AdamHorton
Aquarium Advice FINatic
So I've had a Figure-8 puffer for 4 weeks now. He's doing great except for one thing: he hates people.
I know I've posted here before about my fish hating me and I was sort of being sarcastic, but this time actually worries me.
Whenever any person approaches the tank, no matter how slowly or stealthfully, once he sees them he will immediately freak out. When I say freak out, I mean he will start swimming up against the back of the tank very erratically and try several times to jump out of the top of the tank. This behavior doesn't stop if I just stand still by the tank, even for up to 10-15 minutes, he keeps doing this and doesn't calm down until he can't see me anymore. I thought he would calm down but it's been a month and it's still exactly the same.
To feed him, I have to rig up something where his food is dangling in a certain part of the tank so he can see it, then leave and watch from 15-feet away to make sure he eats it. It usually takes him a minute or so to calm down and then see the food. He's eating great at this point, except for the freaking out of course.
Right now he's in a 10G tank. I have a 20G High tank that he will move up to once I move in a couple of months. I tried rearranging the decorations so that he would have lots of places to hide, but he doesn't hide there, and it didn't change his behavior.
I'm out of ideas as to what could be causing this, but I'm pretty sure it isn't normal. Any suggestions?
I know I've posted here before about my fish hating me and I was sort of being sarcastic, but this time actually worries me.
Whenever any person approaches the tank, no matter how slowly or stealthfully, once he sees them he will immediately freak out. When I say freak out, I mean he will start swimming up against the back of the tank very erratically and try several times to jump out of the top of the tank. This behavior doesn't stop if I just stand still by the tank, even for up to 10-15 minutes, he keeps doing this and doesn't calm down until he can't see me anymore. I thought he would calm down but it's been a month and it's still exactly the same.
To feed him, I have to rig up something where his food is dangling in a certain part of the tank so he can see it, then leave and watch from 15-feet away to make sure he eats it. It usually takes him a minute or so to calm down and then see the food. He's eating great at this point, except for the freaking out of course.
Right now he's in a 10G tank. I have a 20G High tank that he will move up to once I move in a couple of months. I tried rearranging the decorations so that he would have lots of places to hide, but he doesn't hide there, and it didn't change his behavior.
I'm out of ideas as to what could be causing this, but I'm pretty sure it isn't normal. Any suggestions?
