The Puffer Forum

Okay.. I have two questions and have tryed to use the "search" function but have not had any luck finding answers so I will just ask here and see if any of you can help me.

So the questions are:

Can Puffers sneeze?
The reason I ask is while feeding my GSP tonight a bit of bloodworms. He swam backward and appeared to sneeze. He even did the head up, head up then head down and spit out a bit of food. It really looked like a person sneezing, Ahhh, Ahhhh, Choooo.

Can puffers see their reflection in the side of the tank?
Again while feeding my GSP tonight, he would be happily plucking food from the forceps I feed him with.... when he would get around to one side of the forceps where he could see the side of the tank clearly, he would rush over to the glass with his mouthful of food and bare his teeth at the glass. He turned darker color while doing this. Then he would zoom his way back across the tank and continue to eat the food from the forceps.

Any ideas? Anyone else see their puffer do either of these things??

Thank you all!

I know that puffers can be messy eaters and tend to chew and spit out their food, kinda looks like sneezing but never thought of it that away. They also can and do blow around on the bottom of the tanks while looking for something maybe hiding in the rocks or sand. They blow a jet stream of water to uncover live prey (like crabs and such) in the wild that might be hiding in the sandy bottom of rivers or oceans. This might be what you are seeing from your puffer.

My Fahaka puffer would bite at the front of the tank and sounded like he was going to break the glass when I 1st brought him home from the lfs. I really dont know why some does that. Maybe wanting to be fed, warning, or maybe just mad. I have kept different species of puffers off and on over 20 years and they all did some realy silly unexplained things. Someone else in here might beable to help you out on that one.

zookey wrote:Okay.. I have two questions and have tryed to use the "search" function but have not had any luck finding answers so I will just ask here and see if any of you can help me.

So the questions are:

Can Puffers sneeze?
The reason I ask is while feeding my GSP tonight a bit of bloodworms. He swam backward and appeared to sneeze. He even did the head up, head up then head down and spit out a bit of food. It really looked like a person sneezing, Ahhh, Ahhhh, Choooo.

Can puffers see their reflection in the side of the tank?
Again while feeding my GSP tonight, he would be happily plucking food from the forceps I feed him with.... when he would get around to one side of the forceps where he could see the side of the tank clearly, he would rush over to the glass with his mouthful of food and bare his teeth at the glass. He turned darker color while doing this. Then he would zoom his way back across the tank and continue to eat the food from the forceps.

Any ideas? Anyone else see their puffer do either of these things??

Thank you all!

I agree with Fade about the "sneezing". Both my puffers chew and spit, chew and spit all their food every time they eat. As for the reflection, I'm not 100% sure, but I think of it this way.... When you sit in front of your tank(s), can you see your own reflection? I can't in mine, I only see the life that is inside the tank. I would imagine that the view from the inside of the tank is the opposite? Looking into our "world"? Just my 2 cents.

An alternate common name for puffers is "blowfish". Yes, they squirt water at the substrate, objects in the tank, and at their owner/care-givers through the surface of the water. "Blowing" and "puffing" do not necessarily refer only ti self-inflation, but to food-seeking as well - as described in earlier posts. It is normal food-seeking behavior, likely instinctive in these fish.

Lacking hard opercula (i.e., gill covers), their technique for clearing unwanted materials frm their mouth and gills does look quite a lot like a human sneeze. and serves much the same function even though puffer's nostrils are not connected to their mouth as ours are. Their nostrils are purely sensory - detecting flavor/tastes/etc. in the water and not involved in breathing/respiration.

The reflection hobbyists see when looking through the front glass at either side glass is an artifact of light bending as it passes through glass. We see it, fish inside the tank do not. If you wish to test this borrow a child's toy periscope and look at the end glass from within the tank: no reflections.

HTH

RTR wrote: The reflection hobbyists see when looking through the front glass at either side glass is an artifact of light bending as it passes through glass. We see it, fish inside the tank do not. If you wish to test this borrow a child's toy periscope and look at the end glass from within the tank: no reflections.

HTH

Or find a really big tank, grab some goggles and dive in!

geronimo69 wrote:

RTR wrote: The reflection hobbyists see when looking through the front glass at either side glass is an artifact of light bending as it passes through glass. We see it, fish inside the tank do not. If you wish to test this borrow a child's toy periscope and look at the end glass from within the tank: no reflections.

HTH

Or find a really big tank, grab some goggles and dive in!

I wish I could find a tank that big!!

Thank you all for your explanations. That does make a lot of sense ... clearing their mouths and blowing water. Maybe the two "head up" motions are him taking in the water, IDK. But very happy to hear that it is not just this puffer that does "odd" things.

geronimo69 wrote:As for the reflection, I'm not 100% sure, but I think of it this way.... When you sit in front of your tank(s), can you see your own reflection? I can't in mine, I only see the life that is inside the tank. I would imagine that the view from the inside of the tank is the opposite? Looking into our "world"? Just my 2 cents.

Depending on the angle I am to my aquarium I can see a reflection of some things in the room on my aquarium glass.... maybe he is defending his territory or food from something in the room that he can see? The cat or dog maybe? Or the husband? (I would defend my food from him too!) The behavior just struck me as strange and I thought maybe they see themselves as a threat...... but knowing that he does NOT see another puffer is somewhat reassuring as I don't think (hope) that he won't be stressed by it.

Thank you all again for your answers and help in calming me (a new puffer person)down. This whole puffer experience is reminding me a lot of when I became a mother for the first time... so many questions and so many things that can cause me to worry about doing things wrong! Thank goodness I found this site and all of you to help me (and other new puffer people) out when we have questions or worries. Thanks again to all of you!

geronimo69 wrote:As for the reflection, I'm not 100% sure, but I think of it this way.... When you sit in front of your tank(s), can you see your own reflection? I can't in mine, I only see the life that is inside the tank. I would imagine that the view from the inside of the tank is the opposite? Looking into our "world"? Just my 2 cents.

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Depending on the angle I am to my aquarium I can see a reflection of some things in the room on my aquarium glass.... maybe he is defending his territory or food from something in the room that he can see? The cat or dog maybe? Or the husband? The behavior just struck me as strange and I thought maybe they see themselves as a threat...... but knowing that he does NOT see another puffer is somewhat reassuring as I don't think (hope) that he won't be stressed by it.quote]


If you read the post by RTR, it explains these small reflections....

"The reflection hobbyists see when looking through the front glass at either side glass is an artifact of light bending as it passes through glass. We see it, fish inside the tank do not. If you wish to test this borrow a child's toy periscope and look at the end glass from within the tank: no reflections."

geronimo69 wrote:

geronimo69 wrote:As for the reflection, I'm not 100% sure, but I think of it this way.... When you sit in front of your tank(s), can you see your own reflection? I can't in mine, I only see the life that is inside the tank. I would imagine that the view from the inside of the tank is the opposite? Looking into our "world"? Just my 2 cents.

zookey wrote:Depending on the angle I am to my aquarium I can see a reflection of some things in the room on my aquarium glass.... maybe he is defending his territory or food from something in the room that he can see? The cat or dog maybe? Or the husband? The behavior just struck me as strange and I thought maybe they see themselves as a threat...... but knowing that he does NOT see another puffer is somewhat reassuring as I don't think (hope) that he won't be stressed by it.

If you read the post by RTR, it explains these small reflections....

"The reflection hobbyists see when looking through the front glass at either side glass is an artifact of light bending as it passes through glass. We see it, fish inside the tank do not. If you wish to test this borrow a child's toy periscope and look at the end glass from within the tank: no reflections."

I meant on the face of my aquarium glass. I assumed that RTR was referring to when I look through the aquarium and see the reflection of my fish or decor on the other glass surfaces like the sides or back.

Then I went on thinking of what my puffer might see outside the aquarium that may cause him to act as if he were defending his food.
Sorry .... guess I should have been clearer.

No, it's more like if you stuck your head in there & tried looking out through the glass, you'd just see the outside world, not your reflection.

puffer know there is a world outside of the tank, and they want to take that over too

LOL @ J-P! He just may have the right idea!

The reflections I was talking about are the pseudo-mirror-like reflections you see when looking through the front glass toward the side/end glasses, or in larger tanks when looking through the side at the back or front glasses.

Light bending by glass is used to advantage in Monaco-style tanks (so called because the first tanks built that way were in the aquarium there, many years ago). The side walls disappear, and with the two (or more) piece rear wall, the tank appear all but limitless.

I like J-Ps theory!

I did figure out what Lava is nashing his teeth at though. His tank sits only about 2 feet off the floor right now as the stand is not finished. As I fed him tonight my husband was laughing. I turned to see what he is laughing at and the cat is sitting there at the end of the tank peeking up just high enough to see over the black trim on the bottom of the tank. Lava the puffer sees her doing this and charges the glass and the cat ducks down. Peeking up again seconds later.

I am sure that Lava thinks the cat looks like she is either invading Lava's territory or that that cat is trying to get Lava's food.

I do understand the whole reflection thing though. Thank you all for your input.

You should see my Mantis shrimp sizing up my dog!

Pufferpunk wrote:You should see my Mantis shrimp sizing up my dog!

make a video and post it to YouTube --- I would watch it.... probably often.

Shrimp doesn't show himself too often.