The Puffer Forum

It totally freaked me out I thought he was sick!!! I figured out that if the tank lights are on and my bedroom lights are off he can see his reflection,which obviously he didnt like! His colours intensified and his little red tail fanned out then he did this weird head stand thing, (which is why I thought he was sick!) is that normal? He' back to normal now and recovered pretty quick. He's only just began to show ths behaviour, he must be maturing! I didn't get a pic because I was to busy panicing lol! but the camera is at the ready incase he puffs again, don't worry though I would never purposely make him puff. Its a strange question...but is tere any way I can make the tank less reflective? I'm going to upgrade him into a bigger tank soon, can you buy tanks that dont reflect? any ideas on how to overcome this issue will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks guys

i dont think they can see the reflections in the glass we can see!

Elvis puffed at me once. I went in the kitchen got my coffee, walked back into his room, turned on the light and "puff"! He looked like a volleyball.
He's never done it again. I think I just spooked him.

I'm sure it's his reflection, he does it whenever I turn out my bedroom light and he attacks the glass. At 1st I thought maybe I made him jump but he wasnt facing me when he was puffed and attacking the glass!

Fish can see reflections, but not as much as we do when looking into a tank. It depends a bit on how dark the room is/what color the background (if it's outside the tank) is.

First time you see a puffer puff, is a bit scary. Dragonfly (my palembang) made me panick when she did it. I'd had a bad evening, and already had a bit of anxiety going on. I entered my bedroom, which was dark, and there I saw a ball floating around uncontrollably in Dragonfly's tank. I panicked, as I thought she had puffed on air. But as soon as she saw me, she deflated, and put up a face like she was saying: "I've done nothing! Noooo thing!" But my anxiety didn't really improve by the incident. It took me an hour or so to calm down again, and get my heart back to its normal rythm. It's the only time I've seen a puffer puff properly. I think I will enjoy it a lot more next time.

^ Its funny that you said that about your Palembang, since mine did that to me once a few months back... like my usual routine when i get home is to check out my tank and see how my fish are doing... and one day i when i got home to check out my tanks, i saw homer was all puffed up in his cave, at first i thought he may have been stuck, but the minute he saw me decided to deflate himself and come out begging for food... needless to say i've never seen him do that again, although till this day i still don't know why he decided to puff up in the first place...

I think they do it to practise puffing some times. It's funny to see how some of them don't like us to see it though.