Porcupine Puffer acting shy/lazy

MrPufferSnowflake · Dec 27, 2019

first I have two maroon clowns and a harlequin tusk. tank size is 150g. Water is fine except for my nitrates. currently working on bringing them down. right now they are at about 20ppm.

so I have had my puffer for about 6 months now and he is about 6 inches long. he is very play full and always comes to the top of the tank when its time to feed. here recently though he does not come out when I feed and just sits under the rocks and stairs at me. I can get him to come out when the lights are on by dropping a piece of krill (I don't feed them very often) in but he used to eat straight out of my hand and no longer does. if I throw in a clam he doesn't move. now at night he will come out and explore and eat whatever he can find from what I can tell. at first I thought he was just finally eating all my hermit crabs but I dont see any shells or any signs of that. I know they can be nocturnal but why this sudden change in behavior? I do not see any signs of stress from him i.e ich or loss of color. when he does come out and eat he will destroy whatever he is eating. honestly just looking for some advise and if there is any one out there with some more experience with these fish. thanks!

ndrwater · Dec 27, 2019

Is there any aggression from the Tusk or clownns? Usually a tusk will be mellow, but than CAN be jerks from time to time.
Clowns, especially Maroons can be total jerks..

S2G · Dec 27, 2019

Usually a porker can handle itself and it hardly ends well for the aggressor. Maroon clowns are class A jerks though

Did you ever treat for IP's? They're notorious for that. You could of just spooked it and it's taking a minute to get over it. Pretty sensitive pouty fish.

MrPufferSnowflake · Dec 27, 2019

ndrwater said:
Is there any aggression from the Tusk or clownns? Usually a tusk will be mellow, but than CAN be jerks from time to time.
Clowns, especially Maroons can be total jerks..

Not between anyone and the puffer. I have seen the clowns go after the tusk but only if the tusk swims next to the anemone. I have thought about moving the rocks around to maybe break up the territory’s. They have all been together sense July.

MrPufferSnowflake · Dec 27, 2019

S2G said:
Usually a porker can handle itself and it hardly ends well for the aggressor. Maroon clowns are class A jerks though

Did you ever treat for IP's? They're notorious for that. You could of just spooked it and it's taking a minute to get over it. Pretty sensitive pouty fish.

I’ve seen at night the puffer lay right next to the clowns anemone and the clown not do a thing. IP’s? Not sure if I know what that is

S2G · Dec 27, 2019

MrPufferSnowflake said:
I’ve seen at night the puffer lay right next to the clowns anemone and the clown not do a thing. IP’s? Not sure if I know what that is

Internal parasites

MrPufferSnowflake · Dec 27, 2019

S2G said:
Internal parasites

Got ya. I treated them all with copper and another med that I can’t remember when I first got them. He actually just came out and ate a price of krill I threw in. Clown saw home kinda was up to him but then swam away.