Hypothetical Question - GSPs & Ceylons

[pufferpuggirl]

This question popped into my head today as I was working on my tanks doing water changes, and I was curious what other people thought about this, all hypothetical of course.

If I had a 6-foot tank, let's say more than 150 gallons for the sake of this argument, and I wanted to put my 3 Ceylons, plus my 2 GSP's in this tank, could it work? Before I got the bigger tank set up, I had my 2 Ceylons in the same tank with my GSP's and although there was a big difference in the sizes of the two, I never had any problems, but I also knew they were only together for a week or so. I'm just wondering, since they are sort of in the same family (aren't they?) and they both accept the same salinity, could they co-exist in the same tank if it were big enough?

As I said at the beginning, this is purely hypothetical, I'm not moving anyone at this time, but it's just something I was thinking about. Obviously if the Ceylons could not co-exist with the GSP's, then I would not put them together and there's no reason to, as both are happy where they are. It's more a curiosity thing, and I wanted to know what other people thought about it.

Thanks.

[J-P]

my 12' is 250 gallons, unless your talking UK gallons ... which I have no idea that would roughly equal 125 gallons - some for actual usable water volume

[Flutter]

Don't forget that height and depth vary.

[pufferpuggirl]

I wasn't being precise because it's still just a hypothetical question at this point .... but I realise that tanks differ depending on dimensions.

[J-P]

that would have to be over 2.5 feet deep. at 6 feet, that is 3/4 inch glass if there are no reinforcements.

for the sake of arguement that is a wall to wall tank, that leaves some argin of error. You could put a divider in if it doesn't work out and still have some elbow room

[pufferpuggirl]

The actual tank doesn't exist, it wasn't the tank size I was concerned with .... could be a bit bigger, but I was just curious if the two species would get along in a bigger tank long term with no problems.

[Flutter]

Hehe. Screw the devil, JP's in the details

[RTR]

Off the top of my head, my first and best advice would be negative especially if these fish are approaching a year old or older . Puffers cohabit best if reared together, preferably from the very beginning , and even better if already co-housed as young juveniles at the LFS. Trying to move sexually mature puffers into shared housing is an invitation to conflict. I have never gotten that to work, even when the fish had been in a divided US 180 (6'x2';x2'). Territorial instincts come into play early and I have been able to overcome those.

I do think we have had photos and reports of Ceylons and GSPs together here on this forum (you might try a forum search for the posts), but so far as I can remember it was from fish co-housed at the LFS and reared together after mistaken ID. In my limited experience with them, Ceylons are or tend to be more laid-back fish than GSPs, even though they may well be obviously larger - which would usually be a key factor, but may not in this pairing.

[J-P]

I knew it was a theory question ... it was the housing that I was conscerned wih ... I don't know compatability... thus the divider suggestion

besides that combo would be 140 gallons... min ... depending on how tall the tank was +/- actual water usage

[pufferpuggirl]

Thank you RTR, that's what I was looking for. It's not something I'm eager to do, just something that came into my mind and I was curious about. There's no reason I need to put them together and I don't think it's something I'm going to try, I was only wondering if the pairing would work, and/or if anyone else had done this. Both of my species are fine where they are .... so I don't think I will be trying to put them together.

[Pufferpunk]

I raised 2 GSPs & a Ceylon together from juvies, until they got too large for the 55g. All got along great.

[RTR]

For puffers (less so for Cichlids, IME)) the early co-housing somehow blocks the mature territoriality seen between adults - at least among several species. GSPs and Ceylons are awfully similar. We have seen too many reports like PP's to doubt it. But even that is not a sure thing 100% of the time I've had a lot of problems with F-8s similarly co-housed. It does seem to work though. This pretty much has to be an artifact of captivity. Other than SAPs, you just don't see many reports of adult groups in the wild.