porcupine puffer

[kd233]

I want to setup a tank for just a porcupine puffer and I am looking for some recommendations on tank size and filtration suggestions. I have not found enough specific info in the books I have read.

thanks

[ahhdui]

good choice. porcupine puffers rock... I got one in my 90g tank. He looks pretty active as he's constantly trying to look for food. I wouldn't put him in anything smaller than a 60g because they eat quite alot and has major loads. I converted my CC to DSB because of the nitrate problems.

[mst_RoadRash]

Porcuipine puffers get to be quite large even in captivity. The best analogy I've heard is this: "Think about a football floating around in your tank."

They are very active but also very messy eaters. You will need a good filtration system to clean up after him. They will eat every crustacean in the tank so cleanup crews are pretty much non-existent in a puffer tank.

They're great fish. Very active, and very intelligent. When you're around they'll even start to beg for food. They learn that you feed them very quickly.

daveR

[billsreef]

One problem is the variability of the several species of "porcupine" puffer that are sold under the same name. Some of the best information to be found on the most likely species to be encountered is in Scott Michaels book on reef fish. This is also a valuable reference that will help you identify which species you are looking at in the LFS so that you can make wise choices.

[chopper320]

I have a porc puff and he's definetly the coolest fish I own. I think they should be in no less than a 120 when full grown. I've seen some pretty big ones in captivity.
That being said, I have mine in a 55 right now but he's still a pretty small guy. I plan to upgrade my agressive tank in approximately 8mo.
On the crustaceans, I know it's not the norm but my puffer doesn't touch my crabs. I have about 25 blue legs and about 5 turbo snails in with him and I've never seen him eat one. I think it's just a matter of individual personality of the fish.
I think a great tankmate for the puffer would be a snowflake eel. This is what I have and they get along great and have the same feeding requirements. You do need a lot of filtration with these guys though since they are heavy eaters.

Another thing to be aware of with porcupine puffers is that they seem prone to ich. The good side is that they tend to recover very easily. Mine got ich a couple of times in the first month I brought him home but he got over it pretty quickly both time and hasn't gotten it in the 8mos. since.

HTH
Ricky

[goodman770]

Until recently, I had a puffer and a niger in a 30 gallon. Both were fairly small, 2 - 3 inches, but were great tank mates. I agree with everyone on here that it is the coolest fish I have owned. I have had 4 over the years and was able to pet 2 of them and all ate out of my hand. In the day, he would find a place to lay down on the rocks and looked like he was just napping. He left my hermits alone for the most part, but will at least look at eating anything that moves (including anenomies). One thing, they can EAT and can be somewhat picky. I have heard that you should not feed them the freeze dried Krill, etc...and should put vitamins in the frozen food you give them. In doing this, I never had an ich problem and nothing but success.
Good luck,
Bill

[Zepplin]

Porcupine puffers are perhaps most clever, most commical, lovable fish I've ever kept. We've taught ours to recognize his food cup. When he naps during the day he reacts with an incurable spunk at the sight of his meal. We keep ours in a 75 gallon tank, he's only about three inches. Here is the kicker, our tank is very much a reef tank we keep several kinds of sps,lps and soft coral. In a year he has never shown intrest in sampling any of the corals. Furthermore we have even managed to keep four cleaner shrimp and two clams without an incident. We have even on occasion watched the shrimp clean our puffer. The only problem wih puffers is they are protien factories, so you want a very efficient skimmer. A lot of times we'll be watching televison and look over to see he's watching us, probably begging for a handout. Our puffer haus, as we so lovingly call him would make a great addition to any tank of atleast 55 gallons, probably bigger when full grown. We even kept two puffer together untill Doug, our other baby dies of old age, at eight inches.

[Zepplin]

:D I thought I'd put this pic of Hoss up... as you can see, he is *CLEARLY* interested in the coral and blue-leg that ended up bumping into him. ;)