The Puffer Forum

How fortunate you are to be able to observe all of this, very cool.

UPDATE!
Lots of exciting puffer news.

First off, still no more progress from the original pair. I added a ceramic pot to their tank to see if a spawning cave would help them along, but they paid no attention to it.

Then, on monday, I had the opportunity to pick out a couple more hairy puffers. I got a huge 6" one with hardly any hair, and a little 3" that is the hairiest one I have seen so far. The smaller one has a bright yellow belly, and the large one has a brown belly. It will be interesting to see if belly color turns out to be any indication of gender. I am pretty sure the larger one is a female, and looks to be FULL of eggs.
I put the new large puffer in a floating container within the established pair's tank, to see if there would be any reaction. The original male immediately started nuzzling up to the container with the new puffer, and started inflating himself! His belly turned bright yellow and his body turned a weird light grey. He kept swimming down to the ceramic pot and circling around inside, as if he was trying to lead the new female to his cave. I released the new female, and she turned light grey also. She and the male have been swimming around nuzzling each other, with the male still inflating and deflating. Both have been in and out of the pot several times. I was able to grab my camera and get a couple video clips of the courtship. It is not the best quality, but as far as I can tell, it may be the first video documentation of baileyi in full-on courtship behavior! Hopefully this will soon be followed by an actual spawn. I will get the video uploaded as soon as possible, and I will keep everyone posted!

Wow, sounds like you are in hairy heaven!!! Wish I had that kind of luck, but I will have to suffice with my single nearly hairless Baileyi

Wow, sounds like you've had your hands full!
That would be very cool to see!

Thanks guys!
here is the first clip of video, with the new female still in her container within the main tank...
more soon to come!

thats quite exiting to watch even if they are an ugly looking puffer lol (sorry)

I can't see the vid stupid work computer..

OOOOO!!! That is SO exciting! *claps excitedly* I bet you have some baby makers there! They are really excited to 'get to know each other' already! LOL I could see her sayin 'HUBBA HUBBA' and him sayin, "hey baby, how bout we head back to my place?"

I'm so excited for you to get to experience this first hand, (and us, to get to experience it with you!)

He is the barry white of the puffer world ! FACT !

thats awsome.

Where are you finding all the hairy puffers??

Autophotos, no offense taken! Although I won't mention your comment to the puffers (might ruin the mood )
*EDIT* I won't tell them you called them "ugly", but the Barry White comment I will pass on to the puffers! LOL

L!$A, I don't know if this will help, but here are direct links to the videos on youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b3uZta2h68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFyt7p4a_r8

Here is one more clip after I released the female.

youtube is blocked at my work thanks for trying though!!
I'll have to get to another computer where youtube isn't blocked!

thats so cool

thanks!
I have a really good LFS (The Wet Spot in Portland, OR) that brings in a lot of cool stuff. They get in a lot of cool puffers. Makes me really want to go back and get the remaining 4 hairys there, but I don't know how I would come up with all that extra tank space on short notice...especially since it looks as though baby puffers might be on the way. There is a good chance I will soon have more baileyi's than I can handle!
They are such a cool species though...really fascinating to work with!

Can't wait to see more of your vids with the Hairys!