The Puffer Forum

I was doing some routine plant maintenance in my DP tank yesterday, and well, as I was pulling some dead leaves off, one of my DPs swam up, stared at my fingers for a second, then bit me! lol

Felt like a pair of tweezers pinching my finger.

It startled me, but not to the point of pulling my finger out of the tank. He wasn't attached but boy did it shock!

LOL Did it draw blood? You're lucky it wasn't a Mbu

groovitudedude wrote:LOL Did it draw blood? You're lucky it wasn't a Mbu

nah his teeth and jaws aren't THAT strong. as I said it felt like being pinched by a set of tweezers lol. I was thinking if it were a fahaka or an Mbu he'd still be crunching down on the bone and having good ol gnosh, and I'd be one phalange short

*snicker* I love dwarf puffer bites. Frank can give me a little pinch, but watch out if he grabs a hang nail! OUCH! Bubba can give me a blood blister if he gets me just right.. normally he's good about not biting but if he's not hungry and I shove food in his face he lets me know he doesn't want it, and hard!

You've gotta wonder what it's thinking. You know it has no idea what giant creature is really attached to that finger! Or do they???

Since they are opportunistic eaters, maybe they just want to find out if their owner taste good or not?

Oh Bubba knows what he's doing . If he goes to bite me and I tell him no, he stops, looks up through the lid at me, then backs off. If I don't say anything, he goes ahead and bites. But like I said, that's only if he's mad. He's very good at taking food from my fingers without biting me at all, even when its something small like a snail.

One thing I have found out.. he just can NOT resist finger nail polish. If I put my hand in there with my nails painted, he's guaranteed to come flying across the tank trying to get them!

These fish amaze me day in and day out with how smart they are.

Myaj's story about Bubba just takes the cake. Kinda like a puppy! *glomp glomp glomp* *ch...* "ah ah ah noooo bite" *puppy backs off*

Puffers are so awesome.

sometimes my little guys want a "rub" They sometimes just rub against my fingers when I'm doing plant maintenance...instead of biting.

(I think the bite was because I didn't feed them in two days...)

My baby mbu went through a nipping stage she is almost over it now. good job as shes pushing 4.5" she will charge in without looking if she is hungry and is still quite agressive eater but will eat small things from my fingers gently enough after a few peices of prawn. still not as placid as my bubba he will slowly swim over and take food gently. Think the little one still competes with the blue acaras bubba knows the other fish are not silly enough to try and steal the food from him!

Puffy would go after my fingers before he'd go after the food.

When I do water changes in the s/w tank, all my puffers hide. Which is a good thing because Elvis (s&s) is now 10". It would hurt if he got a good bite. Now when I do a w/c in the fw tank Annabelle (fahaka) will come after me. She's under 4" but I know once she gets larger I'm going to have to keep an eye on her. She is at the point now, when I open the lid she thinks it's time to eat. And I can't believe how fast she is & how sneaky. She hides behind the stump and suddenly she will ambush me. Once I move her to the larger tank I may need a second pair of eyes.

yeah, we have Takifugu Ocellatus (saddleback puffers) at work.

They're nasty little pieces of work too. You go in there to clean and they dive into the gravel, just eyes and a tail.

Then if you're not paying enough attention, they go after your hands! at around 5" long, i think they'd take chunks too!

hehehe.... last time 'Cichlid Guy' was cleaning their tank (in the top row, you need a step stool to get up there and clean) the smaller one made a jump for his hand. i clearly remember "Oh %$&@!" followed by him half-stepping half-falling off the step stool.

Considering 'Cichlid Guy' can be pretty useless, it made my day

Once i put my hand over a tank of arowanas (tank covered) and they went crazy attacking th surface of the water. It was an interesting sight.