The Puffer Forum

In a 90 gallon that is well decorated, how many figure 8's could or should be housed in it?
Will a large group dilute the danger of aggression like it does with so many other fish?

Good read here that looks to answer your question: library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/

Just please consider a 90g tank holds much less than 90g, especially when decorated for puffers. Less often means more when puffers are in a tank, why not have 2 or 3 f8 puffers and a handful of bumblebee gobies who will clean up puffer scraps?

Is it better to give a few f8 puffers lots of room to avoid each other or to have enough individuals that the aggression is distributed?

Space is everything, they need their own territory

+1 essentially to all of the above suggestions. We cannot tell the gender of the F-8s, so behavior is all we have. Visually complex tankscaping is important, as are semi-sheltered refuges for naps and resting. Current, especially along parallel to the front glass, will provide exercise for individuals and groups. Separate feeding site may or may not be needed.

Bumblebee gobies are ideal tankmates with f-8 as they do well in the same light brackish water conditions as the F-8s, and they may even breed, but fry survival is uncertain.

Overstocking is high risk, multiple males fighting for dominance requires removal of some F-8s. Once the fish are mature and not showing dominance fighting, the tank can be stable for years. These are among the more active tanks for fish-watching. The tank should be stable within 2 years of stocking and can run smoothly for up to 15 years once mature.

It's best to get a group of juveniles and raise them together, and when they are mature, they will naturally form a stable hierarchy, even with more than one male present?
Except that the amount of males that can live together is limited by space, and if there are too many some will have to be removed?
I don't know how this plays out in real life and how you get from a group of juveniles, to a stable group of adults.
How many juveniles should be put in a 90 gallon tank to begin this process?
Thanks for the help!

I apologise if this sounds rude as I don't intend it to. Your question has already been answered, what we recommend is minimum requirements, no point overstocking with f8 s then removing the dominant ones just for the next in line to step up and throw his/her weight around. Stock low and enjoy maximum pleasure from these amazing creatures, in puffer tanks less is definitely more. Try a pair of figure rights or even a trio, throw in some bumblebee gobies and you will have a tank that bursts at the seams with personality. You will not be disappointed.

Sorry, it seems like a general rule that aggressive fish of the same species kept in groups should not be kept in groups that are too small, I didn't really wrap my head around the possibility that a pair or trio of puffers could actually work.
In the previous post about how a group will become stable, I also thought that was in reference to a group as more than two or three puffers.
(a question for another thread is how many bumblee gobies could you actually put in a 90 gallon.)

Puffers are highly intelligent, so long as any of the f8s are not super dominant ( such fish should be kept alone) pairs or trios can work well. Puffers break all the general rules

+1 to Bertie's added comments above.

Please note my signature line. I do not crowd puffer tanks, period. I do not operate any 90s, but when I have set for multiple F-8s in a tank I have used a120 or a 180. I have never set a 75 with more than 3 F-8s. I honestly doubt that the tank (or a 90) could handle more. When I have to pull a hyper-dominant F-8 from a group it goes to a 33XL tank as a singleton, either alone or with a trio of BBGs. That is a 48x12x13 1/2" tank. I have used 20-lomgs as temporary holding tanks for singletons, but for me they are too small to keep an F-8 for life. F-8s are the Energizer Bunnies of the puffer world. They really, really need space and current. Perhaps you can keep one alive in a smaller tank, but should you? Not in my fish tanks. I just cannot do that to a fish that I expect to live as long as a dog, or longer.

I freely admit that many folks here do no agree w/me on tank sizes, but that is a highly personal call.

My F8s wiped out every single BBG. I had better luck with knight gobies.

I've had pretty good luck w/BBGs, but not 100% by any means. BBG fry survival is pretty iffy for me. In tanks where they survive and do reproduce, most fry seem to disappear while quite small. The tanks where they do establish are cleaner than the F-8-only tanks, so the BBGs do serve as small food item clean-up crew. The few Knights I have kept don't seem very good clean-up crew.