The Puffer Forum

Hello id like to no if you can keep saps and dp together.
My tank is 140 litres with 2 saps and lots of plants.
Id only want a few but was hoping they would help with cleaning up between the plants so food dont lay in dead spots.

No way. Try a small bottom feeder or something, that has bad news written all over it.

DPs will bite the heck on your SAPs.

Try some Corydoras Catfish! They are cute compact fish with lots of variety's to choose from!

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aqua ... c=830+1161

A turkey baster and feeding less or more carefully can help keep the food off the substrate.

depends on the individual puffers , i have sucessfully kept saps and dp's together for a few years and have never had a problem ........the male dp likes to ' school' with the saps , whilst the females dps quarrel amongst theirselves in the plants

Not in my fish tanks, not ever. SAPs are quite active and always hungry; dps carefully examine and consider each morsel of food - the two feeding styles are miles apart, as are their activity levels. Saps need plants for hunting for snails, but also need decent current and clear areas the length of the tank for rapid swimming; dps need and like plant thickets with smallish clear feeding ares without strong currents. These two fish have very different lifestyles. Species tanks are best.

have to disagree with Robert on this one , in his tanks never maybe ! .....if each individual puffers ' personalitys ' suit to be compatible for long term successful cohabitation ...then makes for a more intersting tank than what can sometimes be a somewhat boring species only tank , especially when it comes to saps who look great but are somewhat one of the least interactive of all the puffer species .

I would not risk a puffers life while trying it. 99% of the time it's not going to be an okay combo. It sounds like you simply need better upkeep on your part. Maintenance is easy if you do it and when you're supposed to.

You could consider adding a soft powerhead to add some flow to the tank and remove "dead spots".

where do you get the 99% from ?? .....you've never even owned any saps !!.............

Dwarf puffers and saps have similar markings and colors and also the same salinity requirements so in those ways they are like ceylon and gsps which can be co-housed together for life. However the size difference will probably cause problems further down the line as the saps grow to over 3x the size of dps, as the saps may view the dps as a food source. Other reasons include that saps are pretty mellow for puffers but dps are not especially after they hit sexual maturity there can be problems with them being nippy and extra aggression to other tank mates and to each other. (which is why even when dps are kept in a species only tank you need to keep the number of males low in comparison to females) I wouldn't personally do it, or even suggest it but if you do attempt this try to keep the number of male dps as low as possible and be prepared to separate, I also suggest keeping them in a over sized tank with line breakage and to regularly move decor. Also their environmental requirements aren't similar enough to warrant them being kept in the same tank, saps enjoy long tanks with fast moving currents while dps don't need nearly as much current and would be swept along a lot due to the extra current.

Puffer King wrote:where do you get the 99% from ?? .....you've never even owned any saps !!.............

No, I haven't. However, I have read many many things about puffers and their personalities. Puffers cannot be placed together most of the time, not even amongst their own species quite often. In my opinion, it is never worth risking a living creatures life, just to "test something out". So, sure the 99% is made up, but quite honestly it's practically never okay to mix puffers. I am not saying it is NEVER okay, but it's not exactly okay to just parade around saying, "You can do it, because it worked for me."

Everything depends on the individual puffer, sure. However, you have to consider the lifespan of these creatures and sexual maturity. Even housing two species together for 2 years is a very short time when we're considering animals that can live to be in their 20's.

i think you need to re-read my posts nucl'glit , i mean where has this come from ' not exactly okay to just parade around saying, "You can do it, because it worked for me."'
As for 20 years life span that is not true of either dp's or saps .....2 years is short i agree , my saps and dp's have cohabitted successfully for approx 4 years and roughly 7 months and continue to do so .

Opinions are just that, opinions. They have no stamp of validity, nor are they always incorrect. Generally, mixed species of puffer in a single tank do not do well together, with one species or the other suffering and frequently fails to exhibit its normal behavior. I strong agree w/Nuclear_Glitter on that point.

We simply do not know enough detail of what the majority of our captive fishes' lifestyles really are, especially the FW and BW rivrine species, Those fish in the wild exhibit quite different seasonal behaviors. SAPs school along the edge of the main channels much of the year, and during that period do show schooling behavior strongly. But during flood/wet season they disperse into the flood plains for breeding and our info on that period is sorely lacking. I have never know anyone who tried successfully to emulate their seasonal cycles and ever showed pairing and breeding in captivity. The F-8s and GSPs likely have similar bimodal lifestyles, also largely but not entirely unexplored by hobbyists. Most puffers we simply don't know enough of their environmental triggers and cycles. Part of the difficulty is that few hobbyists have the resources and the will or interest to do so. The majority of fish hobbyists keep and actually prefer so-called mixed or "community" tanks, which in fact are anything but that. Many fish in the wild are short-lived schoolers. Puffers are not that, and even those same short-lived wild fish can be long-lived in captivity if handled properly. They are so handled only rarely. Fashions and styles in fish-keeping are subject to the whims of hobbyists. That is and will continue to be personal choice.

Personally, I would bet that if given a circulating range of interconnected tanks, an initial stocking of SAPs and dps would over time segregate themselves out into two different set-up styles which would be closer to their wild habitat than any single community tank can be. From my past experiences with other fish that is commonly the case. Mixed or "community" tanks in fact are not that. They are sub-optimum environments for all or most of the inhabitants. But tank styles and configurations are and always will be individual choice.

FWIW, YMMV.