Puffer problem...Self Mutilation

[GigaFish]

I got a little 3" porcupine puffer last thursday for my 120gal. Since I put him in the tank, he has stayed in one corner (except for feeding time) and all he does all day long is swim up and down over and over all the while keeping his front lips (Do they have lips?) pressed against the glass. His lips just slide up and down on the glass all day. So I went out of town for work for three days and got back yesterday and there he was, still just swimming up and down. But what I noticed, is that now his top lip is white and kind of swollen like he is rubbing the skin off or something. Does anyone know what to do about this? I was thinking he might be sticking to that corner due to an issue with the amount of current in my tank, so I shut down my two maxijet mods and put the original impellars in them to drasticly reduce the flow. We will see how that goes.

 

[Dubbin1]

Its normal for puffers to swim like that but what it sounds like it is doing is trying to grind its teeth down. Do you feed it anything that helps out with that?

 

[reefergeorge]

He may be reacting to seeing himself in the glass.
IMO they don't have very good eyesight. My porcupine will bite at the glass when I put food behind him, because he sees it in the reflection.
If you just got him his teeth shouldn't be a problem. When he was in the wild he was eating a proper hard shelled diet.

 

[emperior911]

You need to get hard shelled food.. you can go to your grocery store, they have crab and hard shelled seafood...

 

[GigaFish]

I got him from someone else who has had him for 6 months at least. She was feeding him marine cuisine and thats it. She said he made too much of a mess with the krill and was worried about her water quality so she never fed that to him. I have been feeding him krill since I got him and every piece that he drops gets eaten by my tangs so I'm not worried.

 

[reefergeorge]

Krill is horrible for puffers. It is ok for a snack, but you should feed things like clams, mussels, and crab legs. I feed mine the following plus silver sides, and some krill. I soak all the food in vita chem, and selcon.
A krill diet leads to lock jaw, and once it does it usually leads to death.

 

[ladyshark]

Reefergeorge, does the krill diet cause lockjaw for all fish, or just puffers? I feed my zebra eel krill, which he loves (only had him for about a week)--what you said worries me. I would love to hear more of your thoughts on krill for food.

thanks

 

[crazedpuffer]

Mostly just puffers (especially porcs), but I would be cautious with the eel too.

TC your porc could be bored too, what kind of decorations are in the tank and what are the tankmates?