The Puffer Forum

I have a 7" palembang puffer alone in a 75g heavily planted tank.

I for the last six months I have been feeing her on mondays and fridays, I use chopsticks and wave a large shrimp in front of her and she would come the couple of inches and happily wolf it down. After eating she would slide back into her cave and stay there. I almost never saw her leave the cave except at night when the lights were out. after a while some days she wouldn't be interested so I would have to wait an extra day to feed her.

Two weeks ago I decided to cut back on her feeding, I still feed her monday and friday but about half as much. She now actually begs and will swim aloot farther for her food and spends much more time out of her cave hanging in the plants and swimming around.

Does it seem reasonable that she was so inactive because I was feeding her too much or was that normal Palembang behavior and now I am feeding her to little so she is looking for food.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Palembang puffers are part of the lurker family and are very inactive. Often, keepers report that they only move on feeding days and only long enough to guzzle down a large amount of food then return to being motionless. Like yours indeed. I say it was just her normal behavior and now she is out searching for food. I would return to the schedule that you had her on. Twice a week is perfect for an adult Palembang.

I feed all my puffers once a week now and they are much more active then they used to be on a twice weekly regime. They are actively looking for food and up against the glass more often looking for me. Feed them too much and they will become lazy and hide away.