New GSP owner

[luluaroo]

Hello everyone! My name is Leanna aka lulu aka luluaroo. I've been married for 6 years and have one son, Zane who is 4. I love the outdoors and spend a lot of time fishing, hiking and foraging. We have two cats Itzy and Bity and a ribbon snake name Jake the Snake. I currently have 4 tanks: 2 1.5 gallon snail tanks, a 10g neon/glow in the dark guppy tank ( Zane's tank)with 5 guppies, two mystery snails and some ghost shrimp. And our newest addition, a 30 gallon tank for our GSP, BlackBeard. He has no tank mates except the ghost shrimp that he won't eat.

Most of my animals that I have owned have been rescues. (except for the guppies and a few reptiles over the years). My cats were found when they were days old and hand raised (the mother cat was deceased and a 3rd kitten had to be put down), my snake was rescued from my sister, I've rescued and kept two ferrets in the past. When I was a child I helped my mother rescue, raise and either released or re-homed over 2 dozen kittens,4 dogs, 3 wild birds and 1 rabbit (by far the hardest to save) Oh and my favorite was a garden lizard that I found when I was 10 in a trash can half drowned and frozen that I ended up keeping as a pet because it actually crawled on to my foot two times when I tried to release him in a field. My grandmother had seen it and took me to the pet store to get my first reptile tank. My second favorite wasn't a normal rescue, but a mouse that was going to be snake food. That mouse became one of the most tamest pets I ever had. He would sit on my shoulder and just hang out. Didn't matter where I went, inside or even outside, he made no attempt to run away ever. He was also the most spoiled mouse ever. I've owned a corn snake and a ball python. Neither had long lives however. One died of un-kown causes after having it for a year. The other was killed by a feeder mouse. (oh my god the irony in that one. Squeeky was rescued when I was 12, at 22 I didn't feel quite as bad for the mice, that and i lost my sympathy for them after realizing Squeeky was unique and every other mouse or hamster bit the crap out of me lol.) I have a habit of stopping to try and help stray dogs and I have helped quite a few get back home. My husband says I'm a bleeding heart, whatever that means and I have gotten into arguments over why one should "waist time helping animals more than people" . I just know it makes me feel good to help them and unlike humans no animal has ever stabbed me in the back, hurt my feelings, disappointed me or made fun of me . They, (well the cats, dogs and a few special animals) have loved me unconditionally without ever asking anything of me, something us humans have a hard time doing.

So, all this leads me to my newest rescue, a green spotted puffer that I saved from Walmart. When I was 18-21 I had a boyfriend who owned a porcupine puffer, man that was the coolest fish ever. Little Tuna, he would get so happy when you walked into the room, he would do these little tricks and games, such a cool fish. Ever since then I had always wanted one and have thought about it for years. Well we finally had the space, time and money to do it and with the other established aquarium as experience, we decided it was time to get a puffer. I quickly settled on the green spotted puffer. 1. I'm not ready for saltwater, so brackish seemed good to me. 2. Being able to rescue/adopt one from wallyworld is kinda up my ally. So we tracked down a 30 gallon to start with, a stand, a filter and all the trimmings. I started seeding filter media in my established tank for a hospital tank and the 30 gallon about 7 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago I set up the tanks with the seeded filters and stared using prime and stability. My numbers in the hospital tank were good and walmart had gotten a new supply of them and my impatience got the best of me and we picked one up. I just really wanted to him in the hospital tank and out of walmarts tank. I figured mine was gonna be better for him no matter how I looked at it. He was in the hospital tank for 8 days, but it was a 10 gallon and the 30 gallons numbers were good so I moved him in. He is not to happy right now, however, and I'll be posting for advice on him in another area. I think this intro is a little to lengthy to continue. Thanks for reading and I look forward to getting to know all of you and your wonderful puffers.

luluaroo

[purplecandle]

Welcome! If you are having some trouble please post!

[*GSP*Fan*]

Welcome!

[defool89]

Hello! I rescued a crow with a broken wing once and a 2ft snapping turtle that was cookin on the pavement after a car ran it over.. I get weak for needy animals too

[luluaroo]

Its a wonderful "weakness" to have.

[Pufferpunk]