I popped into a LFS yesterday. They had 5 twin spot puffers split between two of those tiny tanks that shops normally keep siamese fighters in (probably 10 litres max!). 2 in one and 3 in the other. about 3 inches each.
I spoke to the person at the shop and they admitted that ordering them was a mistake, they've had them in for 5 months but nobody would buy them. They have attacked each other (obviously) hence being split between 2 tanks.
They didn't look in great health and not overly happy. He said he'd be delighted to give them to a good home and would give them to me for free.
I took them right away, lucky I have a 200l already set up with nothing in it that I set up last week. I know this is not big enough for 5 so I plan to set up another 200L and a 100L asap (hopefully even this weekend). I figure with enough hiding, 2 can go in a 200L?
The stress of moving them didn't do them very good as already weren't in good health.
I released them last night, kept the lights off in my fish room. I checked on them this morning, most of them were lying on the bottom curled around not looking happy. 1 or 2 of them were swimming around.
Other important details are, one of them has his bottom lip bitten off in what looks like a relatively recent injury. The others don't look particularly attacked (though i understand they all had wounds in the past 5 months), though they don't look in great conditions.
My plan of action:
1) 10% water changes daily
2) I started dosing with melafix straight away.
3) The shop mentioned they have been eating bloodworms, but from looking at the tank they were in there was a lot of uneaten bloodworms, some of which were likely old. I plan to get some live shrimp ASAP and put some in the tank, that way they have a food source that wont turn into ammonia if it is uneaten and I feel like chasing some live food might 'cheer them up'
4) I am considering adding API Aquarium Salt - this is meant to be good for their health - has anybody used this?
I really hope they pull through the first few days/week, if I can get them through that then hopefully they'll last well. At the moment they are in very poor shape
If anybody has any tips on what I can do to maximise there chance of survival through the next few days please let me know.
