F8's and stocking

[maccyg]

Hi everyone,

I'm a relative newbie here but posted a few days about a new brackish setup I am putting together, this is my first venture into puffer keeping and maintaining a brackish setup.

My tank is 24" x 24" x 24" cube holding around 225l of water (before displacement), my aragonite sand and rocks are now in and I have begun the fishless cycle, should take around 6 weeks but hopefully a bit quicker now I've dropped a bag of bacteria-seeded gravel into the tank from my fancy goldfish setup

Once the tank has finished cycling and I have brought up the salinity to around 1.003 and added plants etc my ambition is to stock the tank with:-

3 F8's
4 - 6 Bumblebee Gobies
2 Orange Chromides

I realise there is the potential for aggression in this setup (and from what I've read there is always a risk where puffers are concerned!) but I wanted to know whether the stocking level looks ok for the tank size, is it too high? Is there potential to add more puffers / gobies / chromides? Or does the stocking level look about right? I am thinking both from a normal stocking point of view as well as a territorial / avoiding fights point of view.

I have tried to use AQAdviser to get an idea about stocking levels but it brings up alerts saying F8's aren't compatible with any other species of fish and whilst I appreciate that puffer behaviour can differ from fish to fish and they can be difficult to predict (and I have read stories of some very aggressive F8's) I have also heard a fair share of stories saying F8's can live well with some fish, especially gobies / chromides hence my decision to choose those as potential tankmates.

I already have a species-only tank with my fancy goldfish and I would really like to make this brackish tank a bit more interesting with a community of different species if I can.

Of course if anyone can me tell straight that any combination of these is a definite "no" then fair enough but I'd welcome people's views. and experiences.

BTW Really great forum, I have been really impressed with the knowledge on here!

Cheers,

maccyg

[Pufferpunk]

Looks good to me, just be sure you have lots of decor, breaking up lines of sight. Look into knight gobies, they're pretty cool!

[maccyg]

Thanks - appreciate your response.

Kind of got my heart set on the Bumblebee's but will definately check out the Knights!

Thanks

[maccyg]

Me again!

Ok, have checked out the KG's but have my heart set on the BBG's so going to go with them.

Another question though while my tank is still cycling (I'm being as patient as I can be!).

Are there any rules or guidelines with regards to stocking when it comes to puffers, or more importantly F8's with regards to "who goes in first"?

Ideally once the tank is set up I would like to add the 3x F8's and then wait a while before adding anything else, this is mainly to allow the F8's to acclimatise to the tank and to allow me the opportunity to get used to their behaviour / feeding patterns etc etc before I add another species of fish. I didn't want to go crazy by adding all of the stock (i.e F8's / BBG's and Chromides) in one go especially as this is not only my first puffer-keeping experience but will also be my first BBG & Chromide-keeping experience also!

BUT, by adding the F8's first and giving them the opportunity to get used to the setup / set territories etc would I potentially be causing a bit of an uproar in the tank by adding BBG's / Chromides after a few weeks or would it not really make a difference?