The Puffer Forum

Oh I see, thanks.

riggers wrote:So you are putting your puffer through, what sounds like great stress, to save a bit on the cost of heating it's tank? You shouldn't be keeping fish like this if you can't afford it.

wow, what responses!!

1. Its not really an affordability issue here (tank size and only half full). I earn a good living in an investment bank in London. please dont assume I dont have any money just because I I dont want to heat a full tank up.

2. Its not really the size of my house either (i live in a 4 bed, 3 floor house) and the tank is on the ground floor in the kitchen with concrete floors, no issue holding a bigger tank. I simply do not want to have a 6ft tank dominating the house!

3. As for troll thing (i never heard of this) but iam not, was just here to talk about the new puffer i had not to start world war 3. You guys should realise there are things going on in the world which should invoke such responses rather than 1 small fish! anyway, i will post a pic of it in the next few days....my MBU looks happy to me.

I do like my pet fish i have to say but iam not obsessed about it. I do however clean it out on a weekly basis and dont overfeed it ( fed every 2 days). I dont think the rationale to say it would be better off in a 6ft tank rather then my tank holds that much credibility anyway. How can you compare your 6ft tank to the rivers of Africa? its not much by comparison to say the least....I think if you are going to keep a pet fish, you should house it as "best you can" rather than say you MUST keep that in a 6ft tank or not at all.

I would like to send my children to private school and pay for private music lessons, but not all parents can do this. It doesnt mean that they cant keep children.

Maybe its a cultural thing but I eat alot of fish as well and I often get fresh fish i.e. cut up live. SO maybe iam not as attached to the fish as some people. That said, i do like my MBu.

Right OK I accept I jumped to conclusions there, but I still don't agree with what you are doing. Just because a fish looks happy doesn't mean he is.

hlim187 wrote:I think if you are going to keep a pet fish, you should house it as "best you can" rather than say you MUST keep that in a 6ft tank or not at all.

And I'm sorry but this quote is just ridiculous. I think it is perfectly right to either house it in a 6ft plus tank or not at all. You shouldn't try looking after a living thing if you don't want to accept that it needs a very large tank. People on here know from experience that anything less than this is no good, and even this would not be big enough long term from what I hear. Are you aware of the health problems with putting your fish in this tank? Not only will he be very stressed, not have enough room to move around and the tank won't cope with the bio-load, but he will be stunted. I just found a quote here which says it very well:

Stunting is very painful, and causes deformities. Deformities include internal organs growing inside the body, even when the body is not growing. Soon the organs will grow too large and either 1) 1 or more organs will burst open inside the fish causing a massively painful death for the fish, or 2) An organ will grow too large for the body to be able to supply energy to and the fish will die of some sort of organ failure, usually a slow death.

So please, if you really aren't a troll, either get your fish a bigger tank, or do not keep him.

This is my MBU

no reason other than to save on heating a full tank

Its not really an affordability issue here (tank size and only half full). I earn a good living in an investment bank in London. please dont assume I dont have any money just because I I dont want to heat a full tank up.

A bit of a contradition?

I simply do not want to have a 6ft tank dominating the house!

Then why keep a fish that grows to 24+"?

You guys should realise there are things going on in the world which should invoke such responses rather than 1 small fish!

You do know you are posting on a puffer forum? It makes sense that most of the folks who hang here LOVE puffers & want what's best for them.

I think if you are going to keep a pet fish, you should house it as "best you can" rather than say you MUST keep that in a 6ft tank or not at all.

Yes & I believe you can do better or not keep this species of fish at all.

I would like to send my children to private school and pay for private music lessons, but not all parents can do this. It doesnt mean that they cant keep children.

That's just deflecting & ridiculous. If someone couldn't give their child a proper, healthy environment to live in, then they probably shouldn't have them.

"That's just deflecting & ridiculous. If someone couldn't give their child a proper, healthy environment to live in, then they probably shouldn't have them."

You do realise that there are millions of children born in the world that dont have a "proper and healthy environment to live in"? Not everyone can have access to clean water and food to eat...are you going to tell them they cant / should not have children? These people still grow up and live their lives, albeit not to your western standard of course.

you sound VERY arrogant and I think you live in some sort of "puffer fish loving bubble".

This forum should be a knowledge base for people that want to keep puffers and to get polite advice (non confrontational "i know it all and you dont know anything attitude")

people like you put me off from posting on this site (i can see you post alot of responses to almost any thing here)

Lets put this in perspective, if you really loved your fish you wouldnt put them in a tank in the first place. Millions of fish die from the trade when they can exported from Africa and Asia.

The fisherman told me when I was in Thailand this year that clown fish in the area are dying out because of the surge in demand from that hollywood movie that promoted it? people in Europe and US buying them up.

LOL, I have the most posts, because I am owner of this site.

I do believe sick, starving people who can barely feed, clothe & house themselves should not procreate, leaving children to starve & live horribly short, suffering lives, until they can straighten out their own living environment. I know that people are going over there to help them with birth control.

If you are defending the keeping of fish in tanks at all, then why do you? (Again--deflection from your horrible fishkeeping practices.) Since you do already have the fish & seem take pity on them being in captivity, then why not do right by the fish in your care now?

I would just like to say that i (and everyone else on here) does not agree that Pufferpunk is arrogant, she is a VERY respected person among the users of this site, and is very knowledgeable about puffers. Most of the people here not only like our puffers but love and care for them, that does not mean we live in a "puffer fish loving bubble".
No one here has a " i know it all and you dont know anything attitude". we all share experiences and the knowledge we have.
There are alot of people who buy puffers after being given the wrong information and are greatfull of the information here. Some use that information to change their setups to enable their puffers to live long, helpful and happy lives, others realise that they are unable to make enough changes or set up big enough tanks and return their puffer to the stores.
I feel that if you dont like the opinions and advice of people on this site who have owned puffers and learnt from them and if you do not wish to take the advice and keep your puffer in a tank where it will atleast have room to swim. Then maybe this is a site that you have no need to visit.
This site is not here to cause arguments or confontational discussions, it is here to help.

We are not the ones killing the fish when they are caught. The fishermen who catch them for the trade could do it better (and kill less fish) if they were trained, but instead they decide to throw in dynamite to scare the fish towards them, or tip in cyanide to stun them, and then dive down and rip the reef open with crowbars to get the fish which are hiding and too stunned to do anything about it.

To be honest, I think YOU'RE very arrogant. You came here and asked why your fish was bumping in to things so much. Then, when we tell you that your tank is too small, you say it isn't, and that you will not change it because basically, you couldn't care less.

If you don't love your fish, why do you bother keeping it?

if you do not wish to take the advice and keep your puffer in a tank where it will atleast have room to swim. Then maybe this is a site that you have no need to visit.

Although we don't agree with folks who have poor pufferkeeping practices, we still would like to encourage them to stay here--at least long enough for us to convince them of their hurtful ways & maybe they just might wind up wanting to do the right thing.

Pufferpunk wrote:Although we don't agree with folks who have poor pufferkeeping practices, we still would like to encourage them to stay here--at least long enough for us to convince them of their hurtful ways & maybe they just might wind up wanting to do the right thing.

Definitely agree. I would just like to say, I do not mean to get aggressive or anything, so sorry if I come across like that a bit. I just get fired up on something and I almost forget what I'm doing. I would very much hope that this persons stays and does change his ways. We are only trying to advise you on what is best for your fish, we do not want to get into a personal argument or anything, which is why I apologised about my comment on you not having enough money for it earlier. So yeah, please stay, but please don't accuse us of being arrogant, and we will not accuse you of being arrogant either. And please do take on board the advice given here, as it really is good advice, and you will be much happier with your fish if it lives long and is active and happy.

Pufferpunk wrote:

if you do not wish to take the advice and keep your puffer in a tank where it will atleast have room to swim. Then maybe this is a site that you have no need to visit.

Although we don't agree with folks who have poor pufferkeeping practices, we still would like to encourage them to stay here--at least long enough for us to convince them of their hurtful ways & maybe they just might wind up wanting to do the right thing.

Sorry i was not meaning to discourage people from using this site, only stating that everyone here is trying to help and if someone doesn't want to take the advice on board, there is no need to be disrespectful to others trying to help, as that does not help anyone

Sorry but i think you are irresponsible.
To say that your mbu doesnt need a large tank because any tank doesnt compare to the rivers of Africa is ridiculous.

It is a bit like buying a puppy, leaving it in a cage that it can barely turn around in, feeding it and not cleaning out the cage and leaving it to sit in its own waste. And turn around and say the puppy is happy because he greets you and is still eating. Would you not see anything wrong with that picture?

By forcing your puffer to live in a tank that is drastically too small for it is cruel. The levels of waste that will be building up in a tank that cant cope with it is like forcing a puppy to live in his own toilet. Your puffer will be suffering from living in that tank. If you cant be bothered to buy a bigger tank or dont want one that size in your home, then i suggest you buy a fish that doesnt require a huge tank.

Would you buy a Great Dane if you didnt want a big dog in the house? You dont make sense.

You do know that if this were any other animal then a fish, the ASPCA would be called and you would be arrested for animal cruelty?
How old are you? 10? Seriously. Do some research before buying a living, breathing creature. Just because you want to keep it in a smaller tank doesn't mean that you should.

And, by the way, your mbu looks terrible. Get him out of that tank now before he dies.