The Puffer Forum

I picked up a target puffer a few days ago, I'm fairly certain he's a turgidus, I named him Zim. He's a nice size, about 4.5". But he doesn't seem to be adjusting too well. He pretty much hides at the bottom of the tank, his skin is super dark, almost black, occasionally he'll lighten up a bit and you can see his gorgeous markings, but it doesn't happen often. He does the whole tail curled up thing all the time too. He acted the same way at the LFS, I hate the store I got him from, his tank was disgusting and he looked miserable, but this store is the only one that ever gets any interesting fish in, so I do go there a lot (they thought my poor guy was just a big Green Spotted Puffer, so I got him for less than $10).
He's got lots of decorations in the tank and he's got a cave to hide in, which is where he spends most of his time.
The tank is a 29gallon, there were a few mollies living in it, and it was cycled, the mollies got moved to my 120gallon tank. It's got a strong filter on the tank though, and I'm wondering if this could be stressing him out.

I guess it might be nothing and he's just taking his time adjusting, but is there anything else I can do for him? I don't have pictures- I can't turn the stupid flash off on my camera and I don't want to stress him out more. Does anyone own one of these? Is this normal behavior?

I guess he's just so different from all the other puffer's I've had. I picked up a gorgeous GSP from a different LFS yesterday who made himself right at home the moment he was released into the tank (the 120gallon- not the tank with the turgidus, lol).

Yes, that's completely normal behavior for a lurker species. They lurk. They lay still. They look like a sleeping turd. Then they see food and attack, rip it to pieces.. and go back to lurking.

I love my turgidus, but don't expect much out of him other than a silly "wave" in the morning and every few days when I check on him he'll let me know he's hungry.

Do be sure you keep the water clean, since they spend a lot of time just sitting they seem to get skin problems a bit more easily than fish that swim a lot. And keep up the strong current, mine gets very crabby if the filter gets pugged up and water flow is weaker. They need plenty of oxygen brought down to them at the lower levels of the tank.

They look like a sleeping turd.

Hence the name "turd"gidus!

Do be sure you keep the water clean, since they spend a lot of time just sitting they seem to get skin problem

Substrate too.

I love my turgidus Rowdy...he's so much fun!