I finally got as far as getting some clams (with the shell on), without spending all my money (it's not easy to get that sort of food here, except if you buy very, very expensive food). The clams in question, is something we call blue shell around here (I have no idea what the English word for it is). There's plenty of it in the sea, but you can't just go and pick it yourselves, as they can be poisonous. So to be sure, you have to buy them. And I was really looking forward to trying this with my puffers. I only defrosted two of them, to see how this would develop. The thought was to leave a little bit of food inside the shell, so they would have to gnaw on it (and wear down their teeth at the same time). I tested this in three tanks. Hufflepuff went nuts. All food is good food (except that freeze dried krill, you know), and this was yummy! So did my F8s think, fighting over that single shell I had put into the tank. But the last tank to try was Jack's. Jack isn't the bravest of my puffers. All though he is agressive enough to have killed his wife (I have problems with imagining this, as he has always been a wimp here in my house), he is not the kind of puffer who just dig into things. Before he got the IPs earlier this year, he avoided me too. But after that, he has kind of bonded a little, because he has found out that I mean food. But today his owner dropped something big and black into his tank. Ooooh! Spooooky!
He just didn't know how to handle this new situation. His belly told him that it was eatable, but his eyes and brains told him that this was big, very black and very strange, and strange things are scary. He stopped 4'' from the black thing, and started circling it. It smelled like food, but surely didn't look like anything he had ever seen before. Besides, my owner is watching me! Well, the owner tok a step back, so she wouldn't stay so close to the tank that Jack had to worry about her as well. So he could go back to concentrating on this new thing. Hmmm...weird! It smells good, but is big and black, and I don't know anything big and black that is eatable. Let me continue circling this thing, I really need to make sure it's not dangerous. He circled a little closer, and seemed to go in for a bite, but changed his mind and stepped back again. More circling, more almost-attacks, and more circling. In the end, after a lot of circling around this thing, he jumped ahead and took a tiny bite, and then disappeared like there was something evil after him.
So that was it! He didn't take one more look at the food. So there your have it: a puffer afraid of normal puffer food. Who said anything about aggressive fish, only thinking with their bellies?
