The Puffer Forum

I know... Some of you told me, Bloat should be alone!!! Well, I see so many of you have GSP's in with other fish! I would Just really love to have something else in the tank with the Puffer, It's a 55 gal , its so much empty space!!!

About a week ago my Betta was pestering my Placostumas in the ten gal I keep, So I got online, and looked around and learned that Placo's can be adapted to Brackish water conditions. So I thought that I would put Fiesty( the placo) in with Bloat(my Gsp) since it's still fresh!!! They got along great in the begining when they all lived together in the ten Gal. So all week, they did great, they didn't pay any attention to one another, and tonight, When I went down to feed Bloat a nice large shrimp,(He doesn't eat it all!!!) I found Fiesty in the front of the tank , no head left, and bloat looking satisfied!!! I was so bummed!!! Fiesty wwas really cool! and I'm not looking farward to telling my daughter tomorrow!!! By the way , the little pig still devoured the shrimp!!!

Poor F iesty...

At first I was really confused, Bloat is my fahaka's name LOL

Im sorry about fiesty. Most puffers are best to live a life of solitude

I never heard of plecos being able to be adapted to brackish water anyway. I don't think it would have worked anyway. Anyhow, sorry for your loss

Sorry for your loss. Plecos won't survive in brackish water. They are sensitive to salt in the water.

As has been said, plecostomus are not brackish water fish, and puffers are notoriously naughty when it comes to biting their tankmates.

I wonder if the pleco was dying or died from the salt stress and Bloat just took advantage of the situation.

I thought this was about Bloat the fahaka too! No, please do not try forcing a FW fish into BW again.

Okay- calm down!!! I guess I wasn't clear enough for some of you!!! My 55 gal is still fresh water!!! Bloat has had his 55 for 6 weeks, I havn't started raising the salt yet!!! I would never shock a fish into any kind of different water, SW<BW<FW< or any kind of Tempiture shock, I thinks it common sence not to, ( No offence if any of you have done this) . I would never have put Fiesy in with Bloat if they hadn't done well in the past, and if I'd had another option, he was under attack in lthe 10 gal, the LPS couln't take him at the time, and I couldn't afford another new set up, just yet! the plan was to do it this winter, then I started finding things that said they can be slowly adjusted into a BW tank, Obviously you all disagree!!! and Its all Moot now! He's gone!!!

Obviously a bit of confusion there. It's easy to get mixed up online. No harm done.

Plecos can live quite well in low brackish water (don't expect them to breed) but I have kept plecos with my african cichlids for years (10+) my water contains 1 tablespoon of salt (mix of koshar salt, epson salt and baking soda) per gallon of water so around 1.004 SG, it is hard as a rock as there is lots of limestone as rockwork and crushed coral as substrate. I have had african catfish and common and bushy nose plecos for years in this water growing well and eating well.

wait till ur SW. I keep 2 gsp, 2 maroon clown fish, 1 electric blue damsel, 2 blue/green chromis, 1 foxface and 1 coral beauty, 1 thorney reef starfish, 1 pin needle seaurchin. All get along well. No nipping at all. But obviously those are all SW fish. Id wait for SW to add tankmates. Also keep them with corals too and so far so good. i keep SPS, LPS and soft corals. Only at first they did nip at a feather duster. So I moved its body/tube further down into the live rock and both feather dusters have survived. One of them I thought was dead for sure cuz its tube was riddle with puffer holes but it did survive. Just be mindful of the behavior they show.