mixing puffers

[defool89]

So I got a healthy fahaka puffer, he's like a little water dog, likes gettin petted its weird..now I know they can be little devils and use their hellish teeth to raise hell with tank mates but what if I got little dwarf puffers as his minions? Is this a bad idea? Would the dwarfs gang bang my slow fahaka?

[bertie 83]

Your fahaka will eat the dwarves, or the dwarves will nip at the fahaka until he eats them. Also you should never touch a fish, especially not a scaleless fish as you could damage his slime coat leaving him open to serious infection. Plus once they hit maturity they get less tolerant so you could wind up missing part of your finger/hand.

[defool89]

That's so depressing he seems to enjoy it, his fins go into hyper mode and he just swims back and forth on his own... but you had me at finger. ... so no minions it is.

[sgtmyers88]

I believe someone on here once quoted "A Fahaka does not have tank mates, just swimming food reserves."

[bertie 83]

That would be RTR that said that. As a general rule it is true, if you want to add any other fish and your tank size allows it try something small and fast, don't get attached to them though.

[RTR]

Plus, Fakakas are very fast and strong swimmers themselves. They are fish capable of dealing with main-channel levels of current in large rivers. While they may seasonally travel in loose groups, they are equally seasonally solitary highly aggressive and territorial hunter-predators.

Hundreds of generations ago, some wolves adapted to sharing human homes and hunting grounds and working with humans to mutual benefit. This does not mean that you can take a wild young wolf into your home and expect it be a dog when it matures. It will not. It will be at best a semi-trained and never really safe wild animal. Dogs have hundreds of generations of adaption to our lives. No fish other than fancy goldfish have that. All other captive fish are basically imprisoned wild animals. You need to accept them as that, and appreciate their looks and intelligence without sharing their private spaces or having physical contact with them. Fahakas are not toys, they are strong and aggressive animals. Respect them and try to meet their needs.

I have kept 3 different Fahakas. If I were to keep another, a 180 US gallon tank would be their minimum tank size, and larger would be better IMHO & IME.

HTH