The Puffer Forum

I went to a LFS today, and I noticed he had a tiny puffer labeled "yellow dogface puffer" he was about 1.5 inches, and super cute. Is there any info on this puffer? They also had another dogface puffer that was about 2 inches long

I know they will get big, but there are other people that can better tell you about these super cute little puffers.

at least a foot or so... Their are other yellow puffers so make sure it's not misidentified.

Ended picking up this little guy. He's about 1.5 inches. At first he was a dark brown, then after I threw in some mysis shrimp. He turned into a yellowish grey color with the usual dogface spots. He is exploring his new tank, and the damsels don't mind him at all. However, first chance I get. Those damsels will be taken out, I have heard some really bad stories about them.
Only 1 more month and my 54x28x28 project begins in my basement.

With your experiences, what are some good tankmates for this little guy? I'm hoping to get a porcupine puffer as well. As much as I like triggers, I am trying to hold out.

Here's where you can find some information on dogfaces if you haven't checked it out already.

ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Marine/A_Nigropunctatus/

I have. Just asking about personal experiences from other forums members. Doing as much research as possible before I add more tankmates

Here are some pics!

I saw him take a bite at the liverock, or it could have been a small snail he was going after. He is happily transitioned into my tank, when he notices that I have put mysis shrimp into the tank, he goes berserk and hunts them down. So far he has left all the hermit crabs alone.

Y get rid of the damsel? I keep one with my GSP with no probs. They can be territorial and aggressive. Just make sure you pick aggressive tankmates to balance each other out. I keep with my two GSP, a yellow tail damsel,fox fish, 2 blue chromis,2 maroon clowns, red thorney reef star, fire shrimp, needle sea urchin, emerald crab and hermits all with my puffers with no problems..sooo far almost a year. Plus tons of corals.... either way the damsel would prolly be hell trying to catch it.....

I have 3 damsels so far. They are retry aggressive toward each other. I have read where damsels will pick on a new tankmates until they die. I was planning on keeping 1 of them and bringing 2 back and trading it up for a blue tang. But if they don't pick on my puffer I will keep them

once my 180 is ready I can catch them that way. But ithink I can leave them in the 180 with no problems.

I'll make my decision in 2 to 3 months when the new tank is cycled and ready

Definetly aggressive to eachother. I only have one now. I had two but one got it from a LTA I had a while back and died. Now its just one. They are really fun to watch. They swim at light speed thru the tiniest cracks

I'd say keep them as well. They are a great cleanup crew for puffer messiness. Of course, i'm just someone from the internet.

jdak wrote:I'd say keep them as well. They are a great cleanup crew for puffer messiness. Of course, i'm just someone from the internet.

I am going to keep them. But when its time to move everyone to the 180 and they are super pests, they will be gone!

you are someone from the internet and ill listen

IME, if those are the blue, yellow-tailed damsels, they are one of the more gentle of that group of fish. Also prefer to be kept in schools.

Really looks like a A. nigropunctatus, which is good. The yellow ones were called A. citrinellus (a synonym to A. nigropunctatus now) in the past.

There is also the yellow morph of A. meleagris (often called golden puffer), which gets significantly larger and sometimes is hard to tell apart from the yellow morph of A. nigrounctatus when young.

Ill try to get some pics, he has grown quite a bit and has a ferocious appetite. I have a porcupine puffer about double the size as the dogface.

They actually sleep together at night!!!!! The porcupine rests on the rock, and the dogface is either on top, or right beside.. so cute!

As for the Damsels (3 of them), I was told at the LFS its not as aggressive as the other damsels available. So far, they do not bother the puffers and vice versa.

As for hitchhikers.. I have seen 1 black one with red eyes (destroyer crab?) a brown gorilla, and a redish/brownish mantis shrimp (clicking as we speak) and I have also seen 2 blue fan crabs, all under the same rock (not sure where the mantis is)

I have been trying to catch the mantis for 3 weeks now. When I move everything to a 200g in a month or so, I will catch all the crabs, and hopefully the mantis before they go into the 200g. Or if im lucky, the porcupine will snatch the mantis. But so far they are really docile, and only eat mysis shrimp, I have about 10 snails crawling all over the tank during the day and he doesnt even bother with them. I hope I lucked out *knock on wood*