The Puffer Forum

After doing a water change and heading out, I noticed one of my figure 8s hiding out with his tail curled. I know this is a sign of stress. Is this due to the stress of the water change? Or should I worry about it being something else?

Many puffers will curl their tail for no reason, or when sleeping, though many also do it when sick. Personally, I think that they are seen doing it often when distressed because they are trying to rest to get past the distress. He was probably stressed out from the water change(all my puffers freak weekly from theirs) and you happen to catch him in the puffer equivalent of curled into a fetal position. As long as his behavior goes back to normal by tommarow I'd say it's just a water change freakout.

A curled tail is usually Puffer for "eek!" "I dunno about this..." or "I don't feel so good." Keep an eye on the little munchkin.

Most likely he's still trying to figure out what that big thing that came into his tank and sucked the water out was..

Assuming of course you matched the temperature, used your decholor if you are on city water, etc. If he doesn't start looking right in a few hours, check your parameters and make sure everything is where it should be.

so is tail curling a bad thing? i notice when i wake up b'4 sunrise and go look at the tank and i see my 2 puffers side by side curled' and (actively florescent green & dark black dots) faded looking (bottom white, but the green is pale and spots look brown instead of black, and all fins curled and moving only one left/right fin) but as the sun rises and the lightens up my room i see them start moving all their fins and bright in color and active. is this how they sleep or are they stressed every night about something? when sleeping at night i do hear something breaking the surface and actually last night, i noticed 1 puffer was moving really really fast left to right/up and down. maybe freaked out by a light reflecting by the tank.

Curled tails mean nothing IMO. The curl them to navigate, when stressed, when happy, etc.

I've had my GSP's a year now and notice mine do this too, I guessed it was just because they were sleeping because if I went near their tank they would uncurl and greet me ... I've learnt not to stress too much when they do this as they seem to be happy enough.....

My puffs always curl when sleeping on something, but mostly I think it's like a person lifting their eyebrows... it's HOW and WHY they're doing it that tells you what it means, not the act in itself.

alright, thanks for the input. was just worried since they mentiond it was kind of a negative thing above.

One my puffers did it a lot right after he came here. But now I can't say I've seen him doing it for a while. I think it differs from puffer to puffer, the same way that our habits differ from person to person.

My salivator curls his tail a lot, when he's spooked he uses it as a rudder to back up. I've also seen him curl his tail before attacking food, kinda like a strike pose.