large Male Pork gets 8 to 10 pieces of frozen Krill or a few decent pieces of frozen squid and that is it I don't care how sad those big eyes look he gets what I feed and that is it. The large female is not as aggressive at feeding time but I see she gets her fair share also. Frankly you have a problem here as I don't believe the hawk unless very large will last to long (had one eaten by my large Dog after being in same tank for a few weeks then one day boom (the Dog cornered it as I watched and then started chewing on it). Unless you can get it to feed on frozen foods (krill, squid, large silversides) then you are never going to tame it to be with other fish (that is why my Dogface lives alone he has bad table habits when it comes to tankmates).
I could go on and on but I think you need some background on these Puffs so I suggest go to my homepage (man standing by house) and check out the info available there on Puffs. I am going to think about this a bit and try to figure what you might do to calm this one down but start please by forgetting live food it is only giving this Puff the wrong ideas.
 
ya like puffer said, try different foods, mine love silversides. that mandarin (i hope in his case has a lot of live rock, because that puff my go after him
 
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