I don't know that this belongs in the hospital section. If it does, please move.
My F8, 9ball, that I've had for a couple months now has been doing this strange thing lately. He will swim at the water coming back in from the filter, or more often, at the "fan". He does it with his mouth open, too. 8Ball, however, never does this. I'm hoping he just find it fun.
"Puffs puff cuz they're puffs cuz they puff cuz they're puffs. - Nathan age 12
I would think if your water tests out okay it shouldn't something to be concerned about. Has he only recently become aware of the water movement the filter and fan create? It could just be something new to play with. One of mine likes racing across the bubble wand. While the other one seems to have his mouth opened all the time. I think he is hoping something will just swim right into it.
I agree, I think he's probably just discovered this and is amused by it. If there's no obvious problems, then there's nothing to worry about. Some puffers find the strangest things to amuse themselves. Just keep an eye on him to see if anything changes.
I'd test the water, check the temp, etc. just to be safe and maybe do a water change, but it does sound like he's just found a new "toy" to play with. Keep an eye on him for any other unusual behavior.
My Puffers: 1 GSP (Microfiche) RIP, 1 Monotrete Turgidus (Leon) in a 30gal. 1 Monotrete suvattii in a 40 gal FW. 120 gallon BW with 3 juvenile Dragon Gobies (so cool). 55 gal with a 2" GSP named Hank. 180 gallon being set up for a Fahaka in the next few months!
A lot of puffers like to play in the current created by filter outputs and powerhead. My GSP will race in to the current of the powerhead and just swim upstream. He'll do this for hours total through out the day.
"Darwin swings...annnnnnd a miss. Boy Jim, Chuck's suffered at the plate tonight. He's 0 for 3 and I'm not sure he's recovered from that shoulder pull a few weeks ago. I'll bet the front office is re-thinking that contract."
One of my GSPs swims in the current of the filter too. He swims like a mad thing against it, gets as far as he can & lets himself drift backwards - & then does it all again! Its amusing to watch.
SmartPuff (r.i.p.) would watch the powerhead for a bit, then "dive" into the flow and ride it to the other end of the tank. And I remember seeing a puffer at the Shedd that would swim into the huge column of bubbles, ride it to the top of the tank, swim down, and do it again. We watched it do that at least a dozen times, we were laughing so hard.
tank: saltwater 55g, one 5" GSP named Random (mka Puff)
