porcupine puffers and starfish

[Bernard]

how aggresive are porcupine puffers? can I keep starfish with one of them? or will the porcupine fish try to eat the starfish?

[Megalodon]

They eat all inverts.

Sorry for the late response. ;)

[julianp]

My porcupine puffer has never so much as glanced at my chocolate chip seastar. He does, however, munch on the snails in my tank from time to time (but they're breeding so the supply stays fairly steady).

The general rule I've found with mine is he will eat whatever fits in his mouth. Most things that can't fit, he will try to "sample" once or twice and then ignore afterwards.

That said, I have many, many snails, hermits, a feather duster and the seastar in the tank with him and with the exception of the smallest snails getting picked off now and then, he bothers nothing else.

The level of their aggression varies pretty broadly, though. I've seen some porkies that just lie around all day and some that constantly swim, biting at the glass and attacking everything. The best thing to do is monitor the puffer closely before adding any inverts.

[stdreb27]

Most puffers will eat the guy when he is big enough. Or pester him to death in the mean time.

[Puffalicious]

wow, a thread from 2002 LOL

[julianp]

Hahaha! I didn't notice the original post date. Who knows... maybe Bernard is still debating on getting a porcupine puffer six years later. ;)

[stdreb27]

hmm, I do wonder what happened and if he ever did it. Holy crap with as many posts as are posted how did someone find that post from 6 years ago.