The Puffer Forum

I have a 1 year old Fahaka puffer who lives in a 500 Litre tank on his own. He is around 9-10 inches long.

He eats fine but is very inactive. When the lights are on he sits under a large piece of bogwood the whole time without moving. With the lights off he is slightly better but still spends 99% of the time sat on the bottom of the tank.

I did all the water tests I could tonight, here are the results:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10 mg/l
Phosphate 0.25 mg/l
pH 8.0
15.5 degrees GH or 280mg/l as CaCO3
10 degrees KH or 180mg/l as CaCO3

Forgot to mention - filtration is 2 x Fluval FX5s with outlets set to create plenty of surface movement & oxygenation

It is what it is. Mine is lazy too. If I pop out around 3am he is going nuts.

Mine's lazy too, unless he's hungry.

MY female was lazy/bashful. The two males were more active. I only know the sexes from post-motem examinations, but the female did shed eggs with some regularity. That sample is way to small to say it is a gender thing. It can be just individual differences. Their tanks and equipment were quite similar. All three did spend time resting in the shade of clumps of Crinums.

I upped the water changes to twice weekly (50% each time) and added some more decoration to the tank and changed what I was feeding. Its like a new fish now! Always exploring and is at the surface waiting for food when I come near the tank.

Vid: http://youtu.be/UrfQJTGOOjg

Nice aquascape and love the statue..lol. Your Fahaka nice and chubby. Mine is less active if fed everyday but fed every other then he is more active.

Fish really don't need to be chubby. Lean is far healthier.

I disagree. If for some reason the fish is unable to eat for a period of time it is beneficial to have some fat to burn, rather than die of starvation.

Fahakas do get bored of eating the same food , i find that regular variation of diet keeps mine active ........she'll go mad for cockles one day and another day not be in the slightest bit interested in it , however dangle something different like a bit of mussel ( as in your lovely vid ) in front of her and shes dancing at the glass like a fish possessed ! .....i think mussel meat in particular is to fahakas like steak is to humans ( non vegetarians anyway !)....although i try to keep the mussel meat as a treat as it contains a lot of thiaminase ......she's currenlty munching her way through 20 or so red crabs that i managed to pick up at bargain price

robst3 wrote:I disagree. If for some reason the fish is unable to eat for a period of time it is beneficial to have some fat to burn, rather than die of starvation.

Why would a fish in captivity not be able to eat for some time??? Just like feeding a cat or dog to obesity will shorten it's life & IS animal abuse, same thing with a fish. Many puffers are known to have much shorter lifespans, dying of fatty liver disease from overfeeding due to their adept begging.

An obvious example is if it became ill. Either way my puffer is not obese...

a hungry fish is a healthy fish by and large ...........overfeeding is not just detrimental to the fish by consumption but also vastly lowers water quality due to excessive waste .

Agreed, that's why it's important to over filter and clean up any waste food from the tank. I disagree with starving a fish being healthier though. All you will do is stunt it's growth and leave it open to disease through a lack of nutrientse

Once it is ill (IE, fatty liver disease) it is too late. Are we willing to wait & see?