The Puffer Forum

Hi,

A word of warning here -- I always considered my suvattii to be very lazy, not the sort of puffers to jump up and do something, except maybe when it's feeding time, and not always then.
I just learned a valuable lesson. I had just done some coconut shells with moss on them, and I thought I would put one in the suvattii tank. I've never had any problems in the past, but I suppose there's always a first.
I had just put my hand in the water, and was about to lower the coconut shell down when I felt pain and a jolt to my finger! I pulled my hand back out and looked in the tank and seen that my newest suvattii was going back down again. And he was giving me the eye like "stick your finger in here again and I will bite it some more!", so this time I inserted the coconut shell down the other end of the tank, keeping my eye on my new little guy the whole time.
I have a whole new respect for my suvattii after this little lesson, as well as feeling sorry for any other fish that get in their way! I never thought I'd have to be wary of my suvattii, but I won't be sticking my fingers in that tank any time soon!
And here I thought I was going to have to worry about the Fang's. You just never know.

And my finger is still hurting!!!

What were you putting coconut in there for?

It was coconut as in a decorated piece with moss on it, to make the tank look nicer. The suvattii, as with most puffers, enjoy lots of plants in the tank.

i put my hand in the community / mbu tanks without looking my two suvattis i am always very very wary of where they are for that exact reason.... my two could cause quite a lot of damage to a finger..... especially when im stealing the eggs from the male guarding them i am very wary hahah nasty little things

Not trying to be insensitive but how big is the wound?

I wasn't really emphasising the bite, so much as the fact that the suvattii made the bite. I had always thought they were very relaxed and didn't think I had to worry about them. That's what happens when one becomes complacent.
He didn't break the skin, it only hurt for a short while, but it could have been much worse. It might have been really bad if that had been my Baileyi. And it just taught me a lesson that I need to be more careful. I probably deserved the bite for not exercising caution when I should have done.

I always have this thought at the back of my head that my arrowhead may mistaken my fingers as food one day and bite me. But up to now all he did was eyeball me, while staying still at the corner of the tank, when I dipped my hands into the tank to either clear leftover or for pruning. However your thread had reminded me to always be alert and not complacent.

Yes, my original two, the siblings, they would always go away from me, so I figured they weren't interested and I would not have to worry about them. I made the mistake of thinking the new suvattii would be the same -- and as we all know, each puffer has it's own particular behaviour. I am now very wary of any puffer that comes from the bottom to eat (any of those with an upturned mouth).
I was told my Fang's would attack anything that went into the tank, so I was extra cautious with them, and those poor little things, they are too shy to attack I think. That doesn't mean I won't still exercise caution with them, and all my puffers. But just goes to show that you can't always go by what's written in a book.

My 2.5" modestus attacks my hand almost as soon as he sees me put it his tank, but I don't think he's trying very hard because it doesn't hurt at all. My 3.5" fluviatilis, on the other hand, bites *very* hard and has developed a habit of going for my fingers instead of the food I'm holding. (I decided yesterday that from now on I'm just dropping in his food.) My GSP seems to be very gentle, though, and she's pretty careful to not nip my fingers when I feed her.

Any puffer can go for your hand. Funny thing is my 3in congo doesn't (well not yet) but one of my smaller - a 1.5in. GSP- will. He actually tried to bite and hold on. I need to be careful in his tank.

I'm always very careful when I'm cleaning my suvattii tank. I've seen what the lil bugger does to his food, and my fingers aren't that much tougher.

One amusing thing thing he does is snap at the magnetic algae scraper when i'm cleaning the glass. It was cute but then I heard the sound his teeth made when it struck the plastic. Wow...

I just recently got bitten by my Congo puffer as well, luckily she's not full grown yet!

I now have 2 Tetraodon cutcutia's and they look like they would enjoy biting me, so I am very very careful when I need to do anything in their tank.

But it's my Baileyi that scares me the most, he's got a very nasty bite when he chomps down on the whole mussel I give him -- he'd draw blood I'm sure of it.

my husband got bitten by my mbu the other night, i warned him she was coming but he didn't listen lol, she bit his hand and didn't let go. No bloody drawn tho so i guess she didn't really mean it! gonna deffinately be more careful as she gets bigger

Hahaha, whats with all the horror stories starting to pop up all of a sudden, and to think i'm just about clean my tank too...

blondenblue wrote:my husband got bitten by my mbu the other night, i warned him she was coming but he didn't listen lol, she bit his hand and didn't let go. No bloody drawn tho so i guess she didn't really mean it! gonna deffinately be more careful as she gets bigger

I have to ask -- how big is your MBU? I seen one the other day, the largest I've seen any puffer in person, it was easily 2-feet long, awesome fish! I'd think one that size could take a few fingers off!