HELP! Puffers biting holes in plants.

The forum for puffers that either live or start in brackish biotopes: GSPs, F8s, Ceylons & more.
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K2ggers
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2021 11:32 pm
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HELP! Puffers biting holes in plants.

Post by K2ggers »

As the title stated, my figure 8 pufferfish are biting holes in my java fern. There are no snails in the tank and I haven't fed live foods yet so they certainly aren't biting them by accident. Is there any solution to this issue? Is it perhaps because my plants are already turning brown so they mistake the patches for snails? Because some of the perfectly healthy green leaves also have holes. I really don't know what's going on. When will this stop and are there any solutions?
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Pufferpunk
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Re: HELP! Puffers biting holes in plants.

Post by Pufferpunk »

Yep, that's what the little guys do in the wild. Searching for snails.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
K2ggers
Puffer Fry
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2021 11:32 pm
Location (country): Singapore

Re: HELP! Puffers biting holes in plants.

Post by K2ggers »

Any plants I should avoid or do they do it to all plants. It's killing them and I worry the plants can't recover from the constant damage. If they're so smart, will they learn to stop eventually? Or are my plants screwed.
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: HELP! Puffers biting holes in plants.

Post by Pufferpunk »

You can't stop them--if they want to bite plants, they'll do it.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Auldfart2010
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 1:29 pm
Location (country): UK

Re: HELP! Puffers biting holes in plants.

Post by Auldfart2010 »

My Ceylons did it too. The salinity finally killed off the plants. So I went for plastic plants and the Puffers only bit the green ones. They also bit chunks out of a sponge filter I had in their tank. In fact they try to bit anything to see if it's edible. Oh! and don't use a glass thermometer either.
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