The Puffer Forum

I have a brackish tank here with a group of 6 red clawed crab's and 4 bumblebee goby's. Can i put a F8 with them in the tank ?

Not unless you plan on feeding your crabs to your puffer.

Although the puffers may be small, it wouldn't appear they could actually fit a crab close to their size into their mouth. They would certainly nip them to death, starting with their eyes & legs. Once rendered legless, there isn't much fight left in them & then the puffers can bite thru the shell to get at the meat.

I had to smile when I saw the title of this thread, ditto to the answers given. Its only gonna end one way and thats a rather satified and full puffer

Agreed. It sounds like a delicious puffer buffet.

from my experience, we've had Stumpy, Rufus and Frank (all figure 8s) with 4 separate red claws, and 3 died from escaping, and the last one from old age (he was medium sized when we got him, and he lived another 1.5 years). the one that died from old age lost an eye early on (prolly form the GSP we had in there at the time) and became the menace of the tank. we called him Jack, as in "one eyed jack". we've seen him catch and eat guppies (they came with a group of crabs and actually did very will in brackish, even spawned), as well as ghost shirmp.. and much to our dismay, once in a while Amano shrimp. so, if they arent too small and the crabs arent too big, i say give it a shot. we cant wait to get our 125g for our figure eights and house them with ample land space for red claws and mud skippers, though space and funds have that on hold for the time being.

but i do have to mention, red claws WILL escape if possible. they CAN swim... not well, but they do ok. if there is a way out of that tank, one of them will find it. we thought we'd lost one for weeks, he turned up in our hang on filter, and we'd changed media several times before we'd noticed him. also, my girlfriend liked to hand feed Jack, and one day he grabbed hold of her finger to the point of drawing blood (which didnt detour her from hand feeding), and i know puffers have a rubbery skin, but thats pretty tight grip.

personally, i cant wait to get more red claw crabs, but if you go that route, make sure you have a refuge for either them, or your puffer.

I wouldn't do it as I would worry that the puffers will slowly pick at the crabs or the crabs will injure the puffer, too much of a risk if you ask me

I have had my F8's in with a red claw for several months now...he was intended to be a meal...but he has since moved in, and the F8's dont seem to give him a second thought anymore, Although I have been concered that the crab may grab one of them, they do seem to keep a healthy distance. ( I am not really saying it is a good idea...but it is something I have tried and the water requirements are similar.

I stuck a nice, big ,juicy male in with my miurus for dinner. He actually lasted about 2 weeks & then all I found was a claw.

Would it make any difference if you put the crabs in before the puffer??

I don't think it would matter if you put the crabs in first or not. I have a GSP and I just got a red claw crab like 3 days ago and it's still there...... At first my GSP was looking at it and following it and harassing him for 10 minutes, but the crab is big so I guess my GSP's teeth didn't penetrate the shell of the crab.

After 3 days the GSP now just looks at it and doesn't bother him anymore....But after I put the crab in there, it seems like my GSP is less bored with the tank, he now searches for things constantly behind ornaments.....

Puffalicious wrote:After 3 days the GSP now just looks at it and doesn't bother him anymore....But after I put the crab in there, it seems like my GSP is less bored with the tank, he now searches for things constantly behind ornaments.....

I think this crab's days are numbered...

OraLacerta wrote:

Puffalicious wrote:After 3 days the GSP now just looks at it and doesn't bother him anymore....But after I put the crab in there, it seems like my GSP is less bored with the tank, he now searches for things constantly behind ornaments.....

I think this crab's days are numbered...

yeah i know his days are numbered... HAHA but it was a test anyways, I just wanted to know if my GSP will ignore the crab because he ignores snails when I put them in there... and I have 2 mollies which he ignores and never nips on any of them

yesterday the crab was missing and I thought the GSP ate it, but he didn't because his stomach wasn't bulging out. I saw the crab again this morning, I think he hid under the substrate of crushed corals....