The Puffer Forum

when i started my brackish tank i had my juvenile GSP a juvenile red scat and a gymnothorax tile. (brackish eel) all was well for a couple months until my eel managed to slither out of the tank somehow. everything is covered on the tank except for where the HOB filter comes into the tank. after he died my red scat became very aggresive towards my GSP and i decided to bring him back to the LFS. has anybody else had a problem with a different fish picking on a puffer? from what i've read i thought they were supposed to be the bullies. or is mine just super docile?

I had a silver molly with my GSP for a few weeks, but the molly hogged all the food and my GSP wasn't fighting for its share. I saw the molly, which was only slightly bigger, chase the GSP a few times and when in a corner it just curled its tail.

I had to take the molly out and put him in another tank. I think I got a really timid GSP as well. Not a bully at all.

ya the battle scars on my GSP are just about healed now. its too bad the scat was a cool looking fish

I have Kept and am currently keeping walking catfish (clarias species) with my GSP's and they never interact with each other because the catfish only comes out at night when the puffers are asleep. Works really well!

What size is the tank?
You'd be better off waiting until your GSP gets to full marine conditions and then adding some smaller marine fish like clowns and damsels.

My favorite combination for the T. nigroviridis was full marine with T. fluviatilis. Always a bonus when you can keep more then one species of puffer together!

As juvies, I kept most brackish fish with them. Depending on how much room you have you can do all kinds of combos.

My 2 GSP's are only young but they share their tank with dalmation mollies and a Large Mono Sebae.

The mono harrases the mollies sometimes but GSP's are fine with all tank mates

Hello everyone, I just wanted to post about my experience with the GSP. I've been keeping my GSP in a brackish tank, with some unusual tankmates.
I started the GSP out with some larger mollies with no real problems... no nipping. Eventually I got a free guppy from the fish store, suprisingly it lived... the puffer chased it around for about 2 seconds... then got bored. That guppy eventually gave birth to aprox. 10 fry... the puffer responded by tasting one. My mollies just gave birth and I am discovering more fry everyday... the GSP just gives them a look over and leaves them be. I've had more problems with the mollies and guppy eating young then the puffer! The most interesting tankmate I have now is a blue legged hermit crab. The puffer immediatly wanted to eat the hermit crab once introduced, but I used a turkey baster to squirt water at the GSP when it began to pester the crab... oddly enough... the puffer now leaves the crab alone. NOW! I'm not saying that it is safe to leave your fry, or any fish for that matter in a tank with a GSP, this has just been my experience. My GSP has been shy and timid since I got it. It only comes to the front of the tank for feeding or when it gets really really curious. Doesn't like fingers unless food is in them. I believe puffer personality plays a great deal in choosing tankmates. And remember, personalities can change! I don't recomend trying to keep crustaceans in a GSP tank without close monitoring, but I would be interested to see if anyone else has been able to "train" or cause there GSP to tolerate, as mine did with the hermit crab. Finally, I also had a banjo catfish while my salinity or spec. grav. was lower... it was a neat fish(nocturnal) that did a fair job keeping the bottom clean.

I have kept and still have with my GSP a yellowfin dwarf angel, a papuan toby puffer, a snowflake eel, a ghost goby, I did have two hermits but one killed the other, and a pink lobster.
So far, the pink lobster has had the most attention from ALL of the other inhabitants, but it is easy from the puffers. I think if they can't catch and eat it within a certain amount of time they give up. Fortunately there's plenty of hiding places for all of my fishies, there'll be even more when I get my next upgrade

With my first GSP, I bought some black sailfin mollies to put in his tank, but they constantly bullied him and wouldn't let him eat so it was back to the LFS with them after a day of watching this behavior. It was surprising to see what's supposed to be a vicious fish get driven back into his little hidey-hole by those mean things.

I kept a fiddler crab with mine for a while...but he mostly stayed out of the water or well hidden. The GSP's picked on him alot so we moved him so he'd be a little happier.

I keep two flounder( list as freshwater but actually brackish and at full grown, marine- just like the GSP) in my tank. They are going to full marine by Aug. If you go with flounder, put sand inthe tank for substrate. The GSPs ignore the flounder and the flounder clean up the GSP's left overs- kinda like having a Roomba for the tank

Rigth now, my GSP's are living with a sailfin blenny (lawnmower blenny). The blenny cleans up after the puffers and they seem to pay no attention to the blenny at all. I'm going to add a dwarf golden moray... when I get the funds

I HAD mine with some mollies. The mollies bullied each other like no other, and finally one of them got injured. A few days later I found my puffers snacking on the unfortunate molly. Then the other two went to a new home...

mollies, crabs, and BBGs. Will be SW friends soon, so lots more options.