Oops

So I have noticed that the heater only comes on during the morning, during the day it stays off. I figured that the tank was getting cold in the night and then the room was warmer than the heater was set during the day. I decided that I should turn the heater up to the temperature that the tank was during the day so that it wouldn't drop at night. So, last night I turned it up to 79 degrees from 73, one degree more than the tank is during the day but I figured the puffers might like it.

I checked on the tank after a few hours because my puffers where swimming around in a group of 3, usually they are alone or have one buddy. The temerature was 86 degrees! I was really worried for them and turned the heater down to 75 degrees, took the hood off so that air could move across the surface and cool it off, and took out some water so that the filter would create more oxygen(water can't hold as much oxygen at higher temperatures).

It took about 2 hrs but the temperature got back down to around 80 degrees. They should be ok at 86, but that large of a temperature change can be bad for them.

When I could I kept an eye on them the rest of the night but I things weren't looking to good. Puff(I have decided to name the big one Puff, well sort of me... and my girlfriend) loves to follow the other two around. She seems to think nothing is better than following the other two around, watching what they do, and enjoying their company. Well Bug wasn't looking good and was just kind of lazily floating in a small area of the tank with her tail curled(a bad sign). So Puff decided that the little guy would have to be the one she followed around.

The little guy was moving around ok, but was staying around the back right corner of the tank. His spots were fading in and out as I watched, I am not sure what this means but I doubt it means he is happy. He decided that the corner was his area and that no one else should be allowed in it. He would chase Puff out, she would sit in the middle for a second, come back and he would chase her out again. I felt really bad for her. After doing that for a very long time she eventually went inside the ship and I didn't see her the rest of the night so I think she slept in there.

In the morning everybody was pretty much the same, except that bug would swim normally when ever the little one cane out of his corner. I moved stuff around a little bit and the little one abandoned his corner and they all grouped up. They spent most of the rest of the day swimming around as a little puffer pack.

However, this evening the little one has gone back to his corner and Bug has decided that the back left corner is hers. Luckly she occasionally allows Puff in her corner but it only last awhile before Puff is alone again.

Rearranging the tank should make it so that they have a long time before they set up a territory again. But they are basing their territories off the location in the tank not off of how the tank is set up. They seem the be just the wrong smartness. Smart enough to figure out the area that they are in, but not smart enough to figure out that they don't need to be aggresive towards eachother. I guess it just makes them more interesting.

Someone suggested a rock in the corners to keep them out of it, so they might base their areas more on the plants and such in the tank. I might give it a try but I need to find two rocks for the job first. I could also try leaving those corners barren, might make my tank look funny but they would probably not claim those areas.

If worse comes to worse I will just have to accept their territories. But I hope for Puff's sake that I can find a way to keep them a group.