Porky Puffer Nipping Everything!!

[GigaFish]

I got a little 4" porcupine puffer a few weeks ago and the little guy has been (for lack of a better word) hell since I put him in my tank. Before I got him I had read that they are nippers but I researched all posts regarding puffers and lionfish, and so on and so forth and everyone seemed to think this combination would be fine. So since he was introduced to the tank, my marine betta is missing about 1/4 inch off of the whole back end of his tail, my lion fish's pectoral fins have some bite marks taken out of them, and then to top everything off, I watched the puffer swim up to the lion and bite down right on one of his venomous spikes and the lion was outraged. He started chasing the puffer around the tank and biting him, then he started attacking my tangs, and now he is just sitting on the bottom of the tank in full defcon 5 mode just guarding himself. So my question is, is there anything I can do about this aside from getting rid of the puffer? I was thinking about possibly throwing some small hermit crabs in there to maintain control of the puffers curiousity. What do you think about that?

 

[LauraCline]

He will probably continue to taste everything, they are very curious fish. I have a Toby puffer that used to sample everything, now he's gotten lazy and it's just most things,lol. Some fish are more aggressive about it than others. Mine seems to love macroalgae and Nori so I use it to distract him. Also, watch your hands in their, he might try to "nip" you too. The size tank has some to do with it as well. If you have all those fish in a 54 corner, that could be part of the problem and it might get worse as they get bigger.

 

[GigaFish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12210535#post12210535 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LauraCline
He will probably continue to taste everything, they are very curious fish. I have a Toby puffer that used to sample everything, now he's gotten lazy and it's just most things,lol. Some fish are more aggressive about it than others. Mine seems to love macroalgae and Nori so I use it to distract him. Also, watch your hands in their, he might try to "nip" you too. The size tank has some to do with it as well. If you have all those fish in a 54 corner, that could be part of the problem and it might get worse as they get bigger.

All of these fish are in my 115g.

 

[GigaFish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12210535#post12210535 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LauraCline
He will probably continue to taste everything, they are very curious fish. I have a Toby puffer that used to sample everything, now he's gotten lazy and it's just most things,lol. Some fish are more aggressive about it than others. Mine seems to love macroalgae and Nori so I use it to distract him. Also, watch your hands in their, he might try to "nip" you too. The size tank has some to do with it as well. If you have all those fish in a 54 corner, that could be part of the problem and it might get worse as they get bigger.

All of these fish are in my 115g.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=12170952#post12170952

 

[GigaFish]

Dont know how that happened? A double post with the link on one but not the other? Interesting.

 

[reefergeorge]

Do you have any rock in yet? He may be bored. My porc nips things, but not my fish.

 

[GigaFish]

The rock is in there now. He might be bored. That's why I'm wondering if I should get some hermits to keep him occupied.

 

[GigaFish]

So is this something that new puffers do and it fades after a while. My lion hates him now and if the puffer gets anywhere close to him he bites him.