blue spot toby puffer

[jacksin]

What are the pros and cons with having a blue spot toby puffer in a community fish only tank with a decent amount of live rock? What have been your experiences when housing one thanks

 

[ndrwater]

Toby's make great FOWLR residents. Cool little fish

 

[tehmadreefer]

Pick at snails from time time. That's about the only con.

 

[TheIcon42]

Great little fish with a great personality...unless you’re an invert or have corals, they can be viscous murderers to the clean up crew

 

[falconut]

Not sure if blue spots behave the same, but I got a white spot & it kept biting the fins of just about all my other fish. I got tired of all the circular bites in their fins, so I returned him to the LFS. Now they all look nice again. May want to check if its common with the blue spots.

 

[Eva Rose]

Beautiful & personable little fish. Some may nip fish fins, others do not - varies with individual.
Same with inverts - some go after both snails & shrimp. Mine went after shrimp only, left snails alone. Mine never bothered my corals.

As stated above, biggest risk is to inverts.

 

[bdesign]

I'll throw in a little story of my recent (meaning last night) experience with the Blue Spot Toby Puffer...

I have a BUNCH of fish in the DT including a fat, healthy Cleaner Wrasse who is always busy cleaning the tankmates.

We added the puffer (maybe, 3.5" in overall length) to the DT last night.

He was immediately super chill and not hiding... PERFECT!

Wife and I had just sat down to enjoy watching it when the Cleaner Wrasse (which we really like as it has a pretty personable attitude) spotted the puffer, darting over to "clean" it... and then all hell broke loose.

The Cleaner Wrasse chased the puffer lightning-fast from one end of the tank to the other and all around the rockwork.
It was absolutely merciless and non-stop.

It was bad and getting worse by the second.

My wife and I jumped up and grabbed nets to try and catch the wrasse.

We stood (on stools) on either side of the glass and flailed the nets all around the tank to catch it... all the while, it didn't stop chasing the puffer.

FINALLY, after basically destroying the stacked rockwork and leaving the water in an absolute clouded mess, it was caught and promptly dropped into the overflow.

Although this very well could be an isolated experience, I would most definitely not recommend housing a Toby Puffer with a Cleaner Wrasse.

Hey, Cleaner Wrasse... remember the LFS?

UPDATE:
The Cleaner Wrasse jumped over the weir and back into the DT while I happened to be watching the tank (fine, I’m always watching! Ha) and the mayhem began once again.
This time I let the situation be, and, after an hour or so, the Cleaner Wrasse lost interest in chasing the puffer.

They’ve been in complete harmony since...

 

[CJD18]

Not sure if blue spots behave the same, but I got a white spot & it kept biting the fins of just about all my other fish. I got tired of all the circular bites in their fins, so I returned him to the LFS. Now they all look nice again. May want to check if its common with the blue spots.

Blue spots are fin nippers!!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Great tankmates and color but not so good with softies especially zoa

 

[kraken14]

Mine got along with most fish. He’s currently housed with a dwarf fuzzy lion fish and a lawnmower Benny and gets along well with them. He did nip my dwarf angels fins when I had them together, but as long as you feed them every day they should behave. Mine eats everything from silverside chunks to lrs nano to nori sheets

 

[CJD18]

Mine got along with most fish. He’s currently housed with a dwarf fuzzy lion fish and a lawnmower Benny and gets along well with them. He did nip my dwarf angels fins when I had them together, but as long as you feed them every day they should behave. Mine eats everything from silverside chunks to lrs nano to nori sheets

I feed 2-3 times daily and had 4 fish with bite marks...foxface, engineer goby, dogface puffer and a dory, mine was about 3 inchs.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I loved my blue spot. Very personable and funny to watch. In a FOWLR, it should do well.

 

[CJD18]

I loved my blue spot. Very personable and funny to watch. In a FOWLR, it should do well.

Mine was and still took 2 tail nips on a 4.5 inch foxface, I think he liked slower moving fish

 

[boilerreef]

I have a Hawaiian spotted puffer and he’s nipped the fins of my yellow tang, fox face, and clown fish. As soon as I can catch him, he’s going back in my nano tank in my study.

Any DIY solutions on how to catch him? I’m waiting on a tank mates trap, but don’t want to wait 3 more days for delivery.

 

[jacksin]

I’ve had good luck putting a clear jug into the tank with some food in it and pulling it out when the fish goes in to feed