The Puffer Forum

At my local LFS they have a Fingerprint Toby (he is labeled as a hawaiian spotted puffer lol) He's only 14.99 which is an awesome price from what I've read since the fingerprints are somewhat hard to find. He's in with a couple clown fish right now and he doesn't seem to be too aggressive. Here's my question. I inherited a 55 gallon this week and I have one Yellow tailed blue Damsel and a Valentini Puffer in there right now. (I may or may not be keeping the damsel, he's kind of a brat) anyway..Does anyone have any experience or anything on if a Fingerprint toby and a Valentini toby can live together in a 55 gallon? (They would be the only one's in there) There is a ton of rockwork so it isn't just an empty tank..lots of view obstructions for them. I'm fairly friendly with the store so I probably could return him if it didn't work out. But, if there's pretty much no chance it will work out then I don't even want to put the poor cutie through the stress. Thanks for any advice in advance!
I wanted to edit this to add the scientific name of the fingerprint, for those who may not know it by that "common name" Scientific name is Canthigaster compressa.
Also, here are a few pictures of my Valentini PS.. don't mind the algae on my filter intake tube!! It was right before I cleaned the tank lol

Sorry mate I cannot give you any info but just wanted to say nice Puffer

Have you got any pix of the Fingerprint Puffer?

I haven't seen one before

while i have no experience with the fingerprint puffer, judging by the coloration difference, that shouldn't be a problem. evey fish is an individual, so just be very careful when you introduce them to each other. make sure you quarentine the new comer first of course.

thanks for the replies. I went ahead and bought the fingerprint today. They said I could return him if they weren't getting along. He's in quarantine right now, though they have had him for over a month and he's showing no signs of diseases and such. I will post a picture of him once he's acclimated and in the tank.

All of the Valentini's I have kept are very docile.

i mixed a valentini and papua toby puffer...serious disaster!

i mixed a valentini and papua toby puffer in a 30g...serious disaster literally overnight! i thought about moving the toby to the 50g once it had cycled but that never happened...

MatthewLaw wrote:i mixed a valentini and papua toby puffer in a 30g...serious disaster literally overnight!

What happened? Did one pick on the other?

i think so...

everthing was fine with just the valentini. i purchased the toby and literally overnight almost everything was dead.

i salvaged a clownfish by putting him into a 10g QT that was still cycling. i ordianrliy would not have done that BUT considering the siutation, i had nothing to lose... the clownfish is doing great today..his name is Sickie after this whole event

He looks great! Keep an eye with him and the damsel, from experience i find em to be rather agressive. With puffers i dont know what the temprement would be.

okay...it did not go over well at all and I now have a 55 gallon tank with a divider in it lol. i couldn't take the fingerprint back... i love him too much. he has the best personality.
they were getting along fine for about a week...probably a little less. then I came home one day and my valentini was up at the top by the filter floating upside down. i thought he was dead. i put him in a little breeding cup in the tank cuz i saw that the fingerprint was picking on him and now that i have the divider in there he's perfectly fine. he was just getting stressed from being picked on all that day.

it happens, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. i'm glad you have found a solution to your problem (having an aggressive puffer and falling in love with it).

this is an idea i've been playing with but never able to implement it: eggcrate divider (holes smaller than the fish you are dividing) with live rock attached to it. because i've never been able to try i haven't figured out how to attach the rocks. but i liken the idea to the puffers being in separate tide pools as the rocks are what looks like they separate the puffers