The Puffer Forum

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I don't believe that's something that can be said for definite Mike. I had a red-claw crab in with my Congo and was actually hoping the crab would live because I got attached to it, but the Congo pulled off too many of it's legs and it died, not having being eaten, but I think just losing too many limbs at once.
I think any time you put a crab in a tank with a puffer, there's a chance that the crab can hurt the puffer. I mean, they do have claws and they are going to try and defend themselves, and you really can't blame them.

I've got a crab in my MBU's tank and figure if the puffer can find it and kill it, fair game, but so far the crab has out-smarted the puffers and lives on. I also have another crab in my community tank which has all sorts of fish, including a dwarf puffer mob, but it too has out-smarted all the fish and continues to live. I've gotten rather attached to crabs recently so have devoted 2 tanks to housing crabs only. I keep thinking my puffers would probably enjoy eating one, but just can't bring myself to do it, seems cruel. I'm not against other people doing it, it's just that I can't get myself to do it.

So it's really hard to say how things will turn out for you if you put a crab in with your F8. It may just ignore the crab and maybe they will live on happily, but I would be careful.

To house the crab properly you would have to give it a lot of room outside of the water, preferably a big sloping sandbank so that it can easily get out. Seems like a lot of trouble for the risk involved.
My guess is that the figure 8's would slowly pick it to death but there is a very real risk that they would get caught by the claws while hovering around waiting to take the next bite.