Crazy Valentini Puff "Bloat" Sleeping!

[supgirl]

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So went to a LFS last week to get some more snail and Ghost shrimp and saw this cute little Valentini Puffer in the tank. His eyes were pleading with me to take him home, so ended up forgoing the rest of my errands and took this cutie home. The next morning when I got up, I found him like this and it scared the poop out of me. I thought for sure I was going to loose him I grabbed my coffee and started researching the Internet (including here on TPF) and it turns out these Puffs actually sleep in crazy places/positions. I went back a few minutes later and he was sleeping on a big rock. So this morning when I came down and found him sleeping, I took several photos and even with a flash, he didn't move.

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I love this little guy. He has the greatest personality and I'm amazed at how his personality is so much different from my GSPs. My Husband has taken a real liking to him as well The funniest thing was when I dropped 10 ghost shrimp into his tank so he could eat at his leisure, he got so excited and started going after them one by one. But he never has managed to capture any Still have 10 shrimp roaming in the tank 5 days later.....

[purplecandle]

I gotta dumb question...forgive me. Just wondering if the tank is fw or sw? I guess the decor makes me think it is a fw tank lol. Some of those plants look real!

[supgirl]

Definitely SW! Made sure to ask what the salinity was in his tank at LFS, went home and made sure mine was the same before doing the release.

Those plants are all plastic or silk aquarium plants. Figured live plants wouldn't do well in SW.

[purplecandle]

Definitely SW! Made sure to ask what the salinity was in his tank at LFS, went home and made sure mine was the same before doing the release.

Those plants are all plastic or silk aquarium plants. Figured live plants wouldn't do well in SW.

LOL, those green plants looked real! Really cute puffer, glad to hear your hubby is falling for him.

[Pufferpunk]

Mine does the same thing. Is there any live rock in that tank?

[supgirl]

Nope, decided I do not want to deal with LR or corals. The Puffs and their "fast food" are plenty entertaining and time consuming enough. Which BTW is off topic, but I know my GSPs love ghost shrimp and (I have been buying/breeding these for a month now) I dumped about 20 in the big tank for the GSP's to be able to eat at their leisure, but they too do not seem interested in eating them. The shrimp will swim or walk by one of the Puffs, the Puff with look at it and the shrimp does a quick exit when it realizes it is something alive and possibly able to eat it.

What's up with this? Do I just have very tame Puffs?

[Pufferpunk]

Live rock has nothing to do with corals. It is the core for filtration of a SW system. Otherwise, weekly 50% WC are necessary for your tank, which can become very $$$. With lR & a protein skimmer, you can reduce the WC schedule to as little as 30%/month.

Ghost shrimp are basically no nutrition, unless gut-loaded.

[Pufftastic]

Ghost shrimp are basically no nutrition, unless gut-loaded.

I thought RTR said ghost shrimp ARE nutritious? That it's only brine shrimp that aren't?

[Pufferpunk]

Nope, both are 98% water.

[supgirl]

I originally wanted to have live rock and possibly a few pieces of leather coral, but needed to get the Puffs rehoused into something larger because they were in that little 10g tank and since it sounded like it needed to be cured, cycled and established before adding the Puffs, I went the quickest and safest route for the Puffs. I'm looking at trying to purchase another tank (125+) in the next few weeks and trying to set that up from the beginning with LR, some leather coral and possible mushrooms. So, eventually I will have a full marine tank.

I feed the Puffs clams on the half shell, shrimp, scallops, snails and some brine shrimp. But from what you all say, I should not be feeding them everyday, so the ghost shrimp are in the tank in case they are hungry in between their every other day feeding cycle. The GSPs seem very happy, plump, bright-white bellies and I would say they have grown 1/2 inch in the last month since they arrived. (Much better off than the awful wal-mart tank they came from)

[Terrance]

Thanks for sharing the valentini pics. The shrimps help prevent glass surfing
Plan your next tank very carefully with each aspect and equipment researched carefully.

[Pufferpunk]

If you get LR from a established reef tank, it's already cured.

[bertie 83]

Ghost shrimp are nutritious if they are fed good foods. It's purely what's in their tummy that provides goodness. They are good hunting practice for a puffer and a great temporary clean up crew.

[supgirl]

Thanks everyone!! I have found out from additional reading, I have a little girl Valentini Puff ( maybe I should reconsider her name??)

I will definitely try to get some LR from another tank when I go to set up the next tank. As for my ghost shrimp, I'm doing as you all suggested and feed them algae wafers and shrimp pellets. Same with the snails. I even put a few pieces of lettuce and carrot shavings in their tank.

[bertie 83]

Live rock will definitely save you plenty of cash in the long run