The Puffer Forum

I have treated the tank with Metafix for the wound. They seem to be acting normal. It happened 4 hours ago. My question is: Is it possible for the fish that bites to be poisoned?. Do toxins release into the tank from the wound?

Vary unlikely any toxins have been released and if it's a GSP vs GSP only in there it wouldnt affect them anyway.

I agree with Hilly.

Thank goodness! Thanks for the support everyone.

My husband and I were doing the gsp's tank water tests today. I started talking to the 2 little gsp's because they were excited. Next thing you know the bigger gsp bit the smaller gsp Again! No blood or holes but left a round mark. I'm still mad about the bite! Since the first bite we have had multiple bites. The little one left a big round bite mark on the bigger gsp sometime last week.

I'm afraid of what is going to happen when they get bigger . I'm going to add more long plants and I hope to be able to put them in a bigger tank after we move.

If this behavior continues you are going to need to separate them. Biting causes too much un-needed stress.

Mine haven't ricocheted off each other in a few weeks, but now they do little circles around each other...

like nose to tail and they spin in a little circle for a few seconds, then go to their separate ends of the tank. anybody else seen this?

Jase wrote:Mine haven't ricocheted off each other in a few weeks, but now they do little circles around each other...

like nose to tail and they spin in a little circle for a few seconds, then go to their separate ends of the tank. anybody else seen this?

Do they almost seem like they're ying-yang-ing?
Ours do that a little when they're hunting. Mostly, one will hunt, and the other will follow him around to try to steal food away and they'll kinda "fight" over it; I guess he doesn't like being followed.

If they're biting each other constantly, I'd worry about separating them. Occasionally isn't too big of a deal. Ours give each other little nips once in a while to keep each other in line maybe once every 5-6 months or so? And they seem like they're doing well otherwise. They're in a 120gal on their own, so both have plenty of space. I think with aggressive animals, you just have to expect some of these kinds of behaviour once in a while.

I have not seen mine do circles with each other.

WE have had a total of 4 bites in 4 months that we are aware of. I believe this last bite would not have happened had I not put my finger in the tank while I was talking to them before doing the water test. Next time I will seperate them if I want to interact with them. The smaller GSP follows the bigger GSP almost all the time. They sleep together every night. If she would give him his space all would probably be fine.

I wanted to find a new home for one of the GSP's but my husband is not agreeing to this...yet. I don't know why but I don't like the idea of a divider in the tank. I would put one up temp but would want to give one GSP away.

yes, like a ying yang sign...

I think they need to be separated, because all that biting is very stressful.

4 bites in 4 months is a little much. Have you thought about having 2 tanks?
You can connect them together to the same sump system, and that would take care of most any extra tank maintenance like having to deal with 2 separate filters. Plus you'd have more water volume, which is never a bad thing.

I agree. We will have to do something if the biting does not let up. Don't have the resources for another tank right now. We may have to put the separator in.