The Puffer Forum

Hey--
My husband and I are starting up a new 55 gallon Marine tank... we're in the 2nd week of cycling the tank with live rock, so we won't be adding any fish quite yet. We've got at least another 2-3 weeks to go!
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Here are the fish we will be getting...
A Clownfish
A Damselfish
Some bottom cleaner creatures (maybe a peppermint crab or an arrow crab...or hermit crabs...)
A Goby
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After we get these fish into our tank and situated... water levels controlled and such, we're going to try and add a puffer.
What types of puffers are good to start off with that may get along with the fish above?
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After the puffer, we're going to be done adding fish... space wise we should be looking to stop at that point.
Thanks, everyone, for your help!

I just got a solandri (don't know if that spelling is right) toby for my 55 and he is a cutie! Any toby would do well in your tank, most of the other sw puffers get too big.

I would steer away from a damsel. They are really evil fish as they mature and like to mess with everyone in the tank. I have a blue damsel in my 55 that I hate and now I can't get rid of him without taking apart the entire tank and taking out water, he is way to fast and clever to catch. When I first set up the tank I had two striped damsels to and they started nipping my other fishes fins so we had to bring them to the lfs.

Crabs might become food for the puffer. Mine hasn't eaten the two peppermint shrimp, yet, but its always a 50/50 chance with puffers. I've seen him poking at the snails and hermit crabs however but its too hard to count them so I don't really know if he's killed any or not.

Why don't you get a pair of clowns and maybe a cardinal if you can find one?
Also I'd reccomend a Valentini but any "toby" will work great for that tank.

Really the only puffers you can get as SpockthePuffer said are tobies. For tobies most commonly available in the aquarium trade go to this link.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/tobies.htm

Clownfish and Damsels are in the same family and they are both very aggressive fish. People have been successful in keeping the two together but in a large enough tank that territories can be established. Also some damsels can get to a very large size depending on what one you choose. A type of psuedochromis would be a better choice in the "damsel" family if you are interested.
As far as puffers are concerned you have a wide variety of options especially in the Toby family.
Valentini's (as recommended) are very docile tank mates. Paupans and Solandri's have spectacular color. You can check out the PufferPedia for a wider look at your marine puffer options as well.

Aside from the already suggested Toby puffers, a GSP or Ceylon would work nicely if you could find an adult.

Although I agree that Ceylons and GSPs are awesome, I think a Toby would better suit the clown fish and general SW theme. Plus, you could get a smaller Toby and raise it from its childhood, rather than getting an adult GSP or Ceylon.

What kind of clownfish are we talking about here?

All clowns are aggressive, they must be added at the same time or else one will probablly be killed.