The Puffer Forum

Hey guys. I'm new to this forum, just registered this morning.

As of yesterday, I'm also a proud puffer owner

So my question in this... my golden puffer is biting the glass of the 29g QT tank I have him in.

Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrate 0, pH is 8.1, temp is 77, salinity 1.024. 29g QT. No other fish in there.

I acclimated him slowly and put him into the QT. He wasnt very active for a while but after a couple hours perked up and started swimming around. I kept hearing this crunch crunch type sound so I went in the other room to look at him and he is pushing his face up against the flat glass, opening his mouth and scraping his teeth along it... is this normal? Will he stop once he gets settled in fully? Is the QT tank just not stimulating enough for him? All I have in there for decorations in a large bubbler to keep the water moving, a heater and a piece of PVC pipe he can hide in if he wants.

I do daily 25% water changes in my QT tanks, just btw.

Thanks for any help you can give!

I can't give any advice, sorry. that isn't really normal though.

you should however take a picture of him doing and enter it in our "puffer of the month" photo contest.

My S&S puffer does that when I am sitting at my desk and not paying attention to him. The puffer may just be bored, being that it's a QT tank I wouldn't really worry about putting too much decor in there for now. If he/she does it once you get him/her moved to a permanent home then I would say add more decor to keep him/her from getting bored. Elvis (S&S) has lots of hiding places and things to explore, he just gives me attitude from time to time. He loves attention and lets me know when he needs it. Once you get to know your puffer's personality you will know what he/she needs. I'm sure others may have better advise for you.
BTW: you have come to the right place. And we would love to see some pictures of your new baby.

Jase wrote:I can't give any advice, sorry. that isn't really normal though.

you should however take a picture of him doing and enter it in our "puffer of the month" photo contest.

Sounds good, I'll try. I hate taking pictures the first day or two a new fish is in QT, I like to just let them rest, but I'll give it a shot later, maybe tonight or else tomorrow.

well it's up to you. he sounds like he has a lot of personality already

does he look pretty healthy so far?

I think it is a common puffer occurrence. Mine bite the glass all the time. I think they just like showing me their teeth.

sounds like you know what you're doing when it comes to fish so i'd say it was just a settling in behaviour...

stick some live river shrimp in there to draw puffers attention away from the glass.. and maybe stick some more piping, plastic plants/anything you can sterilise afterwards in there juts to keep his attention elsewhere...

puffers tend to be alot mor active/interested than most fish, so it takes a bit of getting used to how interactive they are...

treat him like a toddler and give him lots of stimulation and he should settle down.

My QT tank is all scratched up and dirty on the outside, but clean on the inside. It makes it hard to get a good picture though. So many of the ones I just took end up crappy because the glass is scratched.

Here are the best 2 I got though!



"Can I eat that bright thing?"

I'm jealous...

That looks great. I want.

What sort of tank are you putting it once its finished being quarentined? how big it is?

Bless his heart he has freckles.
He can come to my house anytime and play with my puffers.

DRRT wrote:That looks great. I want.

What sort of tank are you putting it once its finished being quarentined? how big it is?

Go check out the Meet and Greet thread, I've got a whole tank write-up there

Thanks for the compliment, I like him too!

yunachin wrote:Bless his heart he has freckles.
He can come to my house anytime and play with my puffers.

To be honest, I was a little bummed when I saw him, I wanted a purely golden puffer and he definitely has some other color to him.

After a couple minutes of looking at him, I started liking it more and more. My wife said the same thing you did basically when she first saw him.

"Does he have freckles?"

Anyway, I like him a lot now and it's only been a day.

he's beeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaautiful! Want one so much.

Thanks, I agree, he is beautiful. I cant wait until I can get him out of the QT and into the main tank, but that's another month or two down the road, arg!