valentini puffer

[cal4a]

So I am brand new to the hobby and would really like to put a saddle valentini puffer in my 55 gallon tank. I currently have 4 green chromis and some snails and hermit crabs in the tank with some live rock.
From reading these forums it seems that the puffer will eat the snails and crabs. Is this always true or might I get lucky? Also how quickly will he rid my tank of 10 snails? (I could probably live with losing one a month)

My other question is if I do get a puffer, are there any invertebrates that would work in the tank. What about a sea cucumber or starfish? What if I get some conchs or large snails?

If I can't have invertebrates what can I put in the tank to help keep it clean?


Thanks in advance for your help. Let me just say that these forums are really helpful to new people like myself.

 

[lux_06]

i have a small blue spot puffer i bought and is in qt with his reef safe mates but im gonna stick him in a tank with some more predators, they will just eat too many good things on my reef.

that said clean up creatures for you tank could include a very large hermit, a stromb or a cowrie, conch or large snails i reckon all of those would be safe from a small puffer if you get big ones.

im so disapointed my little puffer wont go in my reef cos i reckon hed be so cool to see flutter around!

good luck and welcome.
adam

 

[Siren Crest]

I once had a little spotted puffer, similar to the valentini, in a 75 gallon reef. It worked out pretty well for a while. The puffer never really bothered any corals, and pretty much the only thing it liked to nip was the mandarin's dorsal spine, until one day the puffer thought it would be a good idea to nip at one of the tubercles on a very large tiger cowrie. After that he got the notion that I had purchased him a very large quantity of escargot. So I banished him to another tank with a big Dardanus hermit.

I think sooner or later they're always going to be trouble with soft and chewy things. I mean, look at those teeth, they're made to gnaw inverts off the reef, and that's what they do. Which is a shame, because they're cool fish. If it's working for you, excellent, but I wouldn't put a puffer in a reef again.

 

[edwar050]

Ive got a female valentini "no electric blue lines" in my 120 with a mandarin, chromis, bi-color, two A. O clowns, a yellow tang and powder blue. All fish are pretty small. Also in the tank are numerous snails and a cleaner shrimp. Just make sure you keep your valentini fed daily "hand or grid clip feeding with shrimp etc." and your alot less likely to have a problem. You probably have a better chance if its smaller as well. The only thing I have seen my valentini nip at, "other than a couple of snails" is some red monti cap I had. He nipped it so little though the growth outpaced the nipping "and I didnt mind the nipping bc it kept her teeth trimmed back a bit". Mixed softie tank some sps - They are as hit and miss as dwarf angels though