Griffie the puffer keeping in shape

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by my2rotties

I can honestly say that Griffie is not at all stressed when he blows himself up. I also read that puffers do this in the wild to make sure everything is working correctly. This fish does not get scared of anything and swims into my hand for belly rubs. I cannot say he looks bothered by blowing up unless a powerhead kicks on while he is inflated...

I don't think he does it for fun, but I do think he does it because he can. When he is done he comes up to us and starts doing blowfishes on the glass, begging for a treat. NO fish in my tank has ever bothered him or ever will. When we turn the lights on he is the first one out begging. Nothing scares him at all.

I do at times think he blows up to align whatever he should not have eaten... for example snails. He will usually just suck them up and spin them to find soft spots... then spits them out again. I have never seen him find one with a soft spot and eat it, but I am sure it has happened.

I wrote out a long response but its not fair to start a debate in your picture thread about why puffers puff. I would stop reading the source that says they do it to make sure 'everything is working properly' though.

You know best.

[my2rotties]

It's all good, he is my fish and I know him very well. I think it all depends on personality and such, Griffie pitched a fit at me for ignoring his begging once and blew himself up (that sounds funny). I dropped in his cube and he deflated right away. He still does it to this day if I am not feeding him fast enough since he knows it gets results. He probably did it this morning to my husband since he was hungry and Frank was not feeding him I (my job and I was not out of bed yet). Perhaps I taught him a bad habit with positive reinforcement... He blows himself up and I give him food. People train animlas with this method all the time...

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

I wrote out a long response but its not fair to start a debate in your picture thread about why puffers puff. I would stop reading the source that says they do it to make sure 'everything is working properly' though.

You know best.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

And now we get into the anthropomorphism...lets just enjoy the pics I guess. Hope he stops his monthly puffing for you soon though.

EDIT: i read that again and it sounds bad. I don't mean it in a negative way but sometimes we have to separate what we feel and what is fact. Its easy to get attached to fish and make yourself believe they have feelings and personality when in fact they have behavioral instincts. It does vary a bit from individual fish to fish (of the same species) but not much. Most all puffers act the same and are thought to have 'loads of personaility' which in fact is just how they are. Even in the wild I was able to pet them. They paced in the wild too up and down, up and down the poles at piers...but we like to think they are bored if they do this.

Fish like Puffers have defense mechanisms for a reason and use them for the most part involuntarily. Its not like they choose to do stretch or make sure they can. Its stress.

Anyways, I really apologize for being a bit off topic but the fact is that its not good for them to puff and we want our fish to live long. Just don't want people to read this and think they are doing it for 'fun'.