Any Toby puffer less likely to eat coral?

[jarrod13]

I'm interested in getting one of the smaller puffers for my 60g cube reef. I keep leathers, zoos, mushrooms, some lps like frogspawn and torch. I really like the Canthigaster papua. Anybody have experience with them? If it's not a good candidate are there any that are? Maybe the leopard toby?

Btw... I know that NO fish is 100% reef safe and that each fish is different, I'm simply looking for personal experience.

 

[edgero]

I had canthigaster jactator and he just somtimes niped some corals, but not harm to them... finaly he jumped from tank .:sad2: I just thinking about to get a new one ...

 

[peasofme]

valentini

 

[fish stalker]

My valentini is fine with softies but cuc is another matter lol

 

[Toddrtrex]

I'm interested in getting one of the smaller puffers for my 60g cube reef. I keep leathers, zoos, mushrooms, some lps like frogspawn and torch. I really like the Canthigaster papua. Anybody have experience with them? If it's not a good candidate are there any that are? Maybe the leopard toby?

Btw... I know that NO fish is 100% reef safe and that each fish is different, I'm simply looking for personal experience.

Mine papua LOVES zoas, was in the tank for about 5 minutes before he started munching on them. He then moved onto to a milli frag. He doesn't (( though I would love if he did )) touch my Xenia. Recently added what appears to be a bubble coral (( was a freebie thrown in from a fellow reefer )), and it has been completely ignored.

 

[rssjsb]

My c. solandri ignores soft corals. Never kept him with LPS or SPS. He does love snails, though.

 

[Khemul]

It's really hard to predict with any puffers, unfortunately.

My Valentini isn't interested corals at all (yet - which is strange because he is the one that'll eat anything I feed the tank, whereas my Jactator will only eat shrimp or mussels but will harass every invert it sees).
My Jactator wasn't interested for a while. Then took a liking to an Umbrella Mushroom. Then went on a hunger strike and as a result took a liking to algae and Zoas.

I'd say that all species will be roughly the same chance of coral eating. The smaller ones (Leopard, Pygmy, etc.) may be less likely simply due to size, but any puffer is equipped and thus fully capable. Especially if you get a picky eater (hunger strikes lead to starvation which leads to testing things for taste and edibility).

 

[jarrod13]

Thank you everybody for the responses, this is the exact information I was looking for.

It seems like the valentini is probably the best candidate.

Rssjsb, how long have you had your solandri? That's very similar to the papua that I really want.

 

[rssjsb]

I've had him for a year or two. He was tiny and very skinny when I got him. He's been in a softy tank for the whole time, and, while he's cleaned out all the snails, he's never touched any of the corals. I've also got a LTA and three maxi-mini tapetum anemones in there. He's also very mild-mannered so far. As always, YMMV.

 

[jarrod13]

Ymmv?

 

[peasofme]

your mileage may vary

 

[gofor100]

Anyone keeping the Valentini (or any other puffer for that matter) with more than just soft corals (i.e., SPS and clams) successfully?

I've always loved the Valentini, but have always assumed it was not "reef-safe"... but if that just means it likes eating inverst such as snails, crabs, and shrimp, then this would be a cool fish to have in my reef.

Thanks,

Chad

 

[Toddrtrex]

Forget to add that my papua went after my clams by the next day from being introduced. Lucky for me I had other tanks to move them too.