Against our better judgement we also popped into another store nearby as we needed vitamin dusting powder for Boris's waxworms & earthworms and Swallow's didn't have any.
This is the same infamous shop that Cookie came from. A shop that we swore we'd never buy fish from again but as we were there we had a look at the fish anyway.
And there, in a freshwater tank were two sad little figure eight puffers.
Cloudy, infected eyes, ragged fins and the worst fungal and ich infection I've ever seen on a live fish.
One of them was in better condition than the other, but still very unwell.
Anyway, we once again gave the manager 'some advice' (read a damn good rollicking)on keeping puffers and he agreed to let us have both of them for free as they'd be dead by tomorrow anyway.
So he bagged them up and we took them home and floated them in our hospital tank then mixed up a bucketful of marine salt solution to bring the SG up to a mild brackish level. A couple of hours of slow acclimatization and they're in the tank.
Not an ideal way to start a brackish tank, but needs must.
One of them seemed to be enjoying the new more comfortable salinity and is playing in the filter current, but the other was looking very sick indeed, it had lost a lot of colour and spent the first hour being pushed randomly about the tank by the current with little resistance.
"Dead fish swimming" was the phrase LadyMinion used.
Within an hour of being in brackish water he regained control of his boyancy control and a little colour came back to his skin.
Here they are still bagged up.They don't look too bad from a distance...
But a closer look reveals why some people and some shops shouldn't keep puffers if they don't know what they're doing.
Sadly, the thinner one didn't make it. He started eating after a day and seemed to be picking up... but then the ich reached the next stage of its lifecycle where is bursts out of the skin and becomes freeswimming.
This punishment was just too much for his already ravaged system and he died over night.
The other one is eating well and spends most of his time in the filter outflow. Even after four days his ich is clearing op and he's bright eyed and alert.
We'll keep you posted...
