Striped Burr

[deshandrews]

Hi guys. I've been reading this forum like crazy for the past 2 weeks absorbing all of the information I can. My husband went fishing at the pier down the road from our house and brought home the tiniest baby burrfish that you have ever seen. It had been caught on someone's cast net. It was a little over half an inch long. I watched it swimming around in a jar for about 12 hours before I decided that I had to keep it. I just feel in love with it. I believe it was a webb burrfish although it may have been a striped that was too small to show all of its markings. I have never kept a salt water aquarium before, and haven't had a fresh water aquarium since I was a kid but I was determined. I had an empty 2 gallon hexagon aquarium kit (with an underground filter, a couple of plants, etc.), so I went back down to the pier and collected a bucket of water and set it up. I then went to Wal-Mart (it was around midnight by this time) and bought some dried baby gammerus shrimp, dried bloodworms, and tubifex worms. (It was all they had.) The baby picked at them, eating and spitting them back out. I'm still not certain if he actually ate any. The next day I found a wonderful LFS and bought some frozen mysis shrimp. The owner spent a lot of time with me showing me how to thaw and feed and discussing IPs and how to run the aquarium. I started trying to find a good deal on a bigger tank, was feeding the baby twice a day (he was underweight when I got him), I went and bought him snails, plankton and ghost shrimp (which were bigger than he was but he did seem entertained by chasing them around). I was doing water changes every other day and working very hard to do everything right. He seemed underweight but overall pretty healthy. I really wanted the baby to live. But, as you may have already guessed, he did not. I lost him 2 days ago. I have pics and video that I may post after I load them on the computer and clean them up. The size was remarkable. I know this is long but this is not the end of the story.

[deshandrews]

Today, my 17-year-old and her best friend (who had been very involved and interested in the baby burr) went out running. While they were gone a kid that I know from the neighborhood and the pier knocked on my door and had a large striped burrfish IN A WAL-MART BAG! It's gills were not even moving and he looked as if he had air trapped in his belly. The kid said that my girls had asked him to hurry and deliver this to my house because he was on a bicycle and could get here faster than them. I asked him why it wasn't in water and he said he didn't know. The last time I had mixed up water for the baby I had 3 extra gallons and I had put them in 1 gallon ice cream containers to use for changes. I grabbed a bucket, put the fish in it and began massaging him to try to get the air out of his belly, thinking that it had to be hopeless. As I'm doing this, the girls came in asking "Is he alive? Is he alive?" I told them I doubted he was going to make it, however, air bubbles were coming out of his mouth so I kept gently working with him. After a bit, his gills started moving a little and I kept pumping air out of him. The girls told me that when they got to the pier he was just lying there next to a pile of what looked to be vomit with a couple of men staring at them. They asked if that was a puffer and if he had thrown up and one of the men said yes, it was a porcupine that had thrown up after he hit him over the head. The girls asked if they could have him and the man gave them the Wal-Mart bag to put him in and they started rushing home. As they were telling their story, the fish spit some water up at me and started swimming around frantically in circles. My 17-year-old freaked out screaming "What's wrong with him?" I told her he was probably a bit freaked out because he was in a bucket that was barely bigger than he was and that we had to take him back to the pier now and release him. She begged and begged to keep him and I told her that we didn't have the equipment to do so. She said he could live in her bathtub just please let her keep him. I told her he can't live in the bathtub but that I would go on craigslist and see if I could find a big aquarium at a good deal. In the meantime I put the 3 gallons of water I had prepared into a large rubbermaid tub with a bubbler and went down to the pier and collected some more water to add to it. I added a couple of ghost shrimp that were still living that I had gotten for the baby. He's a great burr. He doesn't seem underweight and will swim up to me and spit water and let me pet him when I come up to the tub. He's about 8 inches long. I don't think I'm going to be able to get an aquarium and get it set up in time for him. I had seen on here where they were in demand and I wondered if anyone would be interested in buying him. He is just so sweet and tame. I would love for someone who had the proper set up to take him. Otherwise I am going to have to go release him soon. If nothing else, at leaset I saved him from the mean man at the pier who hit him over the head.

[Pufferpunk]

My suggestion is to go release him right now. At that size, he will quickly poison himself with his own wastes in that tub. Probably won't make it until morning.

It seems that these fish are easily available around you. Get the large tank (100g minimum), sand, live rock, protein skimmer & cycle it. Then get yourself a puffer.

[pufferfreak]

haha your lucky. to bad i nvr find any puffers on my coast. lol

[deshandrews]

You're right. I looked at putting him in a 50 gallon tub with a filter and a heater for a couple of days but I convinced my kid that he'd be better off in the gulf. I think they are only plentiful around here certain times of year. What do you think I did wrong with the baby? I really tried to learn how to do everything right. He was so tiny though. His tail wasn't even prominant yet. He looked like a little marble.

[crazedpuffer]

The uncycled tank did the baby in. Have you read the article on fishless cycling in the library?
I'd do as PP suggested and release the burr. He is pretty lucky your daughter found him though.

[Pufferpunk]

They hit it in the head & the poor thing threw up? I'd love to get my hands on them!

For a SW tank, all you need is cured live rock to cycle it.

[t1gerbee]

salt water tanks are complicated, and need alot of reading and alot of patience to set up correctly.

Do lots of research, do a search for fishless cycle, and begin very slowly by getting the water parameters correct first, this can take weeks ....

you are looking at anything up to 2 months before you can add fish ...

It's well worth the wait, i promise.