C. Irrubesco/ Red-eyed Puffer

[Jay.B.]

illness aside, my experience with the C.Irrubesco has been almost the opposite of what I had read about on various websites.
I bought the little fellow a girlfriend yesterday, I know I shouldn't have really as he's only in a 35L by himself (a little smaller than the one you want to use), but up until yesterday, he had been the most timid, mild mannered little fish I had seen... then I put Nermil in with him... unfortunately by the time I got home with her it was past closing time, but the tank has plenty of decor, bogwood, java fern and moss, half coconut shell, plenty of cover so I'm hoping that they settle, otherwise she will have to go back as soon as I can get back to the store, so as far as stocking goes, I'd just leave it at the one red eye only, no other tank mates, especially in a smaller than recommended tank size as mine is.
Feeding wise, I have had success with frozen bloodworm and mysis, there are about 6 algae shrimps in with him that he has paid absolutely no attention to, so bonzo my GSP gets those as a weekly treat.
I am doing approx a 1/3 water change twice weekly to keep the nitrates down at around the 10 mark on both of my puffer tanks, other toxins are at zero, pH of 7.8

[groovitudedude]

illness aside, my experience with the C.Irrubesco has been almost the opposite of what I had read about on various websites.
I bought the little fellow a girlfriend yesterday, I know I shouldn't have really as he's only in a 35L by himself (a little smaller than the one you want to use), but up until yesterday, he had been the most timid, mild mannered little fish I had seen... then I put Nermil in with him... unfortunately by the time I got home with her it was past closing time, but the tank has plenty of decor, bogwood, java fern and moss, half coconut shell, plenty of cover so I'm hoping that they settle, otherwise she will have to go back as soon as I can get back to the store, so as far as stocking goes, I'd just leave it at the one red eye only, no other tank mates, especially in a smaller than recommended tank size as mine is.
Feeding wise, I have had success with frozen bloodworm and mysis, there are about 6 algae shrimps in with him that he has paid absolutely no attention to, so bonzo my GSP gets those as a weekly treat.
I am doing approx a 1/3 water change twice weekly to keep the nitrates down at around the 10 mark on both of my puffer tanks, other toxins are at zero, pH of 7.8

Okay, I'll keep in mind that some don't do too well with tankmates. I'm gonna have to listen to your personal experience. Thanks for all of the information!

[Jay.B.]

just a little update on feeding...

they appear to love red worms, they've just had one each and they're quite chubby little things now, they also seem to be getting on a little better at the moment, possibly because they have eaten, but the male is more territorial than the female at the moment, possibly because he has been in there longer, might have to have a rearrange and see what happens

[plurmaster]

Hmmm mine are the opposite. Beofre i realize they have ichs the female always picks on the male. She's a little bigger then him. He's about 1 inch right now. I feed them frozen blood worms and they seems to like it. Instead of devour the entire worm they actually suck out the meat and leave the skin of the forzen bloodworms. My DPs and SAP actually swallow the entire worm..lol can u say piggys.

[Happy_Puffer]

I have a question about this puffer or I guess any puffers. I would like to get one of these and I work at my lfs and we can't get any of these ( Carinotetraodon irrubesco) puffers in, so I guess my question is there any websites that sell good puffer and maybe a good selection? thanks for letting me know!

[plurmaster]

Well are you trying to get it for yourself or try to get it wholesale for your store? Where are you located?

http://www.aquariumfish.net/home.htm

Their puffers are kinda expensive but they have alot of different kind or try drsfrost and smith. I would prefer buying fish at lfs. Least you see if they are healthy and you get to choose which one you want because some are more active then the other. ALso coloration/pattern are different. Maybe there's a specific one you want. Bottom line is try going in different LFS or go look up google or yahoo type/ fish store (your city) exmaple if i want to find a LFS in my area/city i type in google like this ( fish store bellflower ca). The there will be a list of em. Just call them one by one to see what kind of puffers they have.
Hope this helps.

[groovitudedude]

Didn't get the job yet. They said that they'd call me in May

[plurmaster]

That sucks. I know one of their employee name Tyler quit. They should have positions open. They definately need a experiece fish guy.

[groovitudedude]

Me being experienced is rather questionable

[Happy_Puffer]

I just wanted to find some for me. I live in Missouri (outside of St. Louis) in the middle of nowhere hee hee. I only have a few stores that are here. There are some in the city but I don't like going to the city. I get lost few easily even with directions hee hee. I just wanted to try some new puffers, at my job/ lfs the puffers have been sick and it is so sad to see. My boss has called the people she gets the puffers from telling them they are sick and dying or dead when they get to the shop and they claim its us that make the fish sick which is so wrong we take very good care of our animals I know because I take care of them. We were suppose to get some f8s and some scats but they didn't even bring them because they were so sick. Around here its hard to find puffers (of any kind) and even salt water fish are scarce. Thanks for the help and I hope you get the job groovitudedude I have been waiting for this job since I was like 10 and I'm 20 now and it was so worth the wait I love it! So I hope you get the job soon!

[groovitudedude]

Yeah, I guess I'm just gonna have to wait this one out. Anyway, I've never ordered fish online, and I never plan to (unless I'm looking for a SUPER duper rare fish or something). Maybe some of the mods know something about it?

That stinks that your supplier blames you for the sick fish. Maybe you could talk to the manager and change suppliers or have him/her talk to the supplier? Good luck.

Is there a specific kind of puffer you're looking for? Cruise through the Pufferpedia and see which one suits your tank(s) and fish(es). Maybe someone's willing to ship. It's totally worth an extry 1/2 hour or 1 hour drive to get that one fish you want, even if it's a tiny little Dwarf Puffer.

Anyway, I'm still looking for info on the irrubesco if anybody else want to contribute. Thanks for all the info already provided, guys!

[Nick]

Puffers tend to come in in VERY poor shape unless individually bagged in large volumes of water, which is labor and shipping cost intensive. The suppliers probably see them in decent shape when they leave, not realizing just how much damage they will do to each other when blindly bouncing around in the dark in a small polluted bag.

[groovitudedude]

Come on, we gotta cut these guys some slack though. Imagine how many hundreds, or thousands of fish they ship out daily, not to mention the demands of all of their clients.

[KIONG]

my very 2 cents worth, I sort of understand the operation of shipping. Some of the puffers are in really really really (emphasized??) bad living condition prior to shipment. Picture this: 10 full grown Fig 8 in a tank that they can't hardly move, then the suppliers come pick up those which are still in reasonable shape and package them into what looks like clean big bag of water but actually the water is being recycled from whatever source that would be so polluted. Then the puffers are subjected to the torment of shipment. Many puffers would have suffered diseases and injuries. So personally, I think the puffers we own, should deserve optimum living 'lifestyle' [which i think isn't enough to compensate]. at least that's some of how the shipping operation works in asia. but reflecting back, most of puffers are from asia right.... well.

Oh gdude, I think you should pass on the idea. maybe after you get the job at your LFS, you would have more variety of other fishes and puffers to care about.

[groovitudedude]

Thanks. I'm starting to agree with you....