Porcupine Puffer and Reef Tank

[Bryan Thompson]

Can't seem to get an agreement among friends so thought I would post here. Can you keep a small Porcupine Puffer in a fully stocked 265 gal. reef tank? I have all types of coral form soft to lps to sps. Fish are flame hawk, 2 black saddle back clowns, citron goby, lawnmower blenny, Fiji yellow tail damsel, green chromis, and others like 2 queen conchs, astrea, etc.

So what do you think?

 

[sandmanrieast]

Im pretty shure they will eat all the nice things in your tank.......I could be wrong...you ever realy look at the mouth on that bad boy....and boy do they love to eat

 

[ophiuroid]

It would be fine, so long as you don't like your snails and shrimp/crabs and possibly small fish. There is no escaping that it is a predator designed to eat crunchy things....they are extremely cute when small, but grow to be quite large. As a predator, they will place a large bio load on your tank, which is not good for corals anyway. I would not recommend trying it, unless you are willing to lose a few things in the experiment. Perhaps it will work, but I would say that it is not worth the risk for a cute fish that will grow very large and most certainly become a strain on your biological filter.

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Brittlestars!!
http://home.att.net/~ophiuroid
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[ March 06, 2002: Message edited by: ophiuroid ]</p>

 

[oranje]

hmmm....

i have a porcupine puffer in my tank, and he leaves everything alone, strangely enough. he doesnt eat hermits, arrow crabs, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, or anything aside from what i feed him. maybe i'm just lucky.

the -only- thing he's messed with in my tank is a banded coral shrimp. the shrimp tries to pinch him once in a while, and in turn he bites off the shrimp's claws. heh.

i don't especially encourage you to get one, however. they're beautiful fish, very intelligent, and amusing to watch. but, they do get big, they eat a lot, and they make a mess when it comes out the other side :X if you do get one, be prepared to increase the frequency of water changes, as well as periodic removal of debris resting on rocks.

 

[LeoR]

Porkies can be kept in some reef tanks.
They won't touch corals and anemones, but you may lose:
-- Shrimps,
-- Crabs,
-- Clams (that are open),
-- Snails (when they flip over), and
-- Seastars.

Contrary to popular opinion, porkies do not normally eat fish.

Porcupines are very efficient eating machines.
When fed fresh natural food (shrimps, crab, clams, mussels...) they almost never poop (at least not visibly). If you see a porcupine poop that usually means that it is either stressed or is getting the wrong food.

LeoR

diodon.org

 

[DK]

LeoR

You can add small urchins to the list.

 

[danmhippo]

And any small fish small enough that he can finish it off in 2 bites.

 

[LeoR]

DK:

Yes, urchins are favorite food for most fishes and fish collectors use them as bait. But, healthy urchins are well protected and only triggers seem to be able to dismember them.

hippo:

Porcupines will rarely chase, much less eat any fish.
I've even seen a procupine spit out a small goby that accidentally got sucked into the porky's mouth (when it tried to steal a morsel of food).

The only fishes porcupines seem to be attracted to are cleaner wrasses, small hippo and naso tangs. But porkies are too slow to catch these, or any other fish (unless the fish is sick).

LeoR

 

[nin1one7295]

I had a porcupine who grew to about 3 inches. In the mean time he ate everything, 3 damsels, 1 royal gramma, had bitten my stars and stripes puffer, also chased my flamehawk ALL the time. He also ate my small true perc. The bio load on my 75 gallon tank was horrible at times but fine at others. I WILL never buy another porcupine puffer again. Hope this helps.

 

[Anonymous]

If you value any of your livestock I would avoid puffers. They are predators that tend to take a taste of just about anything edible.

 

[LeoR]

nin1one7295:

Thanks, I've been studying porcupines for years and I appreciate all reports about their habits.

There is no doubt that porcupines are predators, but in nature their diet consists entirely of invertebrates.

It is not unexpected that poor conditions (cramped tanks, insufficient or improper food) sometimes result in change of habits. Captive tangs will also eat fish if that's all they get to eat.
Also note that humans ate grass and shoes during WW2, and will eat each other when there is no other food.

So, reefkeepers who do not have enough time or patience to care for all inhabitants should avoid any creature that has teeth or claws or mouth bigger than other inhabitants.

LeoR

[ March 08, 2002: Message edited by: LeoR ]</p>