The Puffer Forum

Ok, this sounds like a strange news: I saw my irrubesco female yesterday! My dear Houdini! Why is this such a big thing? Well here's the story:

Houdini never leaves her hiding place. I know where she hides, and if I am lucky, I can see her there if I need to check if she is alive (it's difficult to see her though). And that's what I do when it's been a month og two since last time I saw her. It's been several times I was sure that she just had to be dead, as it's been so long since last time I saw her, but she seems to rise from the dead over and over again. But I haven't seen her outside her hiding place for over a year! Talking about a timid puffer! So the surprise was big yesterday, when I passed her tank, and saw her out in the open, trying to get some food. As soon as she saw me, she curled up her tail, and slowly and carefully retreated back into hiding.

So there you have it: I have a puffer I see about once a year, except when I check out if she is alive! Why do I keep her? There's something very lovable about her timidness. And of course she is that miracle puffer who managed to move between two tanks 10 meters apart, all on herself. I just can't help loving her, even though I never see her.

Wow! Think maybe you should set up a nanny cam? Maybe get a small video camera and get a feed to a TV upstairs?

How did she manage to move between tanks? Do share!

Hooray!

What happened is this: I was to move my irrubesco pair from one tank to another, and the tanks were about 10 meters apart. First I moved the male. I am absolutely 100 % certain that I moved him alone. When I came back to catch the female, she was gone. I searched for her everywhere, but she just wasn't there. After a long search, I realized that she was gone, and I thought the male had killed her. I sat down and wrote a message here at TPF, and was very sad. Later on that evening I passed the new tank, and there was two puffers in there! I really had to check over and over again. They still were two. I had to do a lot of thinking before I found a way that this could have happened. The only possibility was that she hid inside an algae ball I moved to the new tank. If she did, she had a horrible time, as I squeezed the water out of it before moving it. That's when I changed her name to Houdini. She's my little miracle puffer.

That would be a reverse puff I think. It's amazing how these things can seemingly disappear and reappear. Glad you didn't "hug" her too hard though. And glad you got to see her again finally.