my new 55 gallon brackish tank

[jeff_purdon]

but my puffers still seem to just glass surf all the time. but i'm guessing its just becuase they see me in the kitchen or when i walk by. wish they would just swim around and play instead of swimming up and down and up and down. maybe more plants or.......?

[edmlfc1]

Looking good.

[yunachin]

Putting a background on the tank may help ease the glass surfing.

[jeff_purdon]

wow for some reason i pulled a complete brain fart and didnt even think of the background. but would that help them stop surfing the side of the tank? they only swim against the glass on the one side of the tank. seem that i could have just kept them in a smaller tank since they dont ever leave the one side of it. but i'll give it a shot. maybe when i move the plants around i will put a bunch against the wall that they love so much and see what happens

[edmlfc1]

When you leave the room peak around the corner to see if they do it when you are not there. If I am in the same room my puffers do that, they will pace the glass, it's their way of begging for food. It works because it gets your attention. When I'm not in the room they are all over the tank exploring.

[jeff_purdon]

ok so i did the peek a few times last night and i think my one gsp has ADD or something cuz thats all he does. water parameters are all where they should be......i feed them snails either every day or every other day and when i put the snails in my one puffer with add will hunt and eat for a few mins then its back to the glass

[riggers]

Where do you drop them in? I think you could get loads more plants in there, maybe some more tall ones, and then you can hide the snails better. That way, once they find one, they'll keep looking even if there's none left.

[jeff_purdon]

i typically drop them in all over the tank and spread them out as much as possible

[riggers]

Yeah, try hiding them more, so they are in amongst a plant or something, so it should keep them busier longer. And like I say, much thicker planting will also help, to make it even harder for them.

[Jase]

looks good. I agree though that a background and some tall thick plants may help

btw, i thought it was funny i had that exact same filter combo on my 55 a while back.

[jeff_purdon]

ok seriously......so i put a background on my tank added more plants and my one GSP still just surfs the glass. i put in about 10 ghost shrimp and just let the bag float for a few mins just to see thier reaction and they both went nuts trying to bite through the bag. well when i dumped them in they both took right after them. i didn see them eat any but played with them more less and the one just gave up after about 2 mins and went back to the glass. so i dumped in about 30 snails and hid them in plants and left a few out in the open to get thier attention and he chowed down on a few and then went to the glass AGAIN. i checked all my parameters and everything is where it should be. any more suggestions? i guess it doesnt bother me that he does it but is more interesting to watch him swim around searching for snails than just swim around in circles on the glass in the corner

[marksrush]

You mention in the title of your posting that this tank is new...how new is it, and did you properly cycle it? If you put your puffers into an uncycled tank, that would cause distress to the puffer and possibly explain his glass surfing.

Also let me tell you from experience, it is not a good idea to dump that many ghost shrimp or snails into a puffer tank at once. I just lost a GSP due to having done the same thing, he ate them all WAY faster than I thought he would, he got stuffed, then constipated, and ended up dying. One at a time is plenty to give your puffer some mental stimulation and a little exercise.

[jeff_purdon]

yes the tank is properly cycled and i guess i should have specified that i didnt dump in the ghost shrimp and then the snails right after. there was probably 12 hours in between.

[Pufferpunk]

You didn't dump the water they were in too, did you? Please tell me you strained them thru a net.

[jeff_purdon]

strained through a net. i'm baffled by the behavior. you guys have seen the pics. they seem to look healthy......