Do your puffers let you pet them?
-
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 122
- Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2015 6:07 pm
- Location (country): United States
Do your puffers let you pet them?
Just curious if anyone's been brave enough to try it..my GSP's just try to eat my fingers!
Re: Do your puffers let you pet them?
Not my fish, but this is why tongs exist.
- pufferjw
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 379
- Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2015 9:16 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: Duboisi Puffer
Red Congo Puffer
Striped Redeye Puffer
Dwarf Puffer
Have Owned:
Amazon Puffers - Location (country): USA
- Location: Boston/Chicago
Re: Do your puffers let you pet them?
Until about a week ago I had two Amazon Puffers, and they both let me pet them, but one of them did bite. It hurt a little, but the bites never broke the skin.
220 Gallon - 1 Super White Leopoldi Stingray
55 Gallon Planted - No Fish
29 Gallon Planted - 1 Duboisi Puffer
29 Gallon - 1 Red Congo Puffer
55 Gallon Planted - No Fish
29 Gallon Planted - 1 Duboisi Puffer
29 Gallon - 1 Red Congo Puffer
-
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 122
- Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2015 6:07 pm
- Location (country): United States
Re: Do your puffers let you pet them?
Where's the excitement in tongs! Gotta get the heart rate up!grup wrote:Not my fish, but this is why tongs exist.
How did you move your hand so they would let them pet you? Did you let them swim into your palm or just put your fingers into the top of the tank or something else?pufferjw wrote:Until about a week ago I had two Amazon Puffers, and they both let me pet them, but one of them did bite. It hurt a little, but the bites never broke the skin.
-
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 205
- Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2014 12:45 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 1 GSP.
- Location (country): United States
- Location: Maryland
Re: Do your puffers let you pet them?
My GSP has acquired a taste for human flesh. There is no petting.
-
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 122
- Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2015 6:07 pm
- Location (country): United States
Re: Do your puffers let you pet them?
Update: They let me pet them! Well, kind of. So at the top of the tank, if I put my finger in front of their face then they just try to bite me, but if I come in behind their head they tolerate me petting them briefly. Key word here is tolerate! I'm sure they're thinking "what is this idiot doing".
- pufferjw
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 379
- Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2015 9:16 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: Duboisi Puffer
Red Congo Puffer
Striped Redeye Puffer
Dwarf Puffer
Have Owned:
Amazon Puffers - Location (country): USA
- Location: Boston/Chicago
Re: Do your puffers let you pet them?
To Bigpuff
I would just pick up a snail and hold it at the top of the water, then while my puffers ate it I could pet them. But my one puffer, Balloon, couldn't differentiate the snail from my finger.
I would just pick up a snail and hold it at the top of the water, then while my puffers ate it I could pet them. But my one puffer, Balloon, couldn't differentiate the snail from my finger.
220 Gallon - 1 Super White Leopoldi Stingray
55 Gallon Planted - No Fish
29 Gallon Planted - 1 Duboisi Puffer
29 Gallon - 1 Red Congo Puffer
55 Gallon Planted - No Fish
29 Gallon Planted - 1 Duboisi Puffer
29 Gallon - 1 Red Congo Puffer
-
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 105
- Joined: Thu May 28, 2015 3:25 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: DP
- Location (country): USA
- Location: CA
Re: Do your puffers let you pet them?
Lol @ Hillehaus. What happens when it's time for tank maintenance?
I haven't tried petting my DP, altho she eats out of my finger. I did have a betta as a child, and he was very tactile. I cld stroke him all the way down to his tail, and during weekly tank cleaning, all I had to do was cup my palm, and he'll swim onto it, and lay there while I manually scooped him up into his holding bowl. I wld also put him in his holding bowl sometimes just so I cld carry him around. We watched TV together, mostly.
I haven't tried petting my DP, altho she eats out of my finger. I did have a betta as a child, and he was very tactile. I cld stroke him all the way down to his tail, and during weekly tank cleaning, all I had to do was cup my palm, and he'll swim onto it, and lay there while I manually scooped him up into his holding bowl. I wld also put him in his holding bowl sometimes just so I cld carry him around. We watched TV together, mostly.
10 gallon: 1 dwarf puffer, 3 Otos, 1 amano shrimp
Don't let your wet friend suffer - PufferPunk
Don't let your wet friend suffer - PufferPunk
- Welch4
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 698
- Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:22 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 1 GSP
- Location (country): USA
- Location: Abington,MA
Re: Do your puffers let you pet them?
None of my puffers do. My beta does though.
Forget other advice about puffers you don't hear here - Pufferpunk
- pufferjw
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 379
- Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2015 9:16 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: Duboisi Puffer
Red Congo Puffer
Striped Redeye Puffer
Dwarf Puffer
Have Owned:
Amazon Puffers - Location (country): USA
- Location: Boston/Chicago
Re: Do your puffers let you pet them?
When I do tank maintenance, my dwarf and amazon puffers will all observe the gravel pump but keep a fair distance. However, my red congo puffer absolutely freaks out until he sees a red cherry shrimp and tries to catch it for 10 minutes straight, now ignoring the pump.
220 Gallon - 1 Super White Leopoldi Stingray
55 Gallon Planted - No Fish
29 Gallon Planted - 1 Duboisi Puffer
29 Gallon - 1 Red Congo Puffer
55 Gallon Planted - No Fish
29 Gallon Planted - 1 Duboisi Puffer
29 Gallon - 1 Red Congo Puffer
- TOPuffers
- Dwarf Puffer
- Posts: 63
- Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2015 1:12 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: 3 pea puffers/dwarf puffers in a 20 G freshwater planted tank
29 G community tank with plecos, bamboo shrimp, khuli loaches, swordtails, neon tetras and apple snails - Location (country): Toronto, Canada
- Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Re: Do your puffers let you pet them?
My husband feeds our dwarf puffers by hand (while I take blurry pictures ).
Not sure if that counts, but they do play 'Tug-of-war' with the bloodworms...
Not sure if that counts, but they do play 'Tug-of-war' with the bloodworms...
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water - Loren Eiseley