The Puffer Forum

I got a new figure 8 yesterday. He seems healthy (no evidence of IPs), he swims around the tank, and he ate some defrosted bloodworms. The thing is, he is really skittish. At the LFS I got him from, he came up to the glass and seemed friendly but now he swims away if I get close to the tank. My dad found out that sometimes it can take puffers a while to get settled in, is this why he is skittish? Also, I don't know if this is bad or not, but I've seen him (I know there's no way to tell a F8's gender, I'm just calling it a male) biting the rock in his tank, and potentially some other things, too. Is this normal?

-Munchypuf

Sorry if I seem ignorant about puffers, just about everywhere except TPF has conflicting information and it's hard to find answers.

Water is about 1.005 SG, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates 10-15. His tank has a rock and a lot of silk plants as well as a powerhead for current. Tank lights on from roughly 2PM-9PM, give or take 15-30 minutes. I will be feeding him frozen bloodworms, maybe some shrimp, until the snail breeding tank is up and running.

Make sure the tank is heavily decorated, it'll make him feel safer if there are lots of hiding places to retreat to. Give him time...

Thanks Pufferpunk! His tank is full of silk plants and has a large rock with a few little alcoves in it. He also seems to like spending time behind a rock where it's harder to see him. He ate more today and seemed a bit less skittish when I was feeding him.

Puffers are suspicious lil creatures that take a while to adjust to new surroundings.

She seems less skittish now, probably because she knows that I'm the one who feeds her. Thanks!