Morph

I had to move my large male red eye puffer to his own 50 gallon tank because he was stressing the other 4 puffers i have. For a solid week he's been on his own and my other puffers are doing so well a.k.a have healed from getting bit constantly and they don't puff out of fear anymore.

my problem now is that the lone puffer seems depressed. He's in my kitchen so not alot of action coming in and out of the room. He just sits there on a leaf all day long and barely moves unless i come to the tank then he goes nuts.

I was wondering if buying a couple of fast moving fish and putting them in the tank with him would help perk him up. in the large tank he would constantly chase anything that moves and now he doesn't have anyone to chase anymore. Do you think he needs a friend? if so any suggestions?

angelfish22

is the tank live planted or plastic, if plastic you can try changing the scenery. I dont know if you have a little tv, but my puffer loves to watch the tv! He sits and watches for hours.

Morph

it's plastic but there is alot of decorations in there, he's got so many spots to swim around and explore he just doesn't seem interested at all.

i bought him 6 tetras today, hopefully they will keep him happy.

angelfish22

I dont know, he might end up hunting the tetras Course then he would have something to do...

Morph

that's what i'm hoping for, alas he's still not interested, i guess he misses his female friends

Narcicius

maybe he knows he can't catch them, ever fed him snails? that always keeps my puffer busy.

Morph

it's my snail tank lol, it's a literal buffet.

angelfish22

awww the fishy has fishy depression!! Is it possible to get more females for him to spread the aggression and let him have more fun

Narcicius

I think its the fact that he eats fins that makes putting more fish in pointless, he will harm any amount of females. Maybe he just needs to get used to his new home. Or the tank needs to be in a room that you occupy more often.

Morph

thats why he got removed from my main tank, he was beating the snot out of the 3 other females (1 female had like 15 white ring bite marks on her) and 1 male who nips the females but doesn't relentlessly chase.

The main tank puffers are doing so good without him being there so he can't go back and i don't want to sacrifice a female to keep him company, hence the tetras.

I guess i'm going to have to move the tank if the guilt overpowers me.

PufferofDoom

ive had this problem too before, owning puffers of my own. i took care of it by putting his tank next to a tv, as well as putting snails in his tank and buying him mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, and blood worms to make his food more interesting. have you tries any of those? i even have put a clown loach in with him to keep them company. its kinda funny because the loach follows the puffer everywhere. sometimes even to the top of the tank. they also hunt snails together. BFF!