Funny Puffer Behavior

[AndrewD]

I have a Fiji Puffer and three times I have found him at the bottom of the tank, motionless, discolored (paleish), barely adjusting his eyes and barely breathing. I have taken a net to give him a slight shove and his state remains catatonic. The first time we found him like this we thought he was dead, however, he's still swimming around near the bottom, seems to be doing fine except for the few times we've found him like this. Anyone know what's going on? Is he sleeping? Thanks.

 

[electrikat]

Was it at night or after lights out? Puffers are not generally energetic. They will find a corner, ph, or rock and lay down and just sit there. Some of them and other fish as well, will lose their color after lights out. They become pale and whitish looking(even yellow tangs) until after the lights come back up. They do look dead when they are sleeping. If he is eating, swimming occasionally, not breathing overly hard, and not covered with any lesions or spots, I would not worry about it.

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

what are the levels in your tank, ph, salinity, nitrite, nitrate, ammonia?

how old is the tank

 

[FishRFrndsNotFd]

M Fiji puffer does that, too. Scared the crap out of me the first few times until I realized it must be normal because he didn't die. I checked the ph level, etc and all was fine.

So I guess they are just resting. And he needs it after eating my blue-legged crabs! Grrr!