Reef/invert safe puffer experience?

LesPoissons · Oct 10, 2019

I’m sure this has been asked a million times but does anyone have a successful puffer in a reef experience or is it just a hard No? I don’t care a ton about the corals but I do want to keep my shrimp and hermits and urchins.

NeonRabbit221B · Oct 10, 2019

Bump.

I see Valentini puffers at my LFS and I struggle to walk away from their cute little faces every visit. Do they prefer to nip on certain corals rather than others?

Sailingeric · Oct 10, 2019

I have a Valentini and he does not nip at corals or my inverts. I do put in some small margarita snails for him to eat but I don't think that happens as I have a bunch in my tank now.

Arego · Oct 11, 2019

We have a porcupine puffer in our 250. He's fantastic. He lives with 13 different wrasse's and is a blast to watch. His buddy is a cleaner wrasse who constantly follows him around ensuring his lines are tightened up and that he is looking good.

LesPoissons · Oct 11, 2019

Jason Arego said:
We have a porcupine puffer in our 250. He's fantastic. He lives with 13 different wrasse's and is a blast to watch. His buddy is a cleaner wrasse who constantly follows him around ensuring his lines are tightened up and that he is looking good.

is this in a reef? Do you have inverts as well?

Arego · Oct 11, 2019

Maya Ybry-Yagy said:
is this in a reef? Do you have inverts as well?

It's a fully mixed reef with sticks and typical LPS, including a few softies here and there. Tons of inverts, absolutely a ton. Every now and then if he is idling low (as he usually is doing) and a crab so happens to come close to him it is a very rare occasion depending on its size that he'll pick it up. He's never actually killed a crab, urchin or any other tank mate.

The wrasses do all the damage which is considerable for the size and amount/type we have- which is fine, CUC are cheap to replace. I should also note that we got him as the size of a chicken nugget and he's now roughly 7-8in long.. When puffed hes about a softball or a tiny bit bigger.

NeonRabbit221B · Oct 11, 2019

Did you add him after all of your other inverts/corals?

I hear they have a bigger tendency to nip at new additions. Appreciate it! I might just go for it today.

Arego · Oct 13, 2019

I've added lots of corals after him.. alot. Here he is puffed because the cleaner wrasse snuck up on him while he was relaxing and he turned, saw his reflection and it startled him.

He rarely puffs up but I just so happened to see this one. And for reference corals around him which is just a tiny glimpse at that particular corner of the tank.

Hope this helps you decide! For what it's worth I've read each has their own personality but if you keep them fed well I see no reason they'd care about coral.. he knows the color of cup I bring his gigantic pile of krill and other goodies in so he's learned what to look for regarding food. My puffer experience in a reef only pertains to these guys, however.

fishkeepinginasia · Oct 30, 2020

LesPoissons said:
I’m sure this has been asked a million times but does anyone have a successful puffer in a reef experience or is it just a hard No? I don’t care a ton about the corals but I do want to keep my shrimp and hermits and urchins.

This has actually been a recent project of mine. I have been testing out some methods to safely keep puffers in a reef tank. I have a saddle valentini in a reef tank with two shrimp and snails. As of now, everyone is coexisting happily. I did three things and made a video about it. 1. put the shrimp in first. 2. Kept the Puffer isolated in a breeder box until he learned the feeding schdule. 3. put the puffer in while it is small and the shrimp look too big to eat for it. Hope this helps!

Arego · Oct 30, 2020

Porky puffer here as well.. model citizen at the top of the class for our fish in a 250g. Granted he will sometimes pickup a crab if he sees it out and moving but once its in his mouth he just drops it.

No attempts at actually eating it, pretty sure he does it for sport / the hunt.

Full mixed reef, softies, LPS & SPS of sticks + numerous other types. Ive never once seen him taste test or just nip a single coral, and if he has at night when hes much more active I have never seen any evidence on any coral suggesting

fishkeepinginasia said:
This has actually been a recent project of mine. I have been testing out some methods to safely keep puffers in a reef tank. I have a saddle valentini in a reef tank with two shrimp and snails. As of now, everyone is coexisting happily. I did three things and made a video about it. 1. put the shrimp in first. 2. Kept the Puffer isolated in a breeder box until he learned the feeding schdule. 3. put the puffer in while it is small and the shrimp look too big to eat for it. Hope this helps!

Just wanted to add in the previous two tanks prior to the current 250 he's in now we've had an arrow crab plus a cleaner shrimp at the same time he was in those tanks.. he could not have cared less..

Honestly hes so lazy he wont go after let alone hunt anything. Now he will on occasion see a CUC crab (usual kind) or a halloween crab and he'll bite and pick them and MAYBE carry them a couple feet around the tank only to just drop them shortly thereafter.

Negative 10 to highest of zero attempt to eat them.. includes the cleaner shrimp/arrow crab. If i dont jand feed half shell clams, krill, etc.. he absolutely will not go after or ea5 anything whatsoever.

LesPoissons · Oct 30, 2020

I tried with a dog face. He went back to the store after a coupe months. Lol. The porcupines seem to be one of the most successful but still seems to be hit or miss.

xxkenny90xx · Oct 30, 2020

When had had our porcupine in our reef it was mostly a good citizen. My inverts learned to hide from him. Once i saw a brittle star reach out for food and bam lost half its leg. He also ate my coral banded shrimp when they were all in a brute can for a tank upgrade. Of course I did feed the puffer live crabs once a week so that probably didn't help...

Anyways yes he was mostly (maybe 85%) a good citizen