The Puffer Forum

(Also posted on Aquaria Central)

I have three very small Figure 8 puffers in a 10 gallon brackish tank (which will be upgraded when their size demands) and they spend a lot of time swimming into the side glass. The tank is not sparce by any means, it has loads of rocks and obstacles littering the tank - my question is, do I need plants (real or plastic) for them to swim around? Would having more than one puffer in a tank make them uncomfortable? The LFS approved of this set-up - is this behavior of swimming into the glass just a natural quirk of puffers?

(Responded to at AC). 3 puffers in a 10g will not be able to be comfortable w/o the ability to establish territories.

LFSes tend to approve or recommend things that are not actually suitable. They either don't know or don't care.

Upgrading the tank asap will improve the sitution.

And yes, plants will help as well. Decorations that sit on the bottom don't break up the line of sight, and if the puffers can see the entire tankscape most of the time, it gets really boring really fast.

Hi nick! Can you recommend any decorations that would be well suited to break up the line of site? Some sort of plant that sits at the surface and hangs in the water perhaps?

(line of sight, not site!!) whoops!

tall driftwood mixed with tall plants is ideal, and strangely shaped rock structures are good, too. Tufa rock will actually buffer the hardness to the puffer's benefit, so it's a good choice for this.

A 10 is too small for 3, but as far as going up the glass it seems to be the behavior of some healthy fig-8s too. Mine was placed in a 29 all by himself last week, and he still "paces" sometimes, even though theres all plants, caves, and a ton of space. I think it's something they do when owners are near also, whenever I peek into the room hes usually not "pacing"