The Puffer Forum

Fugu (t. occellatus) seem to have been cropping up a bit recently. It just gave me a bit of a thought, since there's not much known about them at all, wanted to take the opportunity to ask around. I know a couple of you guys have been unsuccessful with them in the past . But I just wondered if any of you would mind posting up what happened and what you reckon went wrong? eg, diet, water, stress maybe? Thought it could hopefully be a useful resource for anyone keeping these little guys at the moment (myself included!) to know what to look out for and what to avoid. Process of elimination and all that, I reckon any extra info is good info when it comes to fugu

Have to say, I'm feeling super paranoid about Mushroom at the moment! He seems fine, and nothing's changed. I'm quite aware I'm being needlessly paranoid... But I've heard the horror stories about "fine one day, dead the next" when it comes to Fugu, so I'm off on another research mission to re evaluate the way I'm keeping him, and hopefully keep him nice and healthy!

Any input, anything anyone's heard, or anything like that would be great, cheers guys!

Is your fugu puffer named Mushroom?
(sorry, but I will not be able to tell you anything about your puffer and how to care for it)

You have the longest success that I know of. I think our climate helps

Yes, he is called Mushroom.

Thanks bertie Have to say, horrid though it sounds, I'm after knowing more about failures I like to have a hunt around every now and again for new info, and it's something I've not really researched. I'm hoping it'll help to know what happened with others so I can avoid the same thing happening with Mushroom. I feel so lucky that he's doing so well, and I want to do everything I can to keep it that way.

One thing in particular that bothers me is having heard that fugu don't show any ill signs, then keel over the next day. I was wondering if others had found that to be true, or if there were any warning signs that people had seen.

One person I know told me his "did a head down dance" a few days prior to going, so I'm very concious to watch out for Mushroom doing any dances! Which he doesn't, other than when he's attacking cockles...! It's just useful to have some idea what to watch out for.That fella kept his in 1.015, and at 26 degrees. I'd guess the 26 degrees was the problem in that case.

...

If a fish suddenly dies without signs of illness something has to be very wrong. Generally I think some people may just not want to mention the fact they took a long time to react to odd behaviour, or took the wait and see approach. Keep doing what you are doing and he should be fine. Maybe of we could have previous owners list the conditions they kept theirs at?

My guy had a serious fungal infection before he died. It covered his entire body.

I think Yunachin had hers for years... and I think recombinantrider a similar time.

Yeah, recombinantrider had Sushi for several years at least. Sushi disappeared very suddenly several months back, unfortunately.

Christie_ZXR, Yunachin isn't with us any longer, but recombinantrider would probably be willing to pop in and share her experience.

Disappeared???

Yeah. She was fine one day, completely gone the next. It was really puzzling and sad.

Like, missing or dead?

Missing. Well, probably dead too - but they couldn't find a body anywhere in the house.

I tried twice and failed.

1st time it was sold to me as a fresh water puffer and I didn't know anything about them. Put him in a fresh water tank and it died a few months later. It did swim around allot never buried itself seemed to eat fine and one day dead.

Did more research bought my second fugu. I acclimated him from the fresh water I purchased him in to full marine over 24 hours. Dead 2 days later. At the time also didn't know they needed cooler water so they were at about 76 degrees.

I still think they are beautiful fish but I will never attempt keeping one again.

LilGreenPuffer wrote:Missing. Well, probably dead too - but they couldn't find a body anywhere in the house.

That's just too weird... Wasn't that fish a few inches? How sad.