The Puffer Forum

I have an 80g currently with 3 F-8's in it. I saw many people on this forum are having success with BBG's. I'm just curious as to what my limits on stocking would be. Ideally I would like to have 4-5 F8's and some amount of BBG in it, but what would be a good number?

Stick with the 3 f8s if they are settled and happy with each others company as you may get an aggressive one, chuch 3 or 4 bbg's in and see how you go, be sure they have some caves to hide in though

It will be difficult for the BBGs to get any food with multiple F8s. The F8s wil also become so competitive to get to any food first, and the BBGs will more than like be hurt in the process.

IME/IMO only one F8 with BBGs.

What about mollies?

I haven't heard much about Mollies with F8's, anyone got any experience with the two of them together? I've noticed only one of my F8's shows a little bit of aggression, and ironically he's the smallest of the 3 and that's only during feeding time, I might actually exchange him for another one and try to get a little more harmony going.

Sailfin mollies bullied my F8s but lyretail & common ones seemed to be OK. It took a while for the puffers to pick them all off, since they breed so readily. Eventually, there were none... The puffers did do great with knight gobies & orange chromides.

My F8 coexisted happily with balloon mollies for a year, then picked them off one by one.

I saw one person recommending that i get no more F8's. My 80g just seems very empty with 3 f8's, would 2 more really be out of the question? Has anyone had any experience keeping this many F8's in a tank before?

I purely recommended that to save heart ache if you did get a mean one next lol. Depending on tank footprint and amount of decor and displacement etc there is no reason why no more could be added. However based on general displacement rules your tank will hold anything from 55-65 g do really only 1 more could be added if the footprint is long not tall. IMO 2 more would likely be pushing your luck. Make sure you change decor round first if you do choose to add another.

If adding Bumblebee Gobies add no more than 1per 20cm diameter of the base of the aquarium. But do not add these with larger species such as Knight Gobies.

I'd say 4 or 5 Figure 8's with some BBG's would be fine but personally in your size tank I'd instead go with one or both of PP's suggestions.

I think that adding in two more f8's is possible in your tank monitor them often from a bit of distance so you can watch how they interact to make sure they are all actually getting along. Start adding in food from multiple spots in the tank if you haven't already, will help reduce aggression and make sure your tank is heavily decorated with many broken line sights, including many areas for each f8 to claim. Can you upload a full tank shot?

Lots & lots & lots of decor will make all the difference! Be sure to get tall things that reach to the top of the tank.
Here is my 55g GSP tank:

When i add my first batch of salt water tomorrow, i'll definitely re-arrange and add some more plants to block some more sight lines and to give more things to interest the F8's higher up in the tank. Thanks for the input so far.