Ideas to round out my tank?

[DMD123]

are there any puffers that are poly safe/compatible?

A fun puffer video

I could see my endli trying to take a puffer down!

 

[Polyaddict86]

Few years ahead of you guys and lots of fish later but always been a bichir in the tank since.

Ive been taking care of fish since i was 6 yrs old backed in philippines, but most of the fish i had was from my uncle and most are fish that grows big like catfish,snake head,clowh knife, asian aro, silver aro
And some oscar. I never had any good cichlids or any bichirs till now. I remember my uncle had a senegal but when i asked him he didnt know what its called cause someone just gave it to him. So when i start buying this year thats when i got addicted until now.

 

[clm08k]

Puffers are for the most part best as a species specific tank. Two main issues would be:
1. in nature they are opportunist when it comes to food, so they may nip at fins or actually bite other fish.
2. the other issue maybe because of the enclosed environment they may be out competed for food. Other more aggressive feeders may not let them get food.

That being said, a local store by me had a mbu (22") in a community tank (400 gallon) with all the tankmates being small fish like tetras, Australian rainbow, roseline sharks and then some fancy plecos at the bottom. He made the comment that the puffer had never intentionally ate another fish but a pleco or two got in the way of its feeding and were killed accidentally.

So basically no puffer would be good with a poly.

that's good to know. I've heard they are best in species specific as well. I did have 3 GSPs with some oscellaris clownfish and a damsel for a while. But my goal was to get a mbu. Oh well. That sucks to hear about the pleco that got in the way of its feeding.... Puffers do NOT mess around. especially for blood worms and prawns Puffers and polys are my favorite fish by far....then maybe cowfish. All the personality fish. Your hairy puffer is really cool though.

 

[JurassicFrank]

Tetraodontidae fishes are awersome. But i agree in the idea that are "solo" tank members. They are territorial and also could be quite predatory toward others. Also, most of them are toxic, so maybe bichir could eat food beside the puffer, but if they try to eat him... they could eventually die.
On the fact of that ornate are aggressive, i don't really know. In my limited experience(i have a pair of big ornates) i never seen an aggression between them. They tend to dominate other fishes.. but i never seen an attack. all other fish was simply scared by this "dragons" and go away letting the eat.
Funny fact, i was an "not too big fish" man too... but after i bought my first polypterus... things changed. every big tank i take was basically only for my ornates.(the bigger has 7-8 years by now)

Replying to the first issue, i think that keeping bichir as only bottom dweller is'nt a bad idea. But i've seen that plecos are not that bad as bichir tankmates. they're not so invasive an let them eat, but also devour all not eaten stuff.
Angelfish are also fine, i think, but if you have'nt a enormous tank, i suggest to keep them solo or at least not with a lot of other fishes. If the tank is at least a meter and half long, it's a good idea keeping angelfish in school(as they are gregarious fishes). It's amazing too see, expecially with banded varieties, the interaction between them.

 

[MarcN.]

Ma

Ive been taking care of fish since i was 6 yrs old backed in philippines, but most of the fish i had was from my uncle and most are fish that grows big like catfish,snake head,clowh knife, asian aro, silver aro
And some oscar. I never had any good cichlids or any bichirs till now. I remember my uncle had a senegal but when i asked him he didnt know what its called cause someone just gave it to him. So when i start buying this year thats when i got addicted until now.

OT- Makes wonder if anyone had kept bowfins and upper jaws. I'm eyeing on finding one.