Pearl Toby Obsessive Glass Surfing

[saltyMJ]

I've had a Pearl Toby for about a year and he's always been a glass surfer. Its become obsessive and non stop and makes some of the other fish in the tank nervous. I've tried re-aquascaping and messing with the lights to limit reflections and nothing has worked. He's healthy and eats like a pig during every feeding. That's the only time he stops obsessively surfing. I have lots of live rock and and some fake coral decorations and two powerheads to create current.i feed a mix of flakes, frozen mysis, algae sheets, and some other frozen mixes and he eats all of them. I've even added red leg hermits and he could care less! Any suggestions to get him to chill out?

75 Gallon;
Pearl Toby
Foxface
Hippo Tang
Flame Hawk fish
Yellow Corris Wrasse
Starry Blenny

 

[lapin]

Let the algae grow on the glass. Probably not the solution you want to use… but

 

[saltyMJ]

Let the algae grow on the glass. Probably not the solution you want to use… but

Have you had success with this? Now that you mention it he only does it on the front side, and that's the only side I clean every week.

 

[lapin]

Yes
I let a slight film build up for about 2 weeks. Then clean it off. Over about 3 months my Kole eyed tang has not been as obsessive about swimming back and forth.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Unfortunately this is a very common pufferfish thing. Mine does it too. Usually there’s nothing you can do unless you want to cover all the sides of your tank. Puffers are incredibly smart fish and get bored easily and one of the things they do to pass time is to chase their reflection and do laps around the tank. Unless he’s giving himself open sores I wouldn’t worry too much it’s a normal thing they do in captivity. In the ocean they can’t see themselves and in captivity they see their reflections and the outside of the tank and try and try to escape and chase their reflection.

 

[saltyMJ]

Yes
I let a slight film build up for about 2 weeks. Then clean it off. Over about 3 months my Kole eyed tang has not been as obsessive about swimming back and forth.

Thanks for the advice. I will be def give this a try