The Puffer Forum

My tank is currently cycling, it should be done soon. Planning to get a pair of these lovely cuties, provided I can find the males. I'm just wondering if an oto and ghost prawns can survive in the presence of these puffers? Will they simply be ignored cos of their small size, or will they suffer nipped fins and tails? Please advise. Thanks!

Well, not sure if folks have tried that combo. As you are probably aware, both those have (and have not on occasion) worked with DPs, who can be quite nippy with other fish.

My irrubesco male killed 10 Otos.
Took him a week...

Yet, he is one of my more murderous Puffers.
Youll have to try it out for yourself.
A wide range of different personalities in our little friends.

Test it out.. hmm. Seems like a cruel experiment. Lol. Let's hope I'd get peaceful irrubescos. Thanks!

Had my irrubesco pair in a 21 gallon.
He killed 20+ fishes during a couple of months.
Oddly enough; he left the Corys alone, but tormented a Pleco 10 times his size to the deegre that I had to move the Pleco into another tank.
Even the Tiger barbs got assasinated one by one.

I had a similar experience with my irrubescos. A male and female (about 1" long) went round the tank and ate everything (except the pleco) and then took out each other. All in a few nights. During the day they were fine.

They are known to be nocturnal fish-eaters.

When I had my first pair of irrubescos, about 2 years ago, they didn't attack anything but eachother, well mainly the male assaulted the female. I ended up losing the female to the hot headed male in a few weeks and this was keeping them in a heavily planted 20 long. The other fish in the tank were corries, 1 SAE, and the odd ghost shrimp.

When I gave the male away to a friend (same year) and got another pair they seemed fine and calm. They didn't even touch a single ghost shrimp . Too bad hurricane isabella came round and sparked out a heater and killed those guys

Ok this sounds bad. So what would you folks suggest? Keep two females instead? Is this better? The males are really pretty though... How in the world do these buggers breed if they're so violent towards each other! I thought I read that they tend to breed fairly easily.

If you must keep 2, they are best in pairs. At least 20g, very heavily decorated w/plants, etc.

Well, I too tried the male and female pair of Irrubesco - lost the male actually...the female was bigger.

Then tried a female female combination - not good either. The same female took out the other female.

However, I had a great deal of success with dwarf puffers and the female Irrubesco. She didn't care for her own kind - but really seemed to coexist well with the dwarfs.

I recently lost her to some sort of infection - but she was a great gal.

I have two females in with 14dp's and two otos.Spacious tank - no problems as of yet.
They share the tank with some strange type of algae eater as well. Just appeared one day in the tank.Bizzarre!

I have a male irrubesco in a 75 gallon tank with clown loaches, archerfish, and a red finned shark. He basically hides during the day, and doesn't bother anyone. I guess each fish has it's own distinct temperment.

Done some experimenting.
Gave away my female irrubesco, (she was later killed by an otherwise peaceful male whilst living with him in a 18 gallons).

Went out and bought me 4 females and an additional male.
Kept them in a 180 gallons with no problem whatsoever.
Sold the submissive male and two females to a guy with large planted tanks; no problem.
Am currently keeping "killer Bob" and two females in a 92 gallon together with SAE, ancistrus and a couple of vulnurable Asian dwarf cats.
No prob.
Seems like space is the issue...

Very good to hear, and not a shock. So many fish do so much better if kept in spacious situations. I'm easy to convince on that one. Try giving them red light (really red, as in photo safelight, not moonligt) and no ambient light. Allow yourself dark adaptation time, then observe them. It would be nice to know if they are true nocturnals or just extremely crepuscular. If the later, then a moonlight or two om the tank would be cool.