Boring Fahaka

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He’ll eat market shrimp but not for a while until it’s been in there for a bit and often not the whole thing. He won’t eat earthworms, he will eat fiddler crabs but again not immediately. I am breeding some ramshorn snails to see what he thinks of those I don’t know yet. Also clams on the half shell he either won’t touch or just gets the meat out. Occasionally he will take a break from surfing and look around but then goes right back. When I’m near the tank he either acts like I’m not there or panics

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Try feeding it with tongs to train it to associate you with food. Im not sure what else you expect from the puffer. I currently have a mbu and all it does is sit around and chase me around for food when he sees me. Not much else in between. Luckily, he’s really chill so I have him with Tanganyikans and synodontis. Fahaka are hit or miss as to whether you can house them with other fish
 
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phreeflow said:
Try feeding it with tongs to train it to associate you with food. Im not sure what else you expect from the puffer. I currently have a mbu and all it does is sit around and chase me around for food when he sees me. Not much else in between. Luckily, he’s really chill so I have him with Tanganyikans and synodontis. Fahaka are hit or miss as to whether you can house them with other fish
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Right. Mine just doesn’t respond to me at all and is scared of the tongs plus doesn’t react strongly to food for some reason
 
Give him a week or so of fasting, no food at all; he's big enough not to need food every day. Then, when you think he's good and hungry, offer some food and just sit in front of the tank quietly and watch him. If he doesn't go for it while you're there, remove it and try again a couple days later. He's not going to starve to death. He will eat. If you cave in and leave the room with food in the tank, then you have just wasted that week. It shouldn't take long before he's associating you with food. You can then go to using tongs if you wish.

You know what they say: you can't teach an old puffer new tricks...or something like that. :) The fact that he's gone this long being allowed to behave like a prima donna adds to the challenge, but he can be trained; it'll just take more time and effort.

Training a fish (or a dog, or an apprentice or whatever...) doesn't consist of simply staring at him and hoping he will read your mind and do what you wish. You must make him want to do what you want him to do. You must outsmart him.

In this case, it shouldn't be that difficult; he's just a fish...a thinking fish, maybe...but still just a fish. :)
 
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jjohnwm said:
Give him a week or so of fasting, no food at all; he's big enough not to need food every day. Then, when you think he's good and hungry, offer some food and just sit in front of the tank quietly and watch him. If he doesn't go for it while you're there, remove it and try again a couple days later. He's not going to starve to death. He will eat. If you cave in and leave the room with food in the tank, then you have just wasted that week. It shouldn't take long before he's associating you with food. You can then go to using tongs if you wish.

You know what they say: you can't teach an old puffer new tricks...or something like that. :) The fact that he's gone this long being allowed to behave like a prima donna adds to the challenge, but he can be trained; it'll just take more time and effort.

Training a fish (or a dog, or an apprentice or whatever...) doesn't consist of simply staring at him and hoping he will read your mind and do what you wish. You must make him want to do what you want him to do. You must outsmart him.

In this case, it shouldn't be that difficult; he's just a fish...a thinking fish, maybe...but still just a fish. :)
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Brother I think you are absolutely correct. Fasting is a great idea and yeah it’s likely I should take some responsibility and realize I should have been more patient with him as he grew and spent time training. For some reason I expected him to be plug and play and it sounds like this is a fish that is not. I’ll work on it and report back what happens. Are you suggesting after the week long fast to use tongs right away?
 
I don't know, I'd play it by ear. If you think he is too flighty for that, then just drop in the food and then sit nearby and observe. If you think he is showing more interest, then you could go right to the tongs.

I'm not a big fan of tongs in general. They have their place for careful targeted feeding of some species, but many types of both fish and reptiles can damage their jaws during overly-enthusiastic attacks on food items gripped in metal tongs. I'm not a puffer guy, but have seen plenty of videos showing just that sort of aggressive feeding. It doesn't sound like yours is one of those but it would be wise to exercise caution.
 
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