The Puffer Forum

Hi, I am lookin for a puffer 6in and under that has THE MOST agression for its size. Can anyone reccomend one for me?thank you

GSP's can get about 6" and are aggressive.. I'm not sure about the other brackish puffers.. I'm pretty sure F8's are less aggressive than them though..

i would say probably either the hairy puffer or the congo puffer, and actually pufferpunk knows someone who has a hairy puffer who needs a home and is only asking shipping so if you have a 29 gallon tank or 20L that is cycled and willing to pay shipping it is an awesome fish, but you do know the requirements for keeping such an aggresive carnivore right? all the water changes and high diet requirements?

also the aggresive carnivores can be considered lurkers, so when their not eating tend to just chill in their hiding spots.

I'm not really thinking of one like this. I'm looking for this agression and near size range, but they dont really have a personality, b/c their life style is hiding and stalking prey like large mouth bass, they ambush. So thanks for the info, but i think im gonna go w/ a green spotted puffer or fig 8, but gsp are more agressive

F8's are very mild tempered, in most cases. GSP tend to be much more cranky. Curious, why a particularly aggressive puffer?

yeah in my experience is seeking out the most aggressive fish ever leads to some misunderstanding and a group of pacu or piranha

yea cus i find GSP to be hardly aggresive by any means. i mean i have a bichir blood parrots and have experiance with pacus and exodonus piranha from my LFS and there isnt a puffer that you can call aggresive compared to an actual aggresive fish, which usually only become aggresive with numbers. my suggestion would be a little shoal of exodonus.

The reason they are so dangerous to put with tankmates is not so much because they will pick them to death, it's that a single "get out of my space" bite with cripple or kill a larger fish due to the beak puffers have. That said, certainly most puffers are more violent than community fish, and certain puffers(many fahaka puffers) can be truly violent, which combined with their beaks means even an armored catfish twice their size can be scissored in half; a puffer beak is for eating crustaceans and there just isn't such a thing as a fish "tough" enough to handle a bite.

and to be fair, my gsp and ceylon are as soft as anything...

the only thing they show aggression against is river shrimp... and even that is only sometimes....


worried that someone would buy a fish because of it's aggressive nature... would that not indicate that they intended to watch it be aggressive towards something live...

Can you give us an honest answer and say that you are not involved with fish fighting?

If u guys think im michael vick w/ fish or any animal ur way wrong! Ive never fought fish in my entire life! Just like having an agressive fish, idk why but thats what i like. And i wouldnt strictly feed feeders, mostly snail and brine shrimp, ect...

wonderful, lovely to hear...

feeder fish are not good for your puffer, they wouldn't eat them in the wild, and can infest your tank with desease and parasites..

stick with snails, prawna/shrimp, cockles, mussles, shell food... etc...

but GSP's and FIg 8's are really not that aggressive in the grand scheme of things....

beautiful fish though, with wonderful personalities...

Now that we have that cleared up, ive had several puffers b4, it sayed fig 8s but they all turned to be gsp, i fed them krill and feeders once a month, and kept him in brackish water, ph was 8ish.they would all die after a yr. why? I was thinking poor diet?

Krill and feeders are definately not a good diet, but just as likely diseases introduced by feeders as dietary problems were involved. More details about the brackish setup, like SG, might be helpful.

What size is the tank you've got? Green Spotted Puffers need at least 30gallons per fish. Feeders and krill are not an appropriate diet for puffers, if you intend to get one you'll have to look into other food sources. Was your old tank brackish (made with ocean salt or aquarium salt)?
Also see my website on GSP care (link in my signature)