Side Glass Reflection. Can your fish see its own reflection?

A place to discuss general puffer care or news.
cr302186
Puffer Fry
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Dec 18, 2016 1:56 pm
Location (country): New Jersey

Re: Side Glass Reflection. Can your fish see its own reflection?

Post by cr302186 »

My GSP is in a 65gal acrylic tank in my office. He’s a super curious little guy but would have violent panic/freak out episodes at his own reflection and the reflection of movenent outside the tank (especially when people talk with their hands). Definitely varied depending on sunlight and time of day, but no combination of decor or shading variation seemed to solve the problem. It became a chronic stressor where some times he would spend hours hiding behind the locline returns and suddenly flip out at his reflection in the gloss black acrylic of the overflow box.

After reading about total internal reflection, I ordered textured opaque acrylic sheets to be used as a back/side wall insert in an attempt to break up the light refraction. It has worked wonderfully and my little nugget is much happier for it; as am I with such a huge difference in his behavior. Hope this helps if anyone else has a spastic puffer!
Lomie01
Puffer Fry
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 1:15 am
Location (country): France

Re: Side Glass Reflection. Can your fish see its own reflection?

Post by Lomie01 »

scpion wrote: Fri Oct 26, 2012 12:21 pm Hi Everyone!

Before I start, I just wish to say I totally respect the scientific proofs and reasoning behind this myth. But I can only believe what I see.

This thread is to address an age old myth of whether fish will be see their reflection on the glass of their tank. There have been inputs from hobbyist that their fish are showing discomfort or aggression towards their "own reflection" on the side glass. There are also scientific explanation for this "mirror image" to be a reflection/refraction Rachat de crédit or some sort (I do not mean any disrespect here, I just not too sure of the exact term) and there is really no such image seen by the fish in the tank.

There was a hijacked thread some time ago that had some discussion about this topic here but,.. http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... s&start=15. start from page 2.
( I am sure there are tons of them before but this is the one that remembered.) Its quite hilarious, thanks to Bertie.

Anyway, Below is a video of what I did.. I did see a reflection, feel free to debunk this.

Credit- sponge Birdy, Birdy and his tank.

No, It an't see it
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hadla
Mbu Puffer
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Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:33 pm
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My Puffers: 2 gsps and a big Stars and stripes
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Re: Side Glass Reflection. Can your fish see its own reflection?

Post by hadla »

This is five years old so you won’t see pics...
Never trust big puffers. The fingers you save may be your own. -RTR
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