The Mushroom Diaries!

The forum for those beautiful marine puffers!
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blackghostknife
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 271
Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:52 pm
Gender: Male
Location (country): United States

Re: The Mushroom Diaries!

Post by blackghostknife »

nice to see someone keeping them right :D
The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang the best. Use the talents you possess.

Pufferpunk's biggest fan!!!
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Christie_ZXR
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 154
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:32 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Takifugu Ocellatus - "Mushroom"
Figure 8 Puffer - "Aleister"
Location (country): London, England
Location: West London

Re: The Mushroom Diaries!

Post by Christie_ZXR »

Hello! Just popping in for an update on Mushroom since I haven't been here for aaages!

Little man is still doing fantastically well, you wouldn't believe the size of him now! He's got so big I'm actually getting a bit scared of putting my hand in his tank these days, those teeth are pretty frightening... :lol: I'd say he's a good 6-7" now, possibly more.

The "wobble" which I put down to thaimin and thaiminese issues seems to have gone! He always gets his food soaked in Vitazin. He's also been having a lot more bloodworm recently, which he seems to love. Got him that tetra fresh delica stuff (think that's the name!) and he seems quite pleased with it. Need to take out shares in waterlife for the amount of Vitazin we go through though... :shock: Visitors still find it a little odd that my fish has multivitamins!! :lol:

His conditions haven't changed a huge amount. The temp is still kept at 20 degrees, I can't figure it, it should be lower, but if I let it drop, he just doesn't act right. He turns sluggish, and his colours darken. So I've given up with that experiment, and 20 is where the temp will be staying for the forseeable. He's still scared of my cats! Buries himself when they get too close!! We've recently got a little dog, a jack russell-chihuaha cross, and he really didn't know what to make of that, zoomed to the back of the tank and hid behind one of his little slate caves!! :lol:

Salinity has changed, we're at 1.020 now. As has the filter. (Woohoo!!) The rickety old eheim has finally been relegated to the back of the fish cupboard!! (can't chuck it, much as I'd like to, it's always good to have a spare, even if it is a rubbish spare!) There's a fluval 305 running on his tank now :D Although I am considering changing it for a G6, which will make monitoring his salinity and temps a zillion times easier. And which might actually fit in the cupboard :shock: The fluval doesn't...it stands next to the tank. May have made a teensy screw up with measurements when I put it on...
I'm planning to change his sand for a lighter colour some time soon, and just generally give him a redecorate so he has a new environment to explore. So if I can coincide this with redoing the FW tank the G6 is currently on, I'll look at swapping filters. And I'll measure this time!! :lol:

The other strange thing is that Mushroom still has a friend! There's a fully grown molly living with him. Has to be one of the babies of the mollies that lived in the tank before Mushroom whilst I was sorting the salinty and everything out ready for him. Totally unintentional, but the behaviour is odd. He never chases it, and the molly can safely get very close to him and be totally ignored. Which isn't right at all I'm sure. I'm currently going with leave them to it, and watch for any changes. If he starts showing aggression, I'll whip the molly out, but so far I haven't seen any. I can't help but hope that I've got a "community-safe fugu"!! Although that is a bit unlikely... :?

Anyways, hope the info is usefull! To any potential T. Ocellatus owners, I'd say if you live somewhere you can keep the temps down enough, and you're prepared for the work, go for it! They are very hard work, they can be expensive to maintain, they're defo an awful lot of hassle, they need a lot of water changes and a careful diet, but they are just so very rewarding and just plain gorgeous!! :cheerup:
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Christie_ZXR
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 154
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:32 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Takifugu Ocellatus - "Mushroom"
Figure 8 Puffer - "Aleister"
Location (country): London, England
Location: West London

Re: The Mushroom Diaries!

Post by Christie_ZXR »

Mushroom's gaff :D

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kcartwright856
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 289
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2010 12:17 pm
Gender: Female
My Puffers: 2 C. travancoricus (dwarf puffer)
7 Pangio kuhlii
5 Otocinclus vittatus (w/ fry)
Location (country): USA
Location: Millersburg, PA
Contact:

Re: The Mushroom Diaries!

Post by kcartwright856 »

He is so cute, I can't stand it!

Thank you for taking care of him so properly. :smitten:
-KC

My DP tank journal: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=29746
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Christie_ZXR
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 154
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:32 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Takifugu Ocellatus - "Mushroom"
Figure 8 Puffer - "Aleister"
Location (country): London, England
Location: West London

Re: The Mushroom Diaries!

Post by Christie_ZXR »

Ty :)

I love him to pieces, he's the cutest little guy!
I think I've been really lucky, because he was in FW in the shop for something like 2-3 months, then spent some more time with me in FW in a far too small tank. I'm amazed how healthy he is considering that start!
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