South American puffers

[FahakaPufferFreak]

Hi

I have a forty gallon aquarium heavily planted lots of flow and water turn over.
I wanted to house 3-4 SAP's in it along with a clean up crew. Would this work?
The cleanup crew would be a bristlnose pleco, 4-5 Otto cats, and 4-6 corydoras. My tank also has open areas, driftwood, and lots of hiding places.

[J-P]

you're really be pushing it at 3 .

Unidirectional flow is best. I can't say with certainty if the 15 gal min is swimming space or boiload. I'll assume swimming space because these guys really are little rockets and need lots of room.

If it is bioload then 3 would max out your system and the cleaning crew would be moot.

My 3 Saps in a 55 get along with a single pleco (much larger than they are) but mine do not portray the "happiness" that others report do. They prefer hunting at dawn and dusk. Lights freak them out and are not your normal tank fish.

[nmonks]

Ancistrus and Otocinclus will be fine, but Corydoras are SAP food. Nip, nip, nip. Don't do it!

Cheers, Neale

Hi
The cleanup crew would be a bristlnose pleco, 4-5 Otto cats, and 4-6 corydoras.

[Flutter]

Ancistrus and Otocinclus will be fine, but Corydoras are SAP food. Nip, nip, nip. Don't do it!

Cheers, Neale

+1 Even a pleco might not be safe. They didn't stop nipping my pleco until she had attacked them back enough times

[danielh144]

Hi FahakaPufferFreak,

I have three SAP's in a 40 Gallon, with one Bristlenose, two SAE's and two Khuli Loaches, with no problems, one particular puffer attempted to nip the Bristlenose only to be chased around the tank and be left cowering in a corner. I wouldn't trust them with any other type of fish though, you can see the mischief in there little eyes!

With that my tank is nice and clean, no algae or water problems so I wouldn't see why it wouldn't work!

[Pufferpunk]

I have three SAP's in a 40 Gallon, with one Bristlenose, two SAE's and two Khuli Loaches, with no problems

For how many years?

[Flutter]

SAE's alone can get to be a good 6 inches! We adopted 2 for our 65gal and will probably be re-homing one down the road.

[danielh144]

Well I rescued two of the SAP's and the two Loaches from a friend who was moving up north, i'm not sure exactly how long he had them together but I've known him for around 18 months and he'd had them before I knew him.

& they joined my SAP (puffy), bristlenose and SAE's which i've had for about 6 - 7 months, I was expecting problems so have had another tank running in parallel but so far other than that one incident which the puffer lost hands down its been good.

Look guys i'm not an idiot I research all creatures before accepting them and I feel that you have been nit picking when i'm just conveying my experience to someone who is asking for it. Isn't that the idea of this forum?

BTW I've been keeping fish of one type or another for over 20 years so I'm not a newbie nor am I locked into my ways, I'm just a guy who loves aquatic life!

[borgey]

Well I rescued two of the SAP's and the two Loaches from a friend who was moving up north, i'm not sure exactly how long he had them together but I've known him for around 18 months and he'd had them before I knew him.

& they joined my SAP (puffy), bristlenose and SAE's which i've had for about 6 - 7 months, I was expecting problems so have had another tank running in parallel but so far other than that one incident which the puffer lost hands down its been good.

Look guys i'm not an idiot I research all creatures before accepting them and I feel that you have been nit picking when i'm just conveying my experience to someone who is asking for it. Isn't that the idea of this forum?

BTW I've been keeping fish of one type or another for over 20 years so I'm not a newbie nor am I locked into my ways, I'm just a guy who loves aquatic life!

To be honest I don't think anyone has been "nit picking" you at all. You shared your experience and other people shared theirs and their opinions on the subject just like you did. I have 2 SAPs and a Dwarf Puffer in a 40 gallon and could not imagine anything else in the tank with the way these puffers swim. They are so active and cover A LOT of space in my tank.

[Pufferpunk]

LOL & again, I have an opinion on that combo. My SAPs constantly had bite marks from the DP i kept with them.

[borgey]

Yeah I knew you wouldn't be thrilled about it. Don't get me wrong I have a 15 gallon cycling so I can put the DP in. I know they are little fish with big attitudes. So far they have been absolutely fine tho, which is very surprising. I keep a close eye on them and I have not seen any bullying from either species. I have different feeding cones for each fish which helps a lot I think also.

[RTR]

I will freely admit that SAPs do not conform to normal puffer housing requirements. They are the only freshwater puffer that I know of that schools routinely and well in captive-sized tanks even if their.schooling style is rather like confined ping-pong balls. Some others also school at times, but the water requirements for those are far too massive for hobbyists. I have, and would again, "crowd" SAPs beyond our Pufferpedia standards, but with extreme caution and never with anything other than dwarf peckoltia or the smallest ancistrus - both of which tend to exclusively nocturnal lifestyles.

IMHO & IME, SAEs are a strong no-no purely from a bioload angle - they are large and do nothing to justify their existence in such a tank. They also may abuse the SAPs. NIMFT!

FWIW, I have been keeping puffers since the early 1960s. Also FWIW, that first puffer tank of mine was very badly done, but it was set and handled by the then-available info. I do know better now.