The Puffer Forum

Deworming is the same thing ad treating for ip's,right? The bloodworms I feed them are soaked in Jungle Parasite clear. They both eat it readily. I wish I could get some good pics. I have a few blurry ones I will post. They are from day one. They look 100 times better now!

I.puff.too-the gsp's at my WM are often solid black...it is sickening!

I.Puff.Too wrote:I went to Walmart last night to look at their puffers and all of them were black, not just their stomachs, but the entire fish was black. And of course they had sunken bellies and tattered fins, but I've never seen the entire fish black. It was pretty sickening.

After having our first experience with puffers and then actually getting to keep one ourselves, I cant imagine who would be so horribly heartless as to make these little critters suffer like that. They are so enjoyable just to be around, I cant imagine how any employee could be okay with this... or store manager... and not only that, but the actual expertise it does take to care for them is way past an amateur level. I mean, its bad enough sometimes when you see them in regular pet stores, and they dont know how to take care of them, but Walmart isnt even a pet store.

Next time i go to Wal-Mart I might open up some of their bloodworms and feed the GSP's..I mean somebody has to feed them, right?

I.Puff.Too wrote:Next time i go to Wal-Mart I might open up some of their bloodworms and feed the GSP's..I mean somebody has to feed them, right?

I have thought about sneaking them food as well, but the tanks are always locked

I always grab earthworms from the fridge at my LFS to feed the puffers.

Has anybody tried anything to try and get wal-mart to stop stocking GSP'S? We all know they won't provide proper care for them, there has to be something we can do, right?

I think about the only thing that can be done is to educate people. Get the word out that there are better places to buy your fish.

You're probably right, but most of the people who buy one from WM have no idea what they are, the first time I seen one in WM I bought one, put it in an uncycled 3 gallon FW tank, with a guppy and a tetra, he took bit the stomach out of the tetra, and he died a few days later. THEN, i researched them and this time I'm doing it right! Now I'm hooked and my wife complains because I'm always on "the puffer forum."...my new favorite website..

I think a lot of puffers at walmart impulse buys because they are so darn cute. I can close to doing it myself and was gonna put him in with a platy and guppy in a five gallon! Something in me told me not to though. That's when I started doing lots of research on puffers...which led me here...which led me to dwarf puffers...and now 14 (was 16, 2 recent deaths) well, you get the picture!!! Lol!!! Thank god my husband loves puffs as much ad me or I might be in trouble!

my wife complains because I'm always on "the puffer forum."...my new favorite website.

We decided on names!!!! They're corny...but we are corny people!!!! Wally and Marty!!! After where they came from. They got a good water change tonight and salinity is now at 1.004. I started getting Wally's tank ready today (old sap tank, RIP). It will still be about 1 1/2 - 2 weeks until I get Wally in it. I'm gonna hold the salinity steady at this time because I'm gonna start slowly raising the salinity in the new tank to get them the same. We have decided to keep both! There is no way I could give either up! On another note, Wally is meaner than snot! The whole time I was changing the water tonight he was nipping my hand. I can see this becoming a problem when he gets big. I've never thought twice about putting my arm in Ares' (my Fahaka) tank until after tonight. I got me thinking about what could happen to my hand if he decided to not be so shy.

Here is a pic of poor Wally the night we got him . Blurry, but you get the picture.

Here is one of both the first night. Wally facing the camera and Marty at the back. Marty was much healthier.

Wally tonight, snail hunting! What a change, huh!!!!

Looking good. Wally still looks like he still needs a bit to work on but I think you will get him up to Marty's standard (lookin as healthy) soon.