The Puffer Forum

whos kept a mbu with other fish??
and if so what??

I've kept Tanganyikan cichlids, Synodontus catfish, and several different species of dither fish with ours over the years.

I co-housed mine with a mature pajama cat (Synodontid) for almost three years, then the T. mbu ate the catfish. The head and body were consumed, leaving the pectoral girdle intact (with its nasty pectoral spines). Nothing else was co-housed with the fish or anything other than common pond and ramhorn snails too small to be of interest to the puffer. Once the fish was nearly grown, he (?) ignored snails below a certain size. Once they reached ~1/2 to 2/3 inch, they were consumed. No other fish or inverts were ever co-housed with the T. mbu. The smallish snails would make their way into his tank from the attached veggie filter tanks.

i wanst going to add anything i was just curious

pufferluver87 wrote:i wanst going to add anything i was just curious

I actually think they do better when there are other fish in the tank. The whole "dither-fish"-thing. The deal is, you need to be smart about what to put in with an Mbu and what actually works with him/her will probably change with age. For example, many Tanganyikan cichlids would be fine but probably not most Malawi cichlids.

Aside from my own, I have personally seen/know about a dozen Mbu's of various sizes and feel comfortable making the following generalizations, based on these examples:

1.) Fish that are not smart enough to figure out it's not a good idea to get between the Mbu and his food will probably not last long. This is possibly what happened to RTR's fish. I have Synodontus catfish that is missing his tail. Not just the fin, the whole caudal stem. I assume that it was because this catfish got between our Mbu and a crayfish and we all know how that will turn out. I also have other Synodontus in the tank that have no issues.

2.) Mbu, in my experience, don't like large fish that have a high energy level. For example, big bully-type ciclids or other fish that are super-active and always squabbling. My local fish store, for example, was raising an Mbu in a tank with, among other things, a big male Paratilapia polleni. The polleni ruled the roost and the Mbu was always sort of cowering in one corner (like the other fish in the tank). I guess someone bought the polleni because I went in there one day and it was gone, and the Mbu was up front and acting like normal.

3.) Avoid sedentary fish that are "dumb" or inactive by nature. I have never kept things like Polypterus, sleeper gobies, or sedentary catfish with our Mbu, primarily for the reason that I could easily see him just "sampling" one, to see what it was all about, with his mouth. And that would not end well for the other fish.

4.) Dither Fish like danios, teras, and so on, are fine. We have a school of celebes rainbowfish in with ours now and they do quite well together. Full-sized rainbowfish would also be a good choice. I personally feel like having other fish in the tank makes our guy more comfortable.

Just what has worked for me. Best of luck with yours.

My Synodontid was eaten on a non-feeding day for the mbu (or catfish), so it was not competition for or over food. The cat had a quite large cave shallow enough to exclude the puffer, although he frequently slept or rested on top of it. It was not competition for food, but likely just tasting which went on to consuming. My mbu would eat schoolers. He did not like hyperactive fish. They never lasted long in his tank. Individual differences most likely.

How frequently did you feed him, out of curiosity?

well obviously i considered adding fish with him but never decided to i was just curious to what you have kept with them.now reading your replies i may a 20 neon tetras with him and leave it at that.

Sure, you could try neons. Personally, I always just tried whatever was cheap. If they work, great. If not, oh well. We had a group of pearl danios in his old tank but lost them to jumping out, little by little. I just remembered this, by the way: Tried a school of tiger barbs with him and they actually started nipping at his fins, which annoyed him and caused him to hide up in the back of the tank. Got rid of those and chalked it up to lessons learned.

are neons fin nippers??
i dont want him to get nipped

pufferluver87 wrote:are neons fin nippers??

No.

Just remember that anything you add will increase the bio-load of the tank, mbu's put out a mass of waste alone. If anything add something to forage for food scraps that way the bio-load of them at Least removes a bit of waste from the tank. If that makes sense?

yeah i know.ive decided not to add anything else as i dont want anything to go wrong.alls good now.hes settled in perfect and i dont want to ruin that.

E78704 wrote:

pufferluver87 wrote:are neons fin nippers??

No.

I disagree with this; neons can and will nip fins.

I once kept a mbu and a fahaka in a 6 ft x 2 ft x2 ft tank for a week without any problems.At the time both were ITRO 15 in in length. There weren't any problems but I wouldn't do it again...

Both were very laid-back fish but still...