Training your puffer to puff

[a1wonder]

*chuckles
Thank goodness you guy decided to go into fish earlier on and not into poisons snakes, I think it was a good choice for the safety of you both.

 

[GP]

Well I was thinking you could do it like you train a dog to get over its fear of loud noises perhaps. If You were to make a distinguishable noise (tap once lightly on the aquarium mabey or play a tone that will penetrate the water) then harras the puffer till it puffs and feed its favorite food eventualy it would either learn to puff at the taping and you would not need to harass it (and It would assosciat puffing with food rather than stress) or it would learn not to puff at the tapping and harrasment and assosciat them with food. In theory of coarse. It would be stressful and you would need to use a puffer that puffs regularly (apperently Fahaka Fry do ) But think of the accomplishment

Why don't you teach it to blow bubbles on command as well? It's not possible to teach a puffer to do something he uses as his defense mechanism on command.

 

[Opcn]

Godrick apperently you dont know much about training animals. Althought I'm sure you could tie several behaviors together to get a fish to blow bubles under water getting them to puff as a response for food would be much easyer. Dogs Growl as a defense mechanism but they can be taught to do it on command. Training is all about tieing things together.

 

[csr mel]

i have to wonder if some of you might take fishkeeping a little too seriously. a number of people cited that fish should not be kept as a toy or a party trick. while i generally agree with this, i also believe that fish , like other animals and even people, can be made to perform tricks.

just as my dog will do tricks for food or a ear scratch. i do not consider my dog to be a toy, just as i do not consider my fish to be toys. although i do consider my fish to be a decorative hobby. lets face it, thats what you do with fish. you look at them. they are a decoration to admire. a living decoration that needs care and attention and maintence. but none the less, a decoration. you cant take a fish to the park or rub its belly and make its fins wiggle like a pet dog.

perhaps to some of you treat fish as more than a decoration, but to me they are just a hobby that i am enjoying. i am starting to breed platys and i enjoy it. i enjoy seeing the different fry that are born and planning who to mate them with to selectivly breed them. i enjoy watching my platys and seeing them play around the plastic plants and harass the catfish. they are a living decoration to me.

perhaps this is similar to giant public aquariums where people bring their kids to watch fish interact with each other.

i had thought of getting a puffer, as i did not know it is stressfull to them to puff. after talking to opcn and reading this thread i am not sure i want a puffer. a puffer to me loses alot of its appeal if i cannot make it puff without hurting it. if i wanted a fish that did not puff, i would stick to my platys and pictus catfish afterall they do not puff up. a sports car loses its appeal if you can never drive it afterall. although they do look fast even when still.

i am still somewhat interested in getting a puffer for the reason of how they are very odd at swimming, and if i do i would not try to force it to puff. so you all can rest easy knowing that i will not be mean to a puffer, if i decide to get one. although if it did happen to puff on occasion for whatever reason, that would be interesting to see.

 

[GP]

Couldn't have said it better myself csr. By the way csr, puffers are great to own because they have a huge personality and become very friendly with the owner..

 

[Clare]

Just my last thread on this. First, apart from my Mbu puffer who is in with 2FT Perruno Catfish, all my puffers are kept seperately in specimen tanks.
By the very nature of the Palembangensis and the Lineatus, anything else would be viewed as food. Regardless of its size.
Please consider this, it is one thing saying that you would never do these things to a puffer, but someone else may read it and go out and but a puffer with this in mind. You would of then introduced the thought.
I once read about a Sweedish guy who felt it was acceptable to buy a fish such as a red tail with the intent of killing them once they got too big. They felt that it was all `part of the hobby`.

Thankyou to unphased who stood by my comments. When you are passionate about these fish it is very sad to think of the misery some endure.

To A1 Wonder, all life is equal. Fish may be merely fish but you are merely a human. Does that give someone the right to abuse you as they deem fit?

By the way, my mbu puffer in an 8ft x 2ft x 2ft tank would be at risk in a tank this size if it puffed up to the equvalent size as my Palembangensis did.

This is all i want to say on this matter as it is becoming increasingly like an argument between everyone.
Everyone feels differently about their fish and has the right to an opinion but these are living creatures with as much right as anyone else.
As for monkeys, dogs etc. I don`t believe in getting them to perform either.

 

[Opcn]

I think you may hve mixed up unphased and A1Wonder there

Your new to the forum so you may not know this but if its in a dark box

Like this

it is a quote.

I'm also a bit concerned about you haveing two 2 foot long fish in a 2 foot wide tank It must be getting hard for them to turn around. And the Mbu could still double in length theoretically.

Also,to the general populace , As I said to Csr earler my brother Can do party tricks but that does't make im any less of a person.

 

[Clare]

Don`t worry, my mbu and Perruno are soon to go into a 8ft x 3ft x 2ft tank. They are fine in this tank at the moment but i always want bigger for them. Once my fish room is finished in a month or so they will all be going in their new tanks.

 

[a1wonder]

To A1 Wonder, all life is equal. Fish may be merely fish but you are merely a human. Does that give someone the right to abuse you as they deem fit?

To Clare,
Where did you get it at all that that? All life is equal to me as I have posted in the past, please quote me where I said the opposite? I NEVER agreed with abusing fish, I ask again to please quote me where I agreed on this. I have posted on this topic several times taking the complete opposite view of what you are accusing me of. Please I ask you claret quote me, because none of my comments where meant to suggesting anything in that general direction.

Completely frustrated and rather T'ed off,
a1wonder

 

[Clare]

Very very sorry A1 wonder, i totally mixed your quote up with another. The other guy got me so angry with his quote of saying that `it was only a fish` that i wasn`t thinking straight!!!! Very sorry again and i totally agree with everything you have said on your posts.
Sorry,
Clare

 

[petitericeball]

im pretty sure when it puffs it takes in air then it stresses it. but im not 100% but more like 95. why would it get stressed when its filled with water when it needs the water inside it and lives in it.

 

[Ron]

It only fills with air when it is out of the water and puffs up. When it's in water in fills with water. The water gets trapped inside and the puffer might not be able to get it out, so it gets an infection, can't swim right, stresses, tires, gets sicker, and maybe even dies.

 

[lucky62]

dude that shelly is so cool.

It sure is , Ron , how big do they get?



This topic is getting quite a ride .

 

[Stryker]

Yes it was a very entertaining read..... please carry on

 

[Opcn]

You can add to the debate if you wish stryker No on will stop you.

And I have been asked several times what vituprative means and for those of you W/O dictionarys or vocabulary builder toilet paper it most nearly means vicious and bullying. And for those of you with the TP I appoligize for ruining the ending.