The Puffer Forum

whats a good clean up crew for a dog-faced puffer?

i wanna know as well

Water fleas?

Amphipods, bristle worms, and mini starfish. All of those should be beneath his notice or too fast "(in the amphipods' case) to get eaten.

will a dog-face eat a sand-shiftin starfish, is there any starfish they wont eat?

Unfortunately starfish are a big no with arothrons.

You are going to realize very soon that the clean up crew with arothrons is the owner/hobbyist.

I wanna know too since I really need a clean up crew too. I don't want to have to keep on buying a clean up crew. I need a crew for a "Fish Only Tank".

will they eat a gold-faced-sleeper goby? and will they eat starfish???

I've got a lined puffer (Arothron manilensis)... similar to a dog-faced in most respects. Although these are both "mellow" puffers, they can still be difficult to keep tankmates with. It may also depend on the individual puffer.

I've got hermits (and lots of extra shells everywhere for "camouflage") and a maroon clown with my puffer. Although he leaves the hermits alone, he has nipped the clown. (If he ever nips again the clown is going to move into my reef tank and the puffer will be on his own. He seems to nip when stressed... like when the power was out for about 24 hours while I was on vacation.)

You might also try some snails that don't expose a lot of themselves like nerites or some turbos... but I've never tried this personally, so unless anyone else can say one way or another, this might be a very bad idea!

A believe the general rule of thumb will be to stay away from inverts, but there might be a few fish you could try... perhaps a lawnmower blenny or the like (if you have lots of algae).

I basically depend on a good skimmer, lots of live rock, macro algae (in the tank; I'm planning on adding a fuge to the next tank I set up for this guy), a good scraper for the glass, and weekly water changes.

You can try a Flounder. They do sell them at the LFS. Some are sold in FW but can adapt quickly to saltwater. There a few Flounders in the LFS that are saltwater already.

Flounders hide under the sand most of the time so they should get along.

I've kept Flounders with all my puffers and had success.

Flounders eat what hits the bottom of the tank.

Be careful with Flounders if you have starfish since they are on the Flounder's dinner menu.

You can try a Flounder. They do sell them at the LFS. Some are sold in FW but can adapt quickly to saltwater. There a few Flounders in the LFS that are saltwater already.

Depends on the species, hallibut i also sold as flounder...and do you realize the potential size of these? Furthermore there are four animals which live in freshwater given the common name "flounder" bt these are not true members of the family. True brackish/marine members of the family do venture up freshwater lakes/streams from time to time but this is temporary.

Flounders hide under the sand most of the time so they should get along.
I've kept Flounders with all my puffers and had success.

Do to the potential size and care issues of these animals, and also considerring the term/common name flunder refers to several species of fish, I would not be reccomending this, especially in home aquaria


Be careful with Flounders if you have starfish since they are on the Flounder's dinner menu.

If you are keeping marine puffers you should not have seastars anyway.

Bottom Line; these animals don't belong int he average home. Please read here for more detail:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/flatties.htm

Adam J

sassiegemstone wrote:I've kept Flounders with all my puffers and had success.

Just curious but successful for how long?

Not to hi-jack the thread, but Adam, are you familiar with the ones commonly sold as Freshwater Soles? I believe mine is a Trinectes maculatus, aka Hog Choker, and I have had him in my Figure Eight tank for some time now and he does seem to be doing well.

I have read some info on them, but now I wonder if they grow larger than 6"?

There are ones that get no bigger than 2-3 inches and that is the type I've kept with my puffers.

As far as the starfish incident, I did not have a puffer at the time. I had just lost my valentini and was not ready for a new puffer.

I had my Flounders for over 6 months and when they reached the size of a silver dollar they stopped growing.

My puffers never took notice to the Flounders since they were always under the sand.

I'm not trying to be smart here but there the following questions I am about to ask are important when keeping any animals in aquaria...

There are ones that get no bigger than 2-3 inches and that is the type I've kept with my puffers.

What type, perhaps this is the issue here, that we are using here. What genus and what species are they? If you don't know wheat your keeping, how do you know what its' potential size and needs are. This is not responsible fish-keeping.


I had my Flounders for over 6 months and when they reached the size of a silver dollar they stopped growing.

6 months is not nearly long enough to claim success or post that the animal is thriving my firend, I reside to my last question, if you don't know what species it is how do you really know what size it gets to and how to care for it? Especiallyw hen you first bought it?

My puffers never took notice to the Flounders since they were always under the sand.

If we knwo anything about puffers in social environments it is that peace today is not peace tomorrow.