[bulletsworld]

Porcupine puffer fish & other puffers would not go well in a 10gal tank, no matter what size the puffer is. It's simply TOO small and would be cruel. The min requirement for a puffer is 60gal and for porcupine puffers it’s higher as they grow quite quickly and can get up to 18inches.

Here are reasons why a puffer is not a good idea in your small tank. A puffer has the ability to puff 4X its size! Even the smallest porcupine would simple have no room to move in your 10gal if this happened before or after you transfer into your 10gal. Not to mention their not reef safe.

Another thing to consider is they are extremely messy eaters. A diet of Krill, scallops, mussels, etc can pollute a small tank fast, making your 10 gal tank unbalanced easily and creating high nitrates, then turn to ammonia quickly.

Those are just a few reasons why I think a puffer in a 10 gal is a bad choice. The lion fish is also a very messy eater would make your clowns lunch when it got big enough to do so.

An alternative though would be a tiny (1/2 inch) boxfish/cowfish. If you are indeed going to setup a WAY larger fish only tank later that is. I have found it takes a while for them to grow big and they need low flow tanks anyway. I have a tiny one in a 10gal with no problems. They also have the same kind of personality as the puffers which are very personable.

Hope this info helps.