[Arctic Fox]

I have 2 figure 8 puffers in my tank, (I know they are not "reef safe" but they've never hurt anything). The puffers are really curious little animals, and have never even tried to hurt anything in the tank except for some little ghost shrimp I threw in there for them to eat.

I want to get two little clownfishes, I'm not really worried about the puffers hurting the clownfish, but I am worried that the clownfish might bite the puffers when the puffers decide to "check out" their new tankmates. I've read that sometimes clownfish can be overly territorial and I don't want my puffers to get chewed up.

So what do ya'll think? Think everyone would get along? What species of clownfish would ya'll recommend? I was looking at the false Perculas, looking forward to everyones input.

[Reefland]

Hi Artic Fox,

I think the clownfish will be fine in the tank; shouldn't have any territorial problems with them. Clownfish such as Ocellaris and Perculas will do fine with other tank mates.

However, I am not totally sure what a Figure 8 Puffer is unless your talking about a freshwater or brackish puffer fish? I could find no reference to a saltwater "figure 8 pufferfish"?

[Arctic Fox]

yeah, I should have been more specific, one of them is a true figure 8 puffer (biocellulus, or something like that), technically a brackish water fish, he grows to between 4-6 inches long. There are a lot of sources out there of people that say they are freshwater, even some experts, but they are not. They like very brackish water that is very close to full salt, I mean like 1.010-1.017, they'll live 20+ years in water like that, I've got mine in full salt, and people I've talked to with a lot of experiance say they'll have theirs about 15+ years in full salt before they die, so full salt doesn't seem to bother them too much. However, if you throw a true figure 8 puffer in freshwater they'll live 5 years, if they're lucky, is what I've been told.

The other puffer is a false figure 8, (forgot the scientific name), a true saltwater fish that lives about 15 years, he on the other hand will grow to up to 16 inches I've heard. They will live in brackish water, but prefer full saltwater of about 1.020-1.023, a little low, but still pretty darn close to what I'm currently running 1.024.

The two fish look nearly identical when they are babies, and differences apparently show up when they are about 6 months to 9 months old. The differences are that the true figure 8 will keep its well formed figure 8 on its back and the false one will get a more camoflauged look. Also, a true figure 8's colours will stay brilliant throughout its life while the false one's colour will fade a little. I got them both when they were about the size of a dime, (maybe 3 months?), now they are the size of a half dollar, maybe a little bigger, I've had them about 9 months now, and they are by far the cutest thing I've had in the tank.

[Arctic Fox]

I got two new ocellaris clownfishes today. They're a pair, they follow eachother around and swim together and they like to swim in the current made by the powerhead. They are still pretty little, but eventually when they grow up I want them to breed. Right now they are the size of my pufferfish, and they seem to be getting along. When I first put the clowns in the tank the pufferfish didn't even care. Eventually they started to check eachother out but nobody nipped or bit at eachother so that's good news. Now after 2 hours the puffers & clowns don't seem to even care the other is in the tank. I am going to see if I can't take some pictures and upload them here.

I'm excited