The Puffer Forum

I have 4 DP's 2 males and 2 females..I went to feed them..frozen bloodworms..everytime I approach the tank they are waiting..but today the larger male did not come out and one of the females did not come towards the top of the tank just stayed in a 4 inch area of the tank..my tank has tons of plants so its hard to see what exactly is going on sometimes...I have a huge watersprite in the back of my tank where the female was..I looked behind her and there was the male..he would not come out from this area.about 3x3 area at the bottom of the watersprite..I went ahead and put some bloodworms in..and of course they go everywhere..anyways whatever worms came towards his area he would pop out eat a worm and go back to the same place...he would repeat this..and the female basically did the same thing..he would not allow any of the RCS or fish within a 3 inch area of him..both have never done this before..does anyone know what this means...is it a territorial issue?...

My DPs have just done the same thing last night! I have one male, one female, both very active (especially the female) and always within the field of vision. Yesterday I was preparing to do their weekly water change and didn't see them anywhere, it gave me a bit of a fright.
When I poured the freshwater into the tank, the female popped out from an ornament and looked at me (she looked bright and happy) then popped right back in after only about a second. The ornament is sort of important in their tank: it's a deepsea diving helmet that is about 4" tall, the 'helmet' part being about half the size of a fist. It is mostly closed off except for a few holes in the front grating of the faceplate. It is the male's cove, and the female is never allowed anywhere near it. Ever. He really only goes in it in the evenings. I just figured they were in there doing the nasty (at least, as it is for fish ). Today they're swimming around again like every other day.

If they're mating, the male may guard the spawning area heavily and be unwilling to leave. Your DPs might also just be very well fed and less urgent about getting food and moreso about defending their territories.

I have to say they are well fed..but male has never acted like that before..so I think maybe they are mating...thanks for the info