The Puffer Forum

I have a tank with a couple of puffers and 4 bumblebee gobies, all has been going well. About 2 months after the tank had been set-up I had a problem with algae and took advice to introduce some mollies to help the situation.

Not wanting to over-stock, I introduced two females. Whilst the mollies and the other fish leave each other alone most of the time, feeding time is different.

I feed a mixture of foods and when I feed them something like a cockle or a mussel one of the mollies will guard over it! When another fish goes near it the molly attacks. I'm confident the puffers still manage to get enough food as their bellies appear nicely rounded afterwards.

What I'm more concerned about is any stress the fish might be experiencing as a result. What should I do? Will the fish suffer or is the competition good?

Since the mollies were introduced the algae has dropped to a satisfactory level but that might just be because the tank has matured. I will happily remove the mollies if necessary, they are ultimately just "the cleaners." Part of me wants one of the puffers to lose patience and rip a molly to shreds!

What should I do?

Thanks,

Kev

I would remove them. Better not to stress out your puffers. Mollies can be pushy!

And, like you said, the puffers might eventually kill the mollies.

How big is the tank?

40 gallon, so it's not really big enough for them to be in there anyway!

Anybody want 2 female silver mollies?

Has anyone managed to keep mollies and F8s together successfully?

I have a black dalmation molly with my figure 8 in a 29 gallon tank. I also have a knight goby. The knight will chase the puffer at feeding time, the molly will chase the knight, and the figure 8 seems to scare the molly...it's a weird triangle of aggression with no damage and it only occurs at feeding time.

Eric

I had a molly in w/my F8s & one of the puffers wouldn't come out from behind the come worm feeder. I fed it to my GSPs.

So do I ditch the mollies?