Which Puffer?

[FTF]

This is a bit of a general question but I have a 100 gallon tank that currently houses some rather large cihlids and I am doing a total tank re-vamp, wishing to enter the world of keeping freshwater puffers I was wondering which species are suitable for the tank size and is it best to concentrate on keeping single specimens of the larger species or attempting to keep a number of dwarf puffers. I am looking at pure freshwater species but haven't ruled out a brackish set up.

My mains water runs at 7.6 pH is this suitable but I can adapt if need be.

Any recommendations are welcome!!!1

[Julian MBU]

Puffers suitable for this tank size would be Monotrete abei, Monotrete leiurus, Monotrete palembangensis & Monotrete turgidus which are all strictly freshwater puffers.

[pufferpuggirl]

Personally I think your tank is a bit big for the puffers that were suggested above, all of those can quite happily live in a smaller tank. Both Palembang and turgidus are very inactive puffers, so I would not put them in a tank that big, unless you just really liked them and that's what you want. Even an Abei, which is somewhat more active, I still would not pick a tank that big for that species, and even though I've never owned a leiurus (but would love to!), I can't see them needing that much space either.
You could have a group of redeye puffers (C irrubesco), as long as you have the tank planted heavily. If you were okay with going brackish, I'd suggest Ceylon puffers (Tetraodon fluviatilis), they are very nice puffers to keep and they get a nice size, and you could have 2 in a tank the size of yours. I can't think of a bigger, active puffer that you could put in a tank that size, all that comes to mind are brackish species. Unless you wanted to do a group of dwarf puffers, or the irrubesco like I suggested. My brain might not be working too well, not had alot of sleep, so someone else may be able to suggest something different that may appeal to you.

Oh, and welcome the forum!

[FTF]

Thanks for the replies and also nice to speak to you again Pufferpuggirl ( now youre wondering who I am aren't you, you soon work it out )

I quite fancy the idea of a group of Red Eye Puffers so going to research them a bit more. I need to add the plants back to the tank as my cichlids have wrecked the original ones, was thinking about some groups of Vallisneria to provide different areas to the tank, any thoughts?

[pufferpuggirl]

Now you've got me wondering who you are!

I love Vallis, it grows very well without much light or CO2, and it spreads nicely too. I had to re-decorate one of my tanks yesterday and when I pulled up my little Vallis plants, I could see how they had propagated under the substrate to form a chain of plants. I love plants that spread without me having to do anything. Vallis also grows tall which is nice, gives the tank some depth.

[Nick]

Giant school of SAP's. Totally fresh water and like the company of their own kind. They'd love a big, long tank with tons of current running the long way.

[FTF]

Puffer newbie here SAP's??

I currently have a group of 5 BN's in the tank, will they be o.k. to leave in as I would like to keep these.

[pufferpuggirl]

SAP's = South American puffers -- Personally, as you are new with puffers, I would not go for the SAP's and that's because they require regular dental work to keep their teeth trimmed. Besides that, getting the amount of SAP's that you would need for a "giant school" would be very expensive because they aren't cheap over here.

I think if you don't want to go brackish, then your idea for the irrubesco redeyes is a good one. They are lovely fish and before I got my Mbu, I had a large group of them in my tank, and I never had any problems at all. Now I've just got 7 of them and they are in a smaller tank, but still doing really well with no harassment or attacks.
And I think you won't have any problems with those Bristlenose in there, because my irrubesco never bothered any of the fish that were sharing the tank with them, which included cory's and slow-moving gobies.