The Puffer Forum

Does anyone have a South American puffer or an Auriglobus that does NOT swim around frantically, doing things like up and down the side almost all the time ?

I'd like to see them swim about like a Greenie or a DP or something... but with these guys I dunno if it is me doing something wrong or if it is just their nature to swim really fast. Which only leads me to believe they are in too small of a tank ??

Currently they are in 55 gal tanks (separate but they all do the same thing - up and down).

4 SAPs in one and 4 Auriglobus in the other. All of them are still quite small. ( not that they don't stay that way... but you know what I mean )

Thx for your input guys.

The two SAP in my ex's community tank did a lot of pacing, but much less when they had a strong current to rush against. I theorize a powerful powerhead at one end of the tank in the front, pushing water longways across the tank, would give them something to swim fast against other than the walls of the tank. SAP DEFINITELY enjoy swimming fast.

My Silus doesn't pace the side of the tank. He just kinda floats around calmly.

My modestus gets frantic when I approach his tank but generally just swims. I had aSAP in my 90g with discus & such & I was quite surprised to seeit just poking aorund, like any other fish.

Pufferpunk wrote:My modestus gets frantic when I approach his tank but generally just swims. I had a SAP in my 90g with discus & such & I was quite surprised to see it just poking aorund, like any other fish.

Wow thats weird. lol. Mine are almost always going bonkers. Swimming up and down and left and right, all very quickly. I think I'm gonna try what Nick said about increasing the currents speed so they don't hit the walls. Though yours was 90 g !! lol, mine is like 1/2 that.

On a second note... I have 2 baby F-8's in the tank with my SAPs and they occasionally mimic the SAPs... I dunno if its just because they aren't used to fish going so fast and they are scared or what... but one of them now has white fungus on his eye. I Pima/Mela fixed his tank for 2 days now and he seems to be doing a little better, but its still not entirely cleared up. You think he could have gotten this white eye from it rubbing against the tank ? All the SAPs are fine and so is the DP and the other F-8 that are in there. Only the one F-8 is affected.

Thx again guys.

-UMB

IME F8's typically get eye and skin problems from living without brackish water.

Nick wrote:IME F8's typically get eye and skin problems from living without brackish water.

Yea I would have to agree there. They ARE currently in FW, but they are still very small. I didn't think it was quite time to swap them to BW yet... but now that you mention that, I think I have to reconsider and make the change. Pima/Mela fix only goes so far...

Thx again Nick

I'm not exactly sure whats up with F8's... some individuals seem much more tolerant of long term FW than GSP, (which makes sense given their wild environment), while others seem to develop problems right away... F8's also seem to have a very high rate of sudden puffer death syndrome compared to other puffers. They're strange, picky little guys.