The Puffer Forum

My puffer who is in brackish water was on his side curled up and black. I was afraid he was dying. When I went over he straightened out and started swimming and looks fine now. Could he have been playing dead or sleeping???

He was sleeping. Some puffers change color when they sleep. And some puffers do curl up too.

A baby pic of one of mine...

don't worry ~ some puffer like sleeping like that ~ but some data show that when they do not adapt the surrounding , as for mine , the first month they sleep like that ~ after that , when they sleep ~ they just drive to the bottom of tank and with the body dark ~

Color change and silhouette changes during napping or sleeping during the dark cycle are highly defensive survival strategies.

I saw one of my F8's do that for the first time on Thanksgiving. One moment he had his belly resting on the sand and appeared to be sleeping, but then he swam a little and had his tail curled up. He was swimming in his sleep! It only lasted about half a minute and then he fell asleep on the sand again.

I rarely catch them sleeping though. They don't seem to require much.

An hour ago, I took a good pic of GSP with the tail curled up. It was my first time seeing something like this. The GSP was motionless, but the eyes did move.
I'm gonna win the next POTM

I'm not really worried, more looking for input but this is my third gsp and have never noticed this behavior. My new gsp, 5 days home, seems to be afraid of the dark. Every time I shut off the aquarium light, he turns very very dark and either sits in one spot until the light is back, or surfes the glass jumping out of the water. He is in a 30g planted tank with many plants rocks and a couple decorations. Water peramiters are almost ideal, I know this is the first question asked every time. He is less than 2 inches around 1.5 in fresh water alone with a pleco about 3 inches. I will be getting a larger tank in a couple.months, but uqs anybody experienced.behavior.like this? He almost makes me want to leave the light on which I know isn't good in the long run. Water temp is a steady 79.