My interrest has been sparked on the idea of acclimating a brackish puffer to sea water and then adding to our reef tank.

I just have some red flags going up in my brain and want some comments from every body.

The puffer would be one of these guys:

Tetraodon biocellatus (Figure Eight Puffer)

Tetraodon nigrifilis (Spotted Puffer)

My worries are that they love to eat snails.  Would one of these guys eat all the good worms, bugs and snails in our tank?  And I haven't found any referrence to them with soft coral.

Has anyone done this?  I know that Adam mentioned having seen it done. 

Is it a good idea or a bad idea?

************* The following section is for Mark Peterson****************

210 gallon tank
20 gallon sump
MH & Actenic Lighting
290 pounds LR
DSB
feed dry food daily
feed frozen food maybe twice a week
feed bbs cyclopies goldenpearls once a week (goldenpearls is like pixysticks for coral)
Aquarium is 11 months old.
Yes, you can come visit.

Jared,

The second part of that post is fantastic.  Give me a second to catch my breath and I'll answer the first part.

Adam

A while later............

okay here I am.  The puffers I was thinking of were Tetraodon biocellatus. (note to Carl- notice how he used the latin name first)

I'm not sure how "Reef Safe" they are.  They would eat any little bug and invert they could find... but then again so would any wrasse or angel or pseudochromis.  As for eating your coral.  I think you are okay with these guys, especially since I only see them at about 1" in length.

Adam

P.C.

What kind of crabs and shrimp do they eat?  Are you saying that they eat peppermint shrimp, fire shrimp, and shunk shrimp?  Do they eat hermit crabs and Emerald Crabs?

What about Astrea and Turbo Snails?

Carl I love your new statement we'll put a boot in your **** .

Go Army!!!

from SGT JGlover

SandyReef wrote: P.C. What kind of crabs and shrimp do they eat?  Are you saying that they eat peppermint shrimp, fire shrimp, and shunk shrimp?  Do they eat hermit crabs and Emerald Crabs? What about Astrea and Turbo Snails?

Anything they can get in their mouth. Just get small ones, mine never really were a problem, mostly they went after hermits. I never saw them go after snails.

All right I am going to try this.

We just bought a Tetraodon nigrifilis.  He was kept in brackish water at the LFS.  Right now I am using a very slow drip to acclimate him to our water parameters.  We'll see how it goes.

I would do that slowly.  Like acclimate him over 3 days.

Adam

Will do. 

He is in a 10 gallon bucket with some live rock rubble, a heater, and a powerhead. 

We diluted water from our reef tank to match the salinity in his bag and that is what he is swimming in now.  Tomorrow and over the weekend we will slowly replace the water in the bucket with water from our reef tank.  He should be ready to be introduced on Monday.

Any other advice?

Here is a picture of the acclimation chamber.  I am using the power head to move water from the bottom of the bucket toward the surface.  And mixing in our reef tank water with the green tube.

Here is a blurred picture of the puffer investigating my finger.

I think I am going to split the difference between 3 days and a few hours and finished his acclimation around 4:00 pm today.  I think it will be better to get him into the aquarium for the weekend than the have him stuck in this bucket swimming in his own filth until Monday.

What about  Arius jordani (Columbian Sharks)?  Anyone know if they are reef safe.  I was thinking of giving one a try.  Here is a quote from http://www.liveaquaria.com - www.liveaquaria.com  

"This species prefers some aquarium salt in the water, and may also be acclimated slowly into a saltwater aquarium, as they live in both freshwater and saltwater during different times of their life. ... Feed this fish sinking catfish pellets, bloodworms, or a high quality algae food."

Summertop,

I bought one of those for my buddies tank about 4 months ago.  It is awesome!  That fish doesn't stop swimming and he is all over the place.  He swims more than wrasse do. 
They do better in freshwater than salt, if you ask me.  But you can get some in brackish water at Fish 4 U, which is where I bought his.  I would acclimate him like Jared is doing.  I think they are reef safe, and way cool.

Adam

I'll be able to tell you about what/who he eats in a week or two.

As for the acclimation time.  From everything I have learned so far it sounds like 3 weeks would be plenty of time. 

Well the puffer has been introduced.  Everything seems to have gone fine during this first hour. 

The other fish did behave a little strangely.  They must instinctively know to leave puffer fish alone.  Usually when we introduce a new fish everyone comes to get a good look at the new guy.  And if the new guy starts exploring they will chase him away from established territories.

When put the puffer in.  Everyone just basically ignored him.  When he swam toward the bicolor anthias school, they scattered like he was the fish from hell.  Even the psuedochromis (who rules the tank) just sat back and watched him from a distance.

After I put him in I fed everyone.  He immeadiately started eating along with everyone else.  He did nip at the pulsing xenia once, but never when near it again.  If that stuff tastes as bad as it smells then he'll probably never touch a coral polyp again.

Here are some picutures of him exporing his new and probably strange home.

Well I came in tonight (Saturday 9:30 pm) and found him stuck in the overflow. 

He looks like he hasn't been dead long.  Eyes are still clear and skin color and texture look fine.  I don't know if he got stuck in the intake and couldn't get out or if he couldn't handle the acclimation to sea water.   Hmmmmm.  Shouldn't have done it over a weekend.

I admire your willingness to try.  I would still question his acclimation time.  I know you'll try again (because I would).  My advise is still the same.  Do it over like a 3 day span.  I have confidence that you will make it work, especially after seeing your success (short but successful) with this one.

Adam

Look at this!  I stop checking the forum for a couple of hours and my thread is stolen by and insider.

It is true that we are on our second attempt.  We are hoping that the larger sized puffer will be able to swim away from the overflow this time.  We do have lots of water movement and a very strong current into the overflow.  I am becoming more and more convinced that is was curiosity that killed our first puffer.

Never the less we are doing a slower accimation this time.  At least three days.  I am planning to have him acclimated by friday and then put some snails and hermit crabs in the bucket with him over the weekend.  If the crabs and snails are unscathed on Monday morning then he will be admitted into the reef.  If there are bits of chewed up snail and crab.....

.....does anyone want a 7 cm puffer?

Update....

The puffer has been living in a bucket for 3 days now.  The water has been slowly replaced over that 3 days so that now it is 100% water from our aquarium.

A couple of hours ago I put an astrea snail and a blue legged hermit crab in the bucket with him and so far they all seem to be getting along.

After watching them for 5 minutes I can theorize that the hermit crab will be fine.  It is the snail that is possibly in danger.  We will see.

I am still planning to hold him in the bucket until Monday.   He has eaten and pooped while here (all the things a new baby has to do before they can be taken home) so I feel pretty good about that.

Thnaks for the updates on your puffer.  I am interested in trying it if you have good result. 

Also, I got two Arius jordani (Columbian Sharks) from Fish 4 U.  They were already in brackish water.  They have been in my reef tank since Saturday and are doing great.

Jared (and all)

I was buying fish the other day (surprise surprise) and I saw some way small puffers.  Like 1/4 the size of yours.  I couldn't believe it.  They were only like $2 at the Petsmart on 3rd west 1700 south.  They are in a seperate little 10 gal tank off to the side, and I almost bought them all (but didn't get any in the end).  I didn't have a set up at home to make the acclimation, but these guys were barely visible they were so small.

Just thought I'd pass this on in case anyone else is going to try it.  And Shawn, that is awesome, keep us posted on how they do.

Adam

Everything is going well.  The puffer didn't kill the hermit crab or the snail and has been introduced to the reef.  He looks great in there!

He immediatly started exploring.  Poking and proding everything.  He took a bite out of a mushroom poylp and gnawed on the end of some of the small worm tubes.  Since tasting the mushroom he hasn't touch another coral.  One of our anemones grabbed onto his pectoral fine when he got too close and he didn't like that. 

It seems like he hasn't got any reef instinct and has to learn how to live in this neighborhood.  All the other fish get out of his way though.  He seems to know how to deal with fish.

Update...

Well it has been over a week now so I feel safe in declaring and end to all major combat opperations.

          -doh-

I mean declaring success. (I hope that doesn't come back to bite me)

Summary:
I bought a small brackish puffer, aclimated it over a 24 hour period, introduced it to the tank and it died two days later.  I am convinced that it got stuck by the current in the overflow slots and that is what killed it.  but I can't prove that.
I then got a larger brackish puffer, aclimated it over 4 days, introduced it to the tank and it is still alive today.

Conclusion:
Brackish puffers in a reef aquarium rock!  I love this guy.  He is constantly patrolling the entire tank.  If you stick your face up close to the glass he will swim right over to you and check you out too. 
He eats very well.  (I have a feeling that he could push through a constant stream of food)  He actually chews his food instead of thrashing it around.  I can hold a shimp in there with my fingers and he will bite big chunks out of it.
None of the other fish mess with him and in our 200 gal tank he doesn't mess with them either.  He has not bothered any feather duster worms, large or small.  I was worried about that but it isn't a problem.  Both puffers took one bite out of the first soft coral they encountered but haven't touched any corals since. 
I have noticed some newly emptied astrea snail shells.  I have never actually seen him killing and eating one but it must be his doing.  As long as they are on the glass or on the LR the snails are fine but if they fall to the substrate upside down, they wind up as empty shells the next day.  I imagine that as the puffer turns the corner and sees a scrumptous snail stretched out reaching for a foot hold he just can't help but take a bite.  I have been careful to flip all the snails back over when I knock them off the glass when cleaning.  And besides that.  I think that the puffer is worth a couple snails here and there.

I have been thinking about introducing some smaller snails that will reproduce in the aquarium for our puffer to freely eat.  Any warnings against this?

Jared,

That is great on your puffer.  I think I might try one also.  As for an update on my "Columbians", one of them has died (one week after introduction).  The other one is still doing great.  It has been two weeks for him.  He (I guess it could be a "She") loves to play in the current generated by my return inlet.

Summertop,

Do the Columbians seem like they know what they are doing in a reef environment?  Like, do they appear to have reef instincts built in or did they have to learn how to live in a strange neighborhood?

The puffer is doing fine now, but for the first few days he seemed like he didn't know how to fit in with coral and anemones.

Oh and also.  He is definately eating astea snails.  If any of you are going to try this, you will be sacrificing your snails.  I think he may be picking them off at a rate of one snail every two days.  It may have picked up alittle now that he has figured out how to kill them.

Jared,

The Columbians seemed totally uncaring about the coral.  They just swim along the glass and along the surface.  They did "Explore" a little but never touched anything.  At least while I was watching.

How much does one of these cost?  Where can I find one?

The puffers or the sharks?  Either way they are like $3 at Fish 4 U.

Adam

Summertop wrote: What about  Arius jordani (Columbian Sharks)?  Anyone know if they are reef safe.  I was thinking of giving one a try.  Here is a quote...

I've got 2 I'm trying to acclimate to SW right now.  I'll let you know how it goes...