Pea Puffers and Otos- Will they work together?

[Kuebeecee]

I have a 55 gallon, heavily planted tank. The resident mix is random:

5 rasboras
2 dwarf honey gouramis
7 corydoras
3-5 otos (I rarely see them so I don’t have an exact count)

I recently had a major ramshorn outbreak so I threw in some assassin snails who aren’t hunting much. I was told that pea puffers love snacking on ramshorns, so I was thinking about getting a few.

Will pea puffers attack any of the bottom feeders? I have heard they are aggressive but I have also heard it really just depends. The otos hang out in a large Amazon sword plant and never leave that area.

Also, will the pea puffers actually eat the snails? I’m trying to do everything to have the snail population controlled without having to manually remove them. (I don’t have the heart to throw them out / crush them)

 

[jackywacky]

maybe... could you send a pic of the tank first?

 

[Kuebeecee]

maybe... could you send a pic of the tank first?

 

[ProudPapa]

Hello,

My experience with pea puffers is the two I have in my 40 gallon community tank. They definitely aren't aggressive to the other fish in the tank, and in fact seem intimidated by them. Your mileage may vary.

They will definitely eat snails. As far as I know that's all mine eat, although there's a colony of neocaridina shrimp in the tank, and I wouldn't be surprised if they pick off the occasional shrimp.

 

[Kuebeecee]

Hello,

My experience with pea puffers is the two I have in my 40 gallon community tank. They definitely aren't aggressive to the other fish in the tank, and in fact seem intimidated by them. Your mileage may vary.

They will definitely eat snails. As far as I know that's all mine eat, although there's a colony of neocaridina shrimp in the tank, and I wouldn't be surprised if they pick off the occasional shrimp.

I ended up putting five in. They also seem intimidated by the other fish. However, they also seem curious. Maybe once they establish territory it will be a different story.

Right now they are distracted by the 100s of snails. They are pecking at each snail but I don’t think they have a kill yet. They are a lot of fun to watch.