Congo Puffer Experience

[vince106]

Hi there all,

I've owned a Congo puffer for about 3 months now. He's brown, and about 2 and a half inches. I have for him an approximately 3 inch deep sand substrate of very fine Super Natural sand. I have seen him bury himself up to his eyes as Congo's are commonly depicted doing, but rarely. Most of the time he buries himself just a little bit, not enough to really hide effectively from others.

When I drop guppies or ghost shrimp into the tank - he hunts them by chasing them. Being a Congo, and possessing rather slow and funny locomotion, it may be hours or an entire day before he finally catches his food. It totally baffles me, because I know the entire point of his evolutionary ability to burrow into substrate is to jump out and capture prey by surprise, thereby compensating for lack of speed.

Why does he choose to chase instead of wait? Is it just because he is young? Is he just dumb? Lol. Has anyone experienced this with their Congo puffer? Do other Congo puffers not bury up to their eyes as well? I'd love to hear all about your experiences.

[pufferjw]

I have a 4" red Congo puffer, and I haven't seen him bury himself in the sand once, so it's not about being young. Mine tends to swim around the top of the tank like my Amazon puffers did. He also takes about 20 minutes or so to catch the shrimp in his tank, so he's pretty similar to yours. Your puffer should be fine.