The Puffer Forum

Aargh!!! We got in a 2" Canthigaster leoparda, but I don't have a tank for it...plus, my tab's already through the roof and she wants $60 for it iirc. It's really beautiful...I'll try to remember to take my camera to work with me in the morning and get some pics so you all can see it. If I were to re-home either my GSP or my Ceylon (both in 55 gallon tanks), or perhaps my valentini (in my 20 gallon reef), I could get it...but then I'm not one to trade off puffers just because something newer and more exciting comes along. Sure is tempting, though...in any case, it needs a little pampering because it's too thin. Poor thing looks scared, too.

Hmmm...my cousin has a 55 gallon that he's giving to me - all I have to do is go pick it up. But I was going move my valentini into it once I got it ready, so I could have her former home as a *real* reef tank with crustaceans in it that had a decent chance of keeping all their limbs. Oh well.

There's some weird puffers showing up lately! lol. There's a couple places online that are selling these guys right now. They're so pretty looking.

Could it live with the valentini in the 55? I had a val & a coronata who got along well together.

I wish I had a tank setup...I could get a 55 up relatively quick but then I'd have to remove the lousy the divorce lawyer that comes standard all new tanks...

Hehehe...

PP thanks, that's good to know, and like you I was wondering if putting both the valentini and the leoparda in together would work out as long as the tank was big enough. I would try it and bring the little fellow home, but I'm stuck because we are out of live rock and I'm not sure I want to set up a 55 without any. I can't spare any from my other tanks, so I guess I'll just have to let a customer get him. If we had the rock I'd probably already have him home with me.

Poor little critter has iched out, seems pretty stressed. Tomorrow I'm taking snails and I'm going to put in some coral skeletons or whatever else I can find to give him something besides a corner for shelter, maybe that will help him. I thought about treating him for ich, but I am almost certain it's due to stress, and I'm afraid that if I give him the hyposalinity treatment, it will just stress him more. I'll pamper him and see what happens.

Bad news. When I got there this morning, the little guy was lying on the bottom, on his side, breathing rapidly. A half hour later he had died. It broke my heart. It bummed me out more than it usually would because I'd been thinking about him last night and this morning, and on the way to work I decided that I wanted him - I might never see another one, so I thought I should act quickly before someone else got him, even if I had to put a temporary divider in one of my 55s until I got my new one up and ready.

Awww... that's too bad. Good thing he didn't die in your care though.

But he did die in my care, sort of, although if I worked all day every day I'd definitely feel more guilty than I do. It just all happened so quickly. I came in Friday afternoon, found that he arrived late Thursday when I was off, and saw him for the first time. The first day he seemed about normal for a new arrival. He even ate a little bit of mysis shrimp, but he stayed pressed up against a corner otherwise. Saturday he looked good, but didn't seem interested in food. I was off Sunday; when I came in Monday afternoon, he had a decent case of saltwater ich. I debated all night about whether I should do a hyposalinity treatment on him, but I never decided one way or another what to do because I figured I'd know more what to do when I saw him in the morning, which was this morning, and as I said earlier it was too late to do anything. From what little I've read about them, it's almost certain it was a stress thing: according to fishbase, they come from around 30-50 meters deep, so all of a sudden going from that to being in a tiny box under bright lights probably took its toll on him. Unfortunately I'm not yet the one who decides what system new fish get put into, otherwise he'd have had a lot more room and a lot more hiding places.