Blue spot puffer - Reef safe ?

[maron6977]

Well, I'm gonna do a tank swap soon. At the LFS & saw a blue spot puffer, I'm a sucker for puffers. They said it was reef safe with caution. Well been a couple days & it's coming out more & getting comfortable . Noticed this morning he's biting sps , especially my valida (that's finally coming around) . Keep throwing in food with turkey baster. The flow from it or the swarm of other fish freak him out & hides . 5 min. later he's out nipping at things again .
Anyone have input good or bad ? Is it just a phase if I keep trying to spot feed him ?
If he doesn't stop , probably won't transfer to new tank.
Mark

[FishyFishy!]

In general they are not good for reef tanks. If they don't eat corals, they will eat inverts.

[maron6977]

I don't have too much for inverts & what I do have , are bigger then him .
I always like to push the limits , have a Niger & blue throat trigger , along with a bunch of other fish . Just hoping he'd stop nipping at sps. Just tried a chunk of abalone in shell but wouldn't come & try it . Triggers loved it !

[gobytron]

They don't bother much if well fed, your main concern is that they come from a climate that is pretty different than most reef biotopes.


Generally they are a cool water fish.

Buy one at your own risk, they generally do not do well in a reef tank but there are some success stories out there.

if you do some due diligence, you'll find very few reports of them eating corals or inverts but many cases of them mysteriously dying after 6 months to a year.

[maron6977]

Interesting , thanks.

[maron6977]

He cute but really starting to **** me off !