The Puffer Forum

Hi all! This is my first post here. I recently got a spotted Congo puffer from wetspot tropical in Portland, OR. I live up in Seattle where he’s been in his tank, a fairly heavily planted 40 gallon breeder, for five days. He shares his tank with 5 harlequin rasboras, 6 corydoras, and 2 ottos. He’s eating well (snails, bloodworms, daphnia, and mysis shrimp) and, while he does rest occasionally on the substrate (sand and aqua soil) or on plants, he also swims around and investigates.

My water parameters are well within his range of comfort and I drip acclimated him for 30 minutes.
pH ~6.8
gH 7dgh
kH 89ppm (~5 dk)
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate <10ppm

My concern is that he’s showing a stress pattern along his back. It’s not usually very dark, but is pretty much always there to some extent or another. I’ve heard the advice that I should remove the other fish, but my aquakeeper instincts are telling me that messing around with the tank to that catastrophic degree (catching fish in a planted tank is no joke) would not be good at all for a fish still settling in to his new surroundings. So my question is this, how long does it take a pufferfish to settle in to his tank? I’m going and getting some wood today so he’ll have even more hiding spots, but I wonder what else I can do to make him comfortable? When should I make the nuclear decision of removing the other fish, if at all?

Thanks! I've seen and read that article quite a few times; it's a good one. As far as I can tell me tank is scaped according to its directions. I know it warns about tankmates, but I've still met a lot of people who've had success.