The Puffer Forum

So I know its stress full first off! But after 6 months I had never see either my male or female red tail red eyes puff! But yesterday morning I only had a little light from the window coming into the room and as I was getting dressed I happen to stop and look at my puffs! And there is the male all ballooned up! Not sure if the female scared him or what! By the time I grabbed my phone for a picture he was already deflating! My significant other still doesn't believe me! But wow didn't realize how big they would go until you see it in real life!

I really hate it when any of my puffers inflate..Especially when I made a mistake which caused it..

But they can be scarily large when totally puffed out.

I don't think it was me cuz he was already puffed before I was anywhere near the tank! And in 6 months this is the first time I have seem one of them do it! They seem pretty happy and even when I'm messing with there tank they don't even loss any color or hid so I think they are really well adjusted to me!

It is quite an impressive sight to see how large even the smallest puffer inflates. Medium puffers are quite a sight, large puffers is emotional to say the least. The first ever puffed puffer I saw was my fahaka and what a sight that was.

Puffers can and do inflate without stress or fright. We rarely catch them "practice puffing" but they all seem to it periodically. I think of it as a system check. I have kept some puffers or years without ever seeing them puff. My one Palembang's puffer I never got to see inflated. Others, even singletons with no tankmates I do catch puffing rarely without any detectable stimulus. Any inflated puffer is impressive.

I had one of my GSP's suddenly puff in front of me recently after it realized I was not standing by the tank to give it some food. It apparently hates fasting days. lol

Well let's hope I don't see a puff for 6 more months haha

bertie 83 wrote:It is quite an impressive sight to see how large even the smallest puffer inflates. Medium puffers are quite a sight, large puffers is emotional to say the least. The first ever puffed puffer I saw was my fahaka and what a sight that was.

We werein Egypt many years ago and saw some dead, inflated fahakas on sale under the name of Football(soccerball) fish.

My fahaka just puffed for the first time yesterday..i got lucky and had my phobe with me and took a picture

One of my C. irrubesco would always puff when I held a mirror in front of the tank. This species can puff in a different way compared to many other puffers, because they also have the keel/ridge on belly and back. The first puffing stage is erecting the keels, which already makes the puffer look much bigger (sometimes they stop there). The second stage is sucking in water (as all puffers and porcupine fishes do).

Oh the male will puff his keel all the time that's a daily occurrence, just showing his dominance over the glass of the tank hahaha but to actually puff by inflating with water that's a completely different thing that's I hadn't seen before and was shocked ans stunned!