Have been lurking, finally saying hi!

[ILoveLola]

Hi all! As the title suggests, I've been creeping around the site for several weeks now, reading, digesting information, and getting a feel for the community. I figured it's finally time to quit with that and say hello!
I bought my first puffer about a month ago, and I have already fallen deeply in love with her. She's a Figure 8, named Lola. She's only about an inch & a half in length. She lives in a 20 gal with a few ghost shrimp. I'm not sure how many--I think I've accumulated five or so, but I'm pretty sure there are only four left, haha.
Prior to Lola, I've kept platies and goldfish (not at the same time) for several years. I also have two dogs, Sammy & Manny. Sam is a beagle/lab, 14 yrs, and Manny is a mini daschund, 13 yrs. I'm a senior in college (sociology!), and a preschool teacher. My fiance is in the navy, and even though we will be here (Florida) for another three years, I am already trying to conceive ideas of how I can possibly take Miss Lola wherever we live--I would dread rehoming So if anyone has success with long-distance moving fish, let me know!

Anyways, I like to talk, clearly. I hope to have good conversation with everyone

[Pufferpunk]

[sevenyearnight]

Welcome!
Do you have pics of Lola?
I have 2 mini dachshunds, what color is Manny? Do you have pics of him? I love dachshunds <3
Ours are silver double-dapples, 8 years old, long haired. One was a rescue/stolen, sad story I'll bypass, we're just glad we were able to get her when we did.

How did Lola come to join your family?
How often do you sing, "Lola..lo lo lo lo Lola..." to her?
Lol.. Or should I say, lo lo lo lo lol?

[fahucker]

Welcome! Feel free to ask questions! Don't be shy!

[ILoveLola]

Thank you!
The only decent picture I have of her is the one that I set as my avatar, and I'm really bummed that I can't get it to 6kb without drastically reducing the camera. I got my fiance a really nice underwater camera for his birthday, so of course I make a habit of dipping it into my aquarium However, Lola is only recently becoming less camera-shy. Its a work in progress Haha.

That being said, how on earth can I get a better quality avatar?? :/

Manny is a dapple as well, black w/ silver & brown, I guess you'd say? I will have to post pictures of him & Sam tomorrow. I also have yet another mutt, but she lives in MD with my parents because I can only have two dogs in the apartment I live in. Her name is Sadie, she's an italian greyhound/mini dachshund mix. She's about three.

Lola came to be because one day I woke up and found one of my platies dead He was the only one to survive from his rather small batch of fry (I'm assuming premature), and he was about a year & a half old. The other ones I bought him as companions, but I wasn't particularly attached to, so I gave them to a friend of mine and decided I wanted a bit more... well, interesting fish. Came across puffers, liked the idea, and here we are!

[sevenyearnight]

If you haven't already make sure to treat Lola for internal parasites, the treatment plan should be in the library.

[ILoveLola]

SYN, I've bookmarked the page on treatment/prevention, I will definitely read it tomorrow! Thank you.

[sevenyearnight]

As far as the avatar goes, download the freeware program called Irfanview. After you crop and resize to 120 x 120, save it as a jpeg and it will give you the option of saving it as a percentage of quality by a slider bar. Take it down 5% at a time and save until it is the file under 6k, might be the first time at 95%
Let me know if you need more help than that.

[sevenyearnight]

Dapples are the cutest, they are like weiner shaped Australian Shepherds.

[DrKennethNoisewater]

hello and welcome to the forum. nice looking puffer! and daschunds are really funny dogs! my friend has one named tipsy and shes really cool.

[Pufferpunk]

We allow wiener dogs to race at our Jack Russell races.

[jjj5311]

We allow wiener dogs to race at our Jack Russell races.

Ha i would love to see wiener dogs racing!! I love how they run and their floppy ears

I used to breed Jack Russels (long legged short hair) and i cant imagine a wiener dog keeping up with them lol

[Pufferpunk]

LOL, they don't race each other, unless they want to.

[jjj5311]

haha lol PP that pic is great

[sevenyearnight]

OMG that looks so funny!
<3