Had a strange thing happen today. I had been feeding my puffers some snails and had just given Obie, my Fahaka some when the husband came home. Well we've got a very excitable little dog that becomes very happy when someone comes into the house and especially so with the husband. So my little dog was running back and forth on the sofa and Obie's tank is right against the wall, near the sofa. As I had been giving Obie snails, I had the sliding glass top open a bit, but maybe only by 4" or so. Next thing I know, I'm hearing this "clicking" noise and I just happened to look behind the sofa to see where the noise was coming from and there's Obie, on the floor, huge as a basketball!!! So naturally I run over to get him, to put him back into the tank and it wasn't easy picking him up because he's huge and round and all spikey. But I get him into the tank and I'm trying to get him to deflate and he's not doing it, and of course I'm starting to worry at this point. But then I grabbed him by the tail and before I was able to do anything, it must have scared him because he burped all the air out at once and went back to normal. I suppose my dog running around frightened Obie, as he's been very skittish lately.
It was only once all the action was over that I noticed that my hands were red and stinging. Now I know that puffers have spikes on their body .... but do they also have something that would cause a stinging sensation? My hands are still marked up and it's almost as if I've been stung by nettles.
You can believe I will make sure to keep those glass sliders closed now!
