nmonks
A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from
I've had a South American puffer in a busy community tank for a year now, and apart from nipping the fins of some temporarily resident mollies and platies (long since moved to their own aquaria) it has behaved itself very nicely. But I've always been a bit worried about its behavious, best described as neurotic.
Having learned that these are schooling fish, I took a gamble this week and picked up two more small specimens. They're half the size of the puffer already here, the idea being to minimise any risk of territoriality or aggression. As things turned out, they all got along nicely at once. They sometimes follow one another about, but most of the time ignore one another. No sign of any actual schooling. Sometimes they "capture" the same bloodworm and a fierce little fight breaks out.
Behaviour towards other tankmates hasn't been any different to the existing puffer. The ram cichlid attacks all three of them on sight, but then he is the playground bully. The halfbeaks, glassfish, and hatchetfish are too fast for the puffers to even approach, let alone nip. The Corydoras have been nipped in the past, but now hide in the plants unless there is food about, and that way avoid the puffers completely. The Panaque, a sitting target you'd imagine, is totally ignored by all the puffers (and the ram, for that matter).
One interesting thing I've noticed is that while they do 'stalk' the cardinals for a moment, the will immediately switch over to a plant if there is one nearby. I suspect the fin-nipping is less about these fish actually needing to eat fins and more about them wanting to explore their environment. They certainly do search the plants very throughly, nipping leaves from time to time, presumably looking for baby snails. They also like the sand, and have been foraging through it quite actively.
Apart from the cardinals and the Corydoras, everything in my tank is very fast moving, and that seems to be something that has minimised problems with the pufferfish in the past. It'll be interesting to see how things develop with the extra fish.
My immediate problem is doing their teeth. They are a bit overgrown. Sand seems to help enormously (I've only had to trim my specimen's teeth once in the past year) so perhaps they'll grind them down themselves. If not, it's out with the clove oil and the clippers!
Cheers,
Neale
Having learned that these are schooling fish, I took a gamble this week and picked up two more small specimens. They're half the size of the puffer already here, the idea being to minimise any risk of territoriality or aggression. As things turned out, they all got along nicely at once. They sometimes follow one another about, but most of the time ignore one another. No sign of any actual schooling. Sometimes they "capture" the same bloodworm and a fierce little fight breaks out.
Behaviour towards other tankmates hasn't been any different to the existing puffer. The ram cichlid attacks all three of them on sight, but then he is the playground bully. The halfbeaks, glassfish, and hatchetfish are too fast for the puffers to even approach, let alone nip. The Corydoras have been nipped in the past, but now hide in the plants unless there is food about, and that way avoid the puffers completely. The Panaque, a sitting target you'd imagine, is totally ignored by all the puffers (and the ram, for that matter).
One interesting thing I've noticed is that while they do 'stalk' the cardinals for a moment, the will immediately switch over to a plant if there is one nearby. I suspect the fin-nipping is less about these fish actually needing to eat fins and more about them wanting to explore their environment. They certainly do search the plants very throughly, nipping leaves from time to time, presumably looking for baby snails. They also like the sand, and have been foraging through it quite actively.
Apart from the cardinals and the Corydoras, everything in my tank is very fast moving, and that seems to be something that has minimised problems with the pufferfish in the past. It'll be interesting to see how things develop with the extra fish.
My immediate problem is doing their teeth. They are a bit overgrown. Sand seems to help enormously (I've only had to trim my specimen's teeth once in the past year) so perhaps they'll grind them down themselves. If not, it's out with the clove oil and the clippers!
Cheers,
Neale
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