The Puffer Forum

I have found myself in a very frustrating situation tonight. Almost a couple weeks ago my lovely orange female Congo was killed when the divider shifted a little, and enough space for her to get through to the other side, where, unfortunately my Baileyi puffer was. He gave her a fatal bite, and she passed later that evening. So, that same night, as I suspected she was going to die, I asked an acquaintance if he could get me another (the same man I got my most recent Ceylon from). Long story short, I didn't hear from him and so I got another Congo from another source, but then a day after getting my other Congo, I heard from him saying he had gotten me one in special. So I felt obligated. They are both small, I'd say less than 2 inches, but the orange one (the 2nd orange one) is just a little bigger than the tan one. I was not feeling very good at putting them in the same tank, but I wasn't sure what else to do because I didn't have any other alternative.
They seemed to get along fairly well at first, even though I would see the orange one chasing the other, but all my puffers do that to each other. And then yesterday I seen that the tan puffer had a bite on her right backside. I think it was just a flesh-wound and I put some Melafix in the tank. Then earlier today I was vacuuming up the uneaten food and I seen the orange puffer attack the tan one right in front of me, and exactly in the same place as the other bite!! I felt so sorry for the poor Congo!
So I decide that the only thing to do is to get another tank, and so I start doing my searching ... and I find one, perfect for what I need and just the right size for the place I want to put it. Then I hit a brick wall .... I talk to my husband.
I explained it all to him and all I got was a disappointing "NO"! He feels that he doesn't get to relax at the weekends and that's why he won't go get me the tank tomorrow. So basically my orange Congo is going to kill the tan Congo and there's nothing I can do about it -- all because he, supposedly, doesn't get to relax at the weekend!! Do you know how it feels to sit by and know that one of them is going to die and there's nothing I can do about it? I am feeling really angry tonight, and then I get the old, "You care more about your puffers than you do me" routine.
The difference is that the puffers rely on me, they are helpless, he's not. Big difference.
So I am angry and frustrated. But I doubt that anything will happen.

Is it on craigslist or something? You could offer to pay a bit more if they drop it off. Or if you have a big plastic bin lying around, you could clean it out and leave the puffer there for a few days.

Yeah, I've had to take the injured Congo out because I think she got bitten again in the same place. The wound doesn't look good, so I put her in a plastic container I have, put a heater and airstone in there with her. Also dosed her with Melafix to help heal that wound. I am still trying to get a tank today though, will help out really, because I can put a matured filter in there and get it going right off.

You could also maybe find someone in your local fish club that would be interested in taking one of them if you're unable to get another tank.

Problem solved!! A friend gave me a used tank, so that will do nicely for what I need it for. So now I don't have to worry about keeping her in that plastic tub and can put her back in decent surroundings.
So now I have to go and try to get things set up so my poor Congo can get back to relaxing and healing her wounds.
I felt so stressed, now I can relax too, at least mentally.

That's great! And you can tell that grouchy old husband of yours to go jump in a tank! Good luck helping the Congo heal up.

Thanks LilGreen .... yeah I moved some of my puffers around. Not sure the Congo is going to make it though because the bite is worse than I thought. When I moved my Fang's puffers to a bigger tank, I got a good look at the darker one and it's got a big horrible bite on his back too. So I got the Melafix out and dosed that one as well. Good thing I moved them or I would never have seen that bite, poor thing.

On a good note, all the fungi on my Baileyi is GONE!! Chalk it up to Pimafix and Melafix to rectify that situation. I think Baileyi is feeling much better because he's been up and swimming around, he's been very sedate the last few days.

As to the husband .... well, I'm better off not making a comment at this point!

Poor little guys. Given good water quality and proper care, puffers can heal up from just about anything. Don't give up on them.

No way I'd ever give up on them! They are my "kids", you kidding? All day long most everything I do is either for my dogs or my puffers (the husband comes after them, hee hee).

Well, you're probably a great mommy to them.

Yeah, give that hubby a little knee in the you know where, in the middle of the night. Tell him it's from me!

Pufferpunk wrote:Yeah, give that hubby a little knee in the you know where, in the middle of the night. Tell him it's from me!

I read this first thing on Monday morning, and I was drinking coffee at the time, and I almost spit coffee all over my keyboard when I read that!
Hee hee ..... I was thinking it's too bad I couldn't get one of my puffers to bite him (you know where).

OUCH. That would be... awesome.

Yeah, give that hubby a little knee in the you know where, in the middle of the night. Tell him it's from me!

I was thinking it's too bad I couldn't get one of my puffers to bite him (you know where).

Don't do that! You have no idea how much that hurts!

I'm sorry to say that my little tan Congo didn't make it through the night. Her wounds must have been worse than I thought they were, maybe she had internal damage. I moved her to a tank all by herself last night and she seemed okay, although very inactive. And when I seen that she had moved this morning, I thought that was a good thing ... but I found her laying in my Java fern dead. Needless to say I am once again gutted, and for whatever reason, I am not having much good luck with Congo puffers.
Of course, I still have my orange one .... and she's absolutely fine, but it just pees me off that, if I had been able to get this tan girlie out of that tank earlier, I could have saved her life!