dare I add a puffer?

[pinballtrader48]

I am thinking about adding a porcupine puffer to my tank (29g). I will eventually be setting up a 150 and a 50 that I also have. I have a clown, yellow tail damsel, couple of emerald crabs, a few snails, a coral beauty, 4 anemones and a starfish, couple of featherdusters. The puffer is pretty small- I have fallen for him over the past couple of months at the LFS. I know he's not really reef safe but I am thinking that since he is small now I could keep him well fed and hopefully out of trouble. I think he'll be a threat to the starfish maybe. Does anyone have any experience with these puffers? Advice?

 

[LeoR]

My advice is that if you have not already brought the porcupine home to wait until you set up a larger tank.
Porkies are hardy, but they grow quickly and need a lot of space and oxygen.

Porcupines are very peaceful tankmates but can be unpredictable with some inverts.

-- They won't touch corals, anemones and most other sessile inverts, except sea-shells which are their natural food.

-- While they don't feed on sea-stars, porkies will bite them (probably out of curiosity) when they notice arms flailing around.

-- Crabs are favorite snacks for porkies.
Some crabs I had put in their tanks didn't even make it to the bottom but, interestingly, porkies never touched some hermits that lived in their tanks.

-- Snails are also a menu item for porkies in nature.
However, snails are not easy to get hold of while attached to a surface and are in danger only when they roll over.

LeoR
diodon.org

 

[Anonymous]

One thing to know about puffers and tank size: you can keep them in a smaller then when they are small, but you will need to move them up to larger tanks as they grow. Sometimes its more convenient to just go large from the get-go, but I have kept puffers in 20g tanks when they are small, then moved up to 100g when they get a bit larger.

 

[pinballtrader48]

I am planning to move him eventually to a 50 that i have just for him, so it sounds like other than maybe coming up a few snails short I should be ok.