The Puffer Forum

I use bristle worms, spaghetti worms, and micro brittle stars. All of these seem to be beneath my GSP's notice since he's gotten bigger. If your tank has a complex enough layout with live rock, plenty will escape your puffers and survive to reproduce. I keep a wide assortment of macro algaes as hidi...

My guess is the trigger will eventually gut him.

My porc is very docile towards all vertebrates. Scats are also known for eating aiptasia!!! That's a big bonus.

If you started with a small porc - and baby porcs are something no one should miss out on - you should be fine.

Cool, did you catch the second one, too? Makes me want to make a trip down south for some "fishing." Kind of personalizes the whole experience like the guys who dive for coral frags then have a living reminder of their adventures.

Depends on what kind of puffers you have. If your puffers are big, any mantis shrimp that crawls out of the rock will be a snack. If your puffers are small, it might be the other way around. Don't underestimate the power of a mantis shrimp's striking spears.

Does your boxfish peck at the substrate? If so, she's looking for irregularities in texture and color. That's what makes the "chocolate chips" on a chocolate chip starfish so vulnerable to puffer attack. They look just like irregularities in substrate or on rock. If you must try a starfish...

Do NOT add melafix - have seen numerous accounts/reports of saltwater fish "suffocating" with this med. I have experienced fish with extremely labored breathing with the use of Pimafix/ Melafix. I used to be their biggest proponent but I've changed my mind on them at least for saltwater.

I would avoid the pointy snails for safety. There are so many other good crunchy things like cockles, clams, oysters, mussels, crabs, etc. that you need not bother with pointy snails.

Don't forget to quarantine her tank-mates! These babies are notoriously hard to treat if they get sick so it's best to avoid getting her sick in the first place.

Amphipods, bristle worms, and mini starfish. All of those should be beneath his notice or too fast "(in the amphipods' case) to get eaten.

I'd slowly ramp the salinity up (overnight by drip method, maybe?) to NSW because no matter where this little guy supposedly was caught, he belongs in seawater.

Just a thought but was your puff breathing hard before you started medicating? I've seen breathing distress on rare occasion when I medicated with certain things, particularly Melafix/Pimafix.

That seems awfully hot. When we had a power failure last summer and my tank temps went that high, I had healthy fish in respiratory distress, even with good aeration.

innocence

Get rid of the dogface puffer. One bite is one bite too many with that great of a size difference. You'll be sad if the S&S guts the little guy.