Tank mates for Spiny Boxfish

[sassiegemstone]

Will my Spiny Boxfish be compatible with any Starfish particularly a Chocolate Chip?

I'm getting ready to add tank mates but am so confused with all the research I am doing one site says one thing while another is against it.

Brindy is in the 65 now and doing great. She is about 6 inches now and eats like a little piggy. She won't touch any squid.

I've added some mussels and oysters and barnacles for decoration on the substrate and she don't bother them.

I want to stick with medium fish and ones that are hardy.

Will she do okay with an Eel?

I'm planning on adding some live rock too.

[Meander]

Does your boxfish peck at the substrate? If so, she's looking for irregularities in texture and color. That's what makes the "chocolate chips" on a chocolate chip starfish so vulnerable to puffer attack. They look just like irregularities in substrate or on rock. If you must try a starfish, try a different one, one without bite-sized markings.

Regarding the eel, how about an engineer goby instead? They get nice and long and aren't timid. They are also not very aggressive and won't take bites out of your little darling. I have one in with my porc and they make quite the pair. My "Snaky Dude" gobbles up anything Porky drops and he's fast enough that if Porky ever got aggressive, Snaky Dude would be deep in a crevice before he could get nipped. Also, with the engineer goby you can have smaller fish, too, without risk of having them become dinner.

I know how everyone on here claims puffers and such are the great white sharks of the aquarium but I have yet to see it. My GSP is a holy terror, but only with inverts, otherwise he's a poofter in the presence of fish half his size. My toby is shy around other fish and needs to be target fed. My porc gently moves aside to let his tankmates eat. Two of my friends have porcs in their reefs.

Though my biggest question for you is this - that 65 gallon is just a very temporary home, right? You ought not to be thinking tankmates as much as you ought to be thinking tank upgrade. She's ok for this second but I know how attached a person can become to these fish and you wouldn't want her getting stunted or sickly.

[sassiegemstone]

She will only get to 10 inches. I'm thinking of tank mates that also could be used as a clean up crew. I like the idea of that Goby you mentioned.

It is a 75 gallon tank not a 65. Sorry, it was a typo.

I purchased a Penguin 350 Bio Wheel Power Filter today. I knew I need better filtration and the LFS had it on sale.

Yes, she does peck at the sand a lot.

This one does have a habit of chasing other fish and getting aggressive.

Getting live shrimp from the local bait store was something else.

The shrimp were bigger than her and she didn't care, if they got in her way, she attacked them and killed them.

I'm a little bit scared on tank mates.

I might just stick to a clean up crew including gobies and that's it.

Thanks for the suggestion