The Puffer Forum

i have an arrowhead puffer and sometimes he will swin around puffing up and deflating, puffing up and deflating, is there something wrong with him or does he do it just for fun. dont ask me if the tank is in good condition, i know how to keep puffers, i just would like to know is this normal.no fish in the tank to scare him,

Can your Arrowhead see his reflection in the glass at all? I used to have two siblings together and they would do that when they seen their reflection in the glass.
And it could be that he's stretching. For all we know, it may feel good to them to puff, or maybe he's trying to get the hang of it. I think some puffing behaviour is still a bit of a mystery.

I thought fish seeing their reflection was a myth. We see the reflection but they do not.

I've seen too many of my puffers reacting to their own reflection, they definitely see it!

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21594&p=229165&hili ... on#p229165

I haven't stuck my head in the tank in a while. I might give it a try

I think that's why people hang mirrors outside male Betta tanks. So the fish can see its reflection and go on full display.

Well I'm not going to argue with RTR, but I definitely noticed puffing behaviour in my suvattii in the tank they were kept in and sure seemed to me that they only puffed when they were looking at one end of the tank. If you are under water and you look up, you see a reflection, so why not see it otherwise? Like I said, definitely not going to argue, but my puffer's behaviour would make me seriously doubt whether they can see their reflection or not.

pufferpuggirl wrote: If you are under water and you look up, you see a reflection, so why not see it otherwise?

are you sure????? haha Looking into the water you have a reflection because it is a denser medium. Looking up from underwater you should not see any reflection at all. When you posted that I was unsure but check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MP5ViE2lQU

in regards to the glass, I am not certain how that would work. If the room is dark and the tank lights are on you might get some reflection there (similar to looking out your window at night when the inside lights are on?)

I have no suggestions... but...

Pictures please!

That video was taken very close to the surface, but I'm thinking you still see a reflection if you are further away from the surface (by the way, that video was taken very close to where I used to live in Florida!).

I could very well be wrong J-P, but I've always thought when my puffers have puffed whilst looking at the glass that they were seeing themselves, but maybe they are seeing something on the outside? I don't know.

Maybe it's like in horror movies - cats and dogs can see the evil entity when the human characters still can't, right? So maybe your puffers are trying to warn you of impen- okay, I'll shut up.

You have ghosts!

Haha @Silas

This is very interesting. They must be able to see their reflections at certain angles though... I mean, what about when they follow their reflections on the glass? But I suppose it could just be them pacing, and since we see their reflection, it could just appear that they are following it.. although I'm not convinced.

Considering this seriously, if the reflection could be seen from inside the tank, my bettas would never get any rest. I have a betta toy - if you haven't seen them, it's a floating ball with a mirror dangling from it. It's great exercise for a betta because once he sees his reflection, he has to chase this "other guy" off. This tells me that he can't see his reflection in the aquarium walls because he would either constantly be angry at the walls or he wouldn't care about the mirror I dangle in there.

That was quite funny SilasMortimer!

Well I guess that changes my perspective a bit-- I always thought they mostly paced the glass to see their reflection, but perhaps they are just checking out what is outside the tank? But then, why at times has it seemed like they didn't even notice me moving right in front of them, like they were too caught up with their reflection? I don't know. But you did bring up a good point.