The Puffer Forum

I have hand fed mine and he also lets me pet him, he's 10 inches.

Be very careful. I have to advise against petting him, you will damage his slime coat causing serious health issues.

bertie 83 wrote:Be very careful. I have to advise against petting him, you will damage his slime coat causing serious health issues.

Damaging slime coat is one of those old fish tales / myths . You can't really do any damage petting a fish and there's no science to back up the claim either. I pet all my fish and never had any slime coat problems.

Either way, you will soon stop when he does decide you have overstepped the mark, juvenile predatory fish act diffrently to mature predatory fish. I do believe we should not touch them, this is more about safety though.

bertie 83 wrote:Either way, you will soon stop when he does decide you have overstepped the mark, juvenile predatory fish act diffrently to mature predatory fish. I do believe we should not touch them, this is more about safety though.

And unlike cats or dogs, you won't get a warning message. Fish react quickly and puffers have sharp teeth...

fahakaha wrote:

bertie 83 wrote:Be very careful. I have to advise against petting him, you will damage his slime coat causing serious health issues.

Damaging slime coat is one of those old fish tales / myths . You can't really do any damage petting a fish and there's no science to back up the claim either. I pet all my fish and never had any slime coat problems.

Why would you touch your fish its just weird! Surely there is a chance of damaging it!

There's zero chance of harming your fish by petting and/or handling them. If you ask me, more fish keepers should have their hands in water as often as possible. It's bonding time with the fish and the fish are much more at peace when they are familiar with your hand in the water. I've hand fed many fish, including aro's, catfish, pacu and oscars, they learn to trust you and reduces stress. The few seconds you are making contact won't harm them.

I petted mine a few times. I was advised here not to. I did some research and yes it makes sense not to. Hes a scaless fish kinda unfair to do it. Its like licking door knobs, sure the metal surface tastes good, sooner or later you may share your door knob with friends... But sooner or later someone's dirty tounge will lick your door knob and your door knob may get infected. Lets just stop the temptation before it progresses into a habit. Dont lick the door knob.

I gave that example to another licker.

Any experienced puffer keeper will have been bitten at least once. even small puffer speies have teeth sharp enough to crunch snail shells. Watching a mbu , fahaka or oblongatus munch through a large shellfish or crab leg is intereasting viewing.

My BIL lost a mouthful of finger to a red-bellied piranha which he had previously been hand -feeding.

Most fish are essentially wild animals. They may become used to being forced around people but you can't train out their natural instincts.

Master of Puffers wrote:Any experienced puffer keeper will have been bitten at least once. even small puffer speies have teeth sharp enough to crunch snail shells. Watching a mbu , fahaka or oblongatus munch through a large shellfish or crab leg is intereasting viewing.

My BIL lost a mouthful of finger to a red-bellied piranha which he had previously been hand -feeding.

Most fish are essentially wild animals. They may become used to being forced around people but you can't train out their natural instincts.

That's a great example. Theirs nothing natural about puffers and humans co existing in nature. We dont have gills so we cant start. They are still untambed but humbled. I wouldnt say zero chance of causing harm to a puffer. I may not have scientific evidence it would but you dont have any that it doesn't. Slime coat is a sheet of protection and your fingers have friction. Risk I'm not gonna take to bond with my fish. Too much money invested to be one with nature maaaan. Cant risk it for mother nature duuude its just not cooool

Puffer bites are non-trivial. Large puffer bites are potentially disfiguring and that may be permanent damage.

But beyond puffers specifically, Mycobacterium infections in humans are deadly serious, perhaps permanentlly disfiguring and disabling. Putting any human skin in a tank while it has any break in the surface integrity, or risking nips from fish is easy Darwin Award candidacy. The bugs may occur in any captive system, and may take mont6hs to longer to cure, potentially requiring massive drug therapy and some surgeries. Regardless of how clean you think your tank is, you cannot know whether or not the bacterium is present. Thankfully they are rare infections, no one should ever put a scraped or scratched sin surface in a tank.

No friend, guests, or other visitors to my home has ever been invited to hand feed any of my fish or even to feed any reason put their hands into my tanks. But then, value my friends and guests (and my tanks) too much for that. NIMFT, not ever.

First rule in establishing an aquatic/predatory environment is to establish who's the Alpha male. My puffer knows who that is, all my fish do, that is why I can put my hand and fingers in the tank and he won't do anything. He knows I'm the one who feeds him and I'm the one who can end him lol and another good thing is to make sure they recognize what their menu looks like so they know it's not your fingers. Fish can be trained to some degree. I'm not careless though, I know full well what my fahaka is capable of lol I'm aware when my hands are in the tank and he's always on his best behavior, he's been good since the day I got him when he was a wee small lad. It's only when you don't do it that he can't make the distinction between you and his next meal, consistency and continuity is key. I wouldn't let anyone else do it since the puffer is only familiar with me and my hand.

Wouldn't the whole "alpha male"-thing imply that Fahaka (or whatever species we are talking about...) are a social one and have a pack leader among them? Has that been documented before?

+1. I might give mine a smack next time he wants to bite me lol. Puffers can be trained to an extent, ie recognising a food pot. Fahakas are predatory/aggressive singletons, nothing should be risked in the tank tbh as everything is fair game. My hands are in the tank 3-4 times a week and have been for 2 or so years, IMO they never get used to you, some are just more placid than others.

First rule in establishing an aquatic/predatory environment is to establish who's the Alpha male. My puffer knows who that is, all my fish do, that is why I can put my hand and fingers in the tank and he won't do anything. He knows I'm the one who feeds him and I'm the one who can end him lol and another good thing is to make sure they recognize what their menu looks like so they know it's not your fingers. Fish can be trained to some degree. I'm not careless though, I know full well what my fahaka is capable of lol I'm aware when my hands are in the tank and he's always on his best behavior, he's been good since the day I got him when he was a wee small lad. It's only when you don't do it that he can't make the distinction between you and his next meal, consistency and continuity is key. I wouldn't let anyone else do it since the puffer is only familiar with me and my hand

This aproach may work for pack/group animals, particularly mammals, but I think it has little bearing on fish. Fish don't have any established "alpha males", even ones who are in schools/groups. Most aggressive behavior seen in aquariums isn't any because of any "established leader", it's just territorial.. Bigger fish gets the biggest territory, that's the closest you can get to "alpha male". Even if this approach did work, you're forgetting another part of the "alpha male" behavior. Eventually, the minor one of the group will, given the chance, try to become th alpha male... Which makes it an unstable relationship to say the least.. I would say, if you're so inclined to stick your hand in a tank with a predator, you should be relying on nothing but your own caution lol.