Fish sense of smell

What are the odds of a fish not having a sense of smell?
My puffer seems not react when I put food in the tank until he sees it then he goes ham.

 

I think all pea puffers are like that (at least mine are also).
I have to swing my tongs in front of them until they see it. If I just throw food in there, they pretty much ignore it.

 

Just a theory:
Puffers are quite intelligent and they have extremely well developed eyesight, and your puffer is probably used to seeing you put the food in his tank, so he doesn't really have a need to sniff it out. Along with this, your tank is a box of water that is fairly stagnant. Maybe not in a sense as no flow in your tank, but in comparison to a lake or river where its constantly new water and a scent from a snail is radiating from a specific point, in a tank it kinda just blows all over, but doesn't go away, so it could be anywhere.

Here's a metaphor:
You're a human, you can smell well, but also have good eyesight. If I put a raw steak on the counter in the kitchen, will you smell your way there or look for it? Do you think your fish would do different?

I am sure he has smell, just not any particular use for it in his setting.

 

The theory above sounds good, especially the part about the water being in a box so the smell is kind of just everywhere. I imagine it’d be like being in a small room with a skunk that’s hiding and has sprayed. You likely wouldn’t be able to track the skunk’s hiding spot from smell because the entire room would smell like it.

 

Just a theory:
Puffers are quite intelligent and they have extremely well developed eyesight, and your puffer is probably used to seeing you put the food in his tank, so he doesn't really have a need to sniff it out. Along with this, your tank is a box of water that is fairly stagnant. Maybe not in a sense as no flow in your tank, but in comparison to a lake or river where its constantly new water and a scent from a snail is radiating from a specific point, in a tank it kinda just blows all over, but doesn't go away, so it could be anywhere.

Here's a metaphor:
You're a human, you can smell well, but also have good eyesight. If I put a raw steak on the counter in the kitchen, will you smell your way there or look for it? Do you think your fish would do different?

I am sure he has smell, just not any particular use for it in his setting.

I'm not sure about this, my bichir and my axotl have extremely poor eyesight but the second I put food in the tank they immediately know its there. Perhaps puffer fish just have a bad sense of smell. I have never owned a puffer so I'm not sure.

 

Sensory systems in fish - Wikipedia

A bit of googleing and a few minutes on Wikipedia don't hurt in my opinion.

 

To me all kinds of fish use different senses to find food. Some eyesight, some smell, some use barbells, sensors, sidelineorgan, sound, sonar, etc etc....

It all depends on the fish.

Great Whites smell / tast a tiny drop of blood from miles away to lead them to their food but hunt partly on sight.

 

Maybe dirtier water makes it harder for them to smell the food. My fish kind of seem to be able to find the food faster after the tank has had a good cleaning.

 

Some interesting thoughts just curious I’ve been struggling to get him to out in size and to try new foods

 

Don’t hold me to it but I thought I read somewhere that puffers have none or very poor sense of smell and rely on their eyes for foods

 

Don't quote me since I can't find the source, but when I was researching dwarf puffers, for myself, I read that they have poor sense of smell, but rather heightened eyesight and hunt visually. Explaining that they are hard to feed prepared foods because they don't smell it as food, so live foods because they move and trigger the hunt.

Ha I typed the same thing as kallilly1973 lol.