Convict blowing bubbles them swimming up to retrieve them.

[exnisstech]

Watching the tank last night and noticed my convict tang blowing bubbles then swimming to the top and retrieving them. I've not seen this behaviour before but I'll admit I don't spend as much time watching as I should with summer being here. A while back the same fish was exhibiting a strange swim behaviour that Jay H said could be from air being injested. At the time I had recently started feeding some flake and the fish had been eating from the top so I chalked it up to that and I started putting the flake under the water. Now it looks like the fish is creating and injesting the bubbles and spitting them out retrieving and repeating.
@Jay Hemdal any idea why the fish would do this? I've had the fish over 4 years and it eats very well. There are 7 other tangs and the convict is the only one exhibiting this behaviour.

The tank was not fed prior to the video so it shouldn't be any type of feeding response.

 

[BryanM]

I don't have an answer, but you do have some fat fish!

 

[Kasrift]

I've read before that blue hippos do this as a form of play. The one in my LFS's display tank does this.

Watching the tank last night and noticed my convict tang blowing bubbles then swimming to the top and retrieving them. I've not seen this behaviour before but I'll admit I don't spend as much time watching as I should with summer being here. A while back the same fish was exhibiting a strange swim behaviour that Jay H said could be from air being injested. At the time I had recently started feeding some flake and the fish had been eating from the top so I chalked it up to that and I started putting the flake under the water. Now it looks like the fish is creating and injesting the bubbles and spitting them out retrieving and repeating.
@Jay Hemdal any idea why the fish would do this? I've had the fish over 4 years and it eats very well. There are 7 other tangs and the convict is the only one exhibiting this behaviour.

The tank was not fed prior to the video so it shouldn't be any type of feeding response.

 

[BriansBrain]

Maybe he’s just a little special

 

[PapaFishRocks]

I guess you could say he has a “bubbly personality”

 

[exnisstech]

Maybe he’s just a little special

I guess you could say he has a “bubbly personality”

Probably special. He goes around tail smacking once in a while and doesn't even realize he has no scalpel.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Watching the tank last night and noticed my convict tang blowing bubbles then swimming to the top and retrieving them. I've not seen this behaviour before but I'll admit I don't spend as much time watching as I should with summer being here. A while back the same fish was exhibiting a strange swim behaviour that Jay H said could be from air being injested. At the time I had recently started feeding some flake and the fish had been eating from the top so I chalked it up to that and I started putting the flake under the water. Now it looks like the fish is creating and injesting the bubbles and spitting them out retrieving and repeating.
@Jay Hemdal any idea why the fish would do this? I've had the fish over 4 years and it eats very well. There are 7 other tangs and the convict is the only one exhibiting this behaviour.

The tank was not fed prior to the video so it shouldn't be any type of feeding response.

It does look like a misdirected feeding response. Animals in captivity can develop stereotypic behaviors. I’ve seen this biting at bubbles before, but I rarely have the luxury to spend any real time viewing fish, so while I’ve seen it in passing, I don’t know how often the fish do that. I see this mist often in genicanthus angels when fed at the surface.

 

[exnisstech]

It does look like a misdirected feeding response. Animals in captivity can develop stereotypic behaviors. I’ve seen this biting at bubbles before, but I rarely have the luxury to spend any real time viewing fish, so while I’ve seen it in passing, I don’t know how often the fish do that. I see this mist often in genicanthus angels when fed at the surface.

Thanks Jay I appreciate the info. As mentioned I started feeding flake at the surface no too long ago and I have never fed any floating food before so it very well may be a behaviour developed from that. One of my CBBs loves the flake so I've been releasing the food under the surface so the fish aren't injesting air when they eat it. I'll monitor and report back if anything interesting developes.

 

[Reefing102]

Not helpful to the conversation but it just reminded me of this