The Puffer Forum

i have a f8 puffer in a 20 gal long and was thinking it would be possible to keep a knight goby with it. i am aware that puffers are fin biters but i owned a knight goby before and kept it in a SA cichlid tank with a pike that was a solid inch and a half larger who ignored the goby and 2 green terrors and 2 firemouths who also never did any damage to him. he was fast so he never got his fins nipped.

so my question is would the knight goby be fast enough to elude a f8 as he did in my cichlid tank. also i found once i was keeping my other one in freshwater that they did well in brackish water and share roughly the same salt requirement with with the f8. my f8 is still a baby at about 1 1/2"

Yes they would be compatible. just include some caves for the knight goby. they are really cool looking fish.

I have one F8 puffer with two knight gobies, one male and one female, in a tall 20G brackish tank for over a year now. The puffer tend to ignore the knight gobies. All three may get a bit aggressive during feeding, but have not caused any injury to each other yet.

thank you for that testimony but i have to ask if your puffer happens to be known for fin nipping. i have read that f8 puffers personalities vary greatly and i think i may have gotten a nipper. i put a dwarf gourami in with him last night for about an hour and after about a half hour of being in there the puffer had started nipping at him. i was so disappointed. but then again i have also read that they have a certain fondness for red... the main color of dwarf gouramis.

Just remember... some puffers, no matter what their species is normally, can be downrighht mean.

i suppose the only way to knoiw for sure is to put a goby in there and see what happens. i will work on finding one and post any results i get. who knows when i will find one though, i was very suprised i found one locally before and regret having to sell him (the pike certainly would have eaten him by now...)

Mine ate all the BBGs & lots of mollies. Never touched the knights & leaves the dragon alone.