Puffer fish and other fish species
andreasmetallerreni / Pixabay
The socialization of puffer fish with other fish species is problematic. Puffer fish are often bad fin-biters. Sometimes they can even kill other fish. Puffer fish are demanding when it comes to food. They need snails, mussels and crabs so that their teeth wear out and don’t get so long that the animals can no longer eat anything.
There are few freshwater puffer fish. Few puffer fish remain smaller than 15 centimeters.
To illustrate this, imagine a fish in the aquarium that has the shape of a large man’s fist and has the corresponding effect on the other animals. You can imagine what a puffer fish will do with teeth made for cracking snails and clams.
Many puffer fish only feel really comfortable in brackish water and need a salt content of 10 per mille or more. Many plants and fish species cannot tolerate this salinity.
Woodlice puffers, Colomesus asellus, have been reported to be successfully housed in an aquarium with guppies and bettas, Betta splendens.
Green puffer fish, Tetraodon nigrifilis nzw. Nigroviridis, Ringed Gobies and Mollies can be kept together in a brackish tank.
The golden ringed gobies are small, fast and agile. They can escape quickly and hide well.
Mollies will fight back if the puffers become too bothersome.
Depending on the size, a pair of Indian cichlids, Etroplus maculatus, and a few Indian glass perch, Parambassis ranga, can also be placed in such a brackish water tank.
The Indian cichlids defend themselves similarly to the Mollys. And the glass perch, like the gobies, can flee quickly.