How can i move my puffer ????

[suvattii2012]

Look he can remember after eating the worm and goes back.

[puffykid]

There is no reflection visible to the fish unless you put a mirror up against the glass. With water in between the two glasses at right angles. That is an optical illusion from looking diagonally through air through one glass at a second glass at right angles to the first with water in betweenm the two pieces of glass. It is all a function of the refraction of light through glass, air, water interfaces. The fish does not, repeat does not, see another puffer.

Hang a mirror against one end glass and the fish will see his own reflection. That is used to get male Bettas and male Cichlids to display.

The light angle effects are used in Monaco-style aquariums to make the side walls disappear when you look through the front glass.

Thank you RTR I didn't know all this learned something new today!

[RTR]

There are children's underwater periscopes available, but as I said initially, this is one of the hardest myths to dispel. It is a sad commentary on the US educational system that most physics is totally alien even to folks who use technology routinely.

The fact that they can see a reflection means that the fish obviously sees the same, even though they are outside the tank and the fish is inside it. Sad. But this is the way myths are born and propagated on the web.

No further comment from me. I have said enough on this topic. Any more would be insulting and would not help.

[Donna_G]

This topic has really caught my attention as I too thought my Congo puffer could see his reflection. Then when I read about the mirrors, I had to dash upstairs as I have mirrored wardrobe doors but his tank doesn't reach them. So what is it that causes him to go into a manic dance, trying to tear the side of the tank to pieces? The only other time he displays this action is when he sees the feeding tongs and knows dinners on the way

[suvattii2012]

haaha

[RTR]

The likely answer is that the tank end appears clear to the fish and it wants to swim there. If it is chronic and worrisome, just attach a piece of tank background to the side panel, or flattish frond of a large plastic leaf to the outside of that panel. If appears to be empty spae to the fish, it likely will want to swim there and explore to larger space. Fish do not meet glass panels in the wild and have difficulty "understanding" them.

As I have a tank room, many of the tanks are set end-to-end with others. Many Cichiid males and puffers of either gender interact with their own kind well across the small air gap. Folks with few tanks may have difficulty arranging such interactions, which in the wild are part of the fish's normal territoriality. At the scale of hobby tanks, few highly territorial fish get to express that normal behavior. Co-housing such fish in the same tank in captivity is a high-risk technique once the fish are sexually mature. Adjacent separate tanks are much safer.

HTH

[hadla]

yeah, cause if the fish sees only its reflection, then they couldnt see us so clearly... my betta always flares at me when he sees me but never to just the glass walls. just like how if put the medicine dropper used for food up to the tank wall, figgy will follow it, trying to bite at it.