Pufferfish sand spitting?

Administrator

Hi everyone,

Recently my Stars and Stripes pufferfish has been exhibity some very strange behavior. He is grabbing mouth fulls of sand from the bottom of the tank, spitting out half, and shooting the other half out through his gills! He ends up wearing some of the sand atop his head. Is this harmful to him? I'll admit, watching him shoot sand everywhere is entertaining, but I don't want to see him do it if it is bad for him.

Any ideas why he may have suddenly begun doing this or whether it is harmful?

Thanks so much!

daisycutter

i have cories that do this sucking up sand and blowing it out there gills it dosent seem to effect them

Administrator

So long as my fish isn't the only one doing it ;) Thanks for letting me know about your cories, daisycutter. I was a bit surprised because I've never seen him do this before...

Thanks!

Age of Aquariums

I bet he is trying to hid under the sand. If I read right, other wise he is just having fun, or eating like my "Strawberry fish" did.

Melissa

well when i was reading more about my puffer, i read that they will do that sometimes to look for food. or something along those lines. mine does it sometimes too.

Administrator

It definitely does not appear that he is trying to hide. He isn't burrowing under the sand, but sucking sand in and then spitting it out.

That would be wonderful if he is filtering the sand looking for food... I would have to take the Python to the sandbed less frequently :)