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I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 6:29 pm
by bonnie3188
Well it's been a terrible start to 2008 for me and my boyfriend. Diddy passed away on Wednesday after a couple of weeks of appearing to be sad and sick.

It started when he began hanging out in a little enclosed area under the rocks that we made when aquascaping for the fish to hide in if they were scared. He would stay in this area all day with the cleaner shrimp. We jokingly started to call it his 'play pen' and I was just thinking that maybe he was getting old or not feeling well for some reason so was trying to get cleaned by the shrimp. This went on for a few weeks, he would come out if he could tell we were infront of the tank, but he was never out when we would walk into the room. I started to miss the big white waving puffer dancing for us when we got home.

In the last week he was in his playpen all day. He would only come out to eat occaisonally and to sleep on the rocks everynight. We noticed that he looked like he had put on a lot of weight and looked really sad and uncomfortable.

For New Years Eve we went to my boyfriends holiday house for a few days. We got a call on Wednesday from his mum who was looking after the tank to say that Diddy was puffing and getting stuck to the pumps. We were trying to give her instructions over the phone- turn the pumps off, just step away from the tank, dont scare him etc- but we got a call back a few minutes later to say he was stuck to a tunze nano- which barely puts out much so he mustve been extremely weak- and was not breathing.

We were devastated. He was the most kind and considerate fish we had ever kept. He could light up a room with his glowing white belly and personality.

We don't really know what caused his sudden decline. I few possibilities:

1) He got something caught in him. Nothing that weve fed him could have got caught, hes only been eating mysis, marine dinner and nori for the past few months. I think he mightve eaten a crab or something that got stuck.
2) We bought him from a shop that is rumoured to buy cyanide caught fish. We didn't know this when we bought him and he is the only fish weve bought from there so dont know if this could be the reason.
3) He was old and his organs were failing. Weve had him for nearly 2 years and wasnt that small when we got him so could be 4 years old.

The tank feels extremely empty without him and I wouldnt dare try another puffer in the SPS reef that Diddy let us build around him, as a new one would more than likely eat something.

Rest in peace DIddy, I'll miss you

Image

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 6:53 pm
by Troender
Awww! Sorry for your loss! :rip: Such a beautiful puffer!
bonnie3188 wrote:We bought him from a shop that is rumoured to buy cyanide caught fish.
WHAT??? Does anyone do that? I wouldn't have thought it was possible!

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 6:56 pm
by crazedpuffer
OMG! I'm so sorry bonnie!
:rip: He was one of my favorite puffers :(

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 9:48 pm
by yunachin
Sorry about your loss. :(

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 2:47 am
by SpockthePuffer
I'm sorry about Diddy... he was such a cutiepie, I loved your pictures of him in other posts... :(

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 4:53 am
by DRRT
Sorry about your loss. It was such a pretty puffer, I hope it won't be too rough on you moving forward.

Chloe

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 7:07 pm
by bonnie3188
Thanks for the kind words guys. Its still really hard looking at the tank without him. I think Louis is enjoying the extra attention though.

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:09 am
by Pufferpunk
So sorry for your loss, Bon. :( He's the reason I have mine now.

And yes, many fish (especially from the Philippines are caught by cyanide even by bombing the reef & catching what ever floats up & is still alive despite the shock of the blast.

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:53 am
by KIONG
many efforts are made to educate the people in countries like indo and philipines to carry out appropriate methods of handling fishes and corals.

RIP diddy, sorry...

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 5:41 pm
by crazedpuffer
Do fish that are caught with cyanide get shipped to the US frequently? How terrible is cyanide?
This post is starting to make me worry about losing Shelby in 2 years.

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:18 am
by KIONG
It depends on the retailer bringin in the fishes.

Philipines is used to know as cyanide country (or something along the line) in the 70's because of how heavily they uses it on aquarium fishing. But since so much effort have been made in educating , such cyanide fishing is decreasing. Still a small portion of fisherman still employs cyanide illegaly, and one of fishes might be the unlucky diddy..

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:33 am
by Pufferpunk
If you're worried abyout cyanide poisoning of your fish, read the Vitamin C thread, in Gen Disc.

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:05 pm
by crazedpuffer
Thanks, I'm not sure if she was caught (and I doubt she was) but I might do it just as a precaution.

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 11:21 pm
by pufferfreak
really sorry about diddy. :( :rip:

Re: I'll miss you Diddy. RIP

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:56 am
by manutius
OMG I'm so sorry Bonnie I only just found this thread. I am gutted for you both, Diddy was a great fish and a marine puffer ambassador, he will be greatly missed