The Puffer Forum

Alright guys so me and my husband are on our way to aqua pets in toronto to get some live worms for our dwarf puffers and i spot big al's in vaughan. I wasnt aware they had a location so we pulled in as soon as we saw it. Our whole saturday was a fish day lol. We have been slowly building up our 80 gallon and decided to take the day and hit up a few of the good fish stores in toronto in search of some cool apisto's. ANYWAYS.. we were also in search of a green spotted puffer for our 35 gallon and something to fill our 29 gallon.

Well as mostly all puffers ive ever seen in big al's have internal parasites. We went in to find they has green spotted puffers (about 2.5 inches) and figure 8 puffers, almost full grown. My did the tanks ever look horrible! There was puffers so far gone they were almost dead on the bottom of the tank. All of them has internal parasites and were mostly all black with no vibrant colours. So we ended up getting 1 green spotted for the 35 and 1 figure 8 for the 29. We got them knowing they were very sick and all we can do is try to treat them and hope they respond well. The figure 8 was a gray colour, his fins were all torn up and almost a white colour. The green spotted was very similar, his fins were in a bit better condition though
We put them in and set them settle for about half hour and then i treated them for internal parasites. They were both still eating when we got them. They devoroured our snail population. About 2 hours later i also treated them for ich just to be safe as they had white spots in the blackness of there bellies.

Day 2- Green spotted is doing great! Still very livly, eating like a pig and the indent from the internal parasites seems alot better
- Figure 8 puffer has stopped being active, kinda just chills out near the top of the tank, mostly in the corners
Day 3- Green spotted is doing even more better. Black is going away and his green spots are very vibrant
- Figure 8 was dead this morning.

So keep in mind these are all cycled tanks, water conditions are perfect. They had them both in freshwater so we didnt change that. Ive fed then snails and brine shrimp. No big water changes. And i treated them with IP every day and ich twice. We are taking him back today for a refund. Should i try and get another one or just take the refund? Is there anything else i could have done? Any suggestions? Thanks alot everyone

what did you use to treat the ich and the ip' s? sorry to hear about the f8.

Personally, I'd take the refund on the F8 and not get another there, as they're not particularly hard to find. Buying sick fish just encourages a store to continue not caring well for its stock. Why take good care of them if people will purchase them anyway, you know?

Glad you seem to be having better luck with the GSP!

+1 on Pufftastic's advice. I'd also like to know the answer to PC's Q?

library/hospital/fwich/
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28113

I have also eradicated ich with this treatment: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30163

From my experience and being a firsthand witness to seeing some awful conditions in stores that have fish (Walmart tops the list) the Green Spotted Puffers seem to be a highly resilient species. I am glad you managed to save that little guy from what sounded like GSP hell.

It is unfortunate that your figure 8 wasn't so lucky to reap the benefits.

Yes it was very unfortunate, i just wanted them out of those tanks and home where i could treat them. I used the Medifix or the Pimafix, i forget what one i have at home (im at work) but its the one for bacteria, IP and helps with fin rot. The green spotted (puff daddy) is doing great! His belly is now white and his colours are very vibrant and no longer has a sunken belly.
So my husband took the figure 8 back and what a mess that was.. i told him to see the conditions of the puffers and decide from there weather to get a new one. There was about 6 figure 8's in the tank when we got ours. When my husband returned there was only 2, one was on the bottom about to die and the other was pretty well floating at the top. The green spotted ones wernt much better, some had passed and there was still 4 he said. 2 were livly and the other 2 were about to die. He took the fish to one of the guys and told him what happened. He told my husband we stressed him out with the move and he couldnt give us a refund (they have a 5 day guareente). So he asked to speak to someone else. He said my water parimitors are perfect and i dont have a fair drive, we own MANY fish, we know how to care for fish.. this is not why the puffer died. He then showed him the puffers tank. He said look at these guys there definatly sick and in bad shape. The guy told him they were fine. My husband said look at them, they clearly have internal parasites (they literally has no bellies) and a bad case of fin rot as well. He told my husband they were only like that cause they fish sometimes and kept telling him we dont know how to car for fish. My husband got very frustrated at the man and asked him if there treating there tank and the man said yes. After being frustrated he asked to speak to the manager. He spoke to him and askied if there treating there tank, he said no we dont treat the fish we sell... umm okay your employee told me you guys were. So clearly there told to lie to sell the fish faster. Long story short, he got angry with many peoples there, told them they dont know how to care for fish and there just letting them die. He ended up being allowed to take another green spotted (now earl). What a place ey, makes me sick!

Anyways... this is our second day with earl and hes doing great, looks alot better already. At least we were about to save 2 little GSP and bring them into our family. I think the figure 8 puffer was just so sick that he could handle treatment and the stress of the move. Which is sad cause he was almost full grown, to think he was caught out of his natural habitat just to die is very sad. Im beginning to really dislike Big Al's. At least his last day was probably his best in a while as he went NUTS eating snails and brine shrimp in my tank. R.I.P Larry

I know this post is a bit old but I cannot believe what I am reading here. In the UK a shop with livestock that was that badly cared for would not be allowed to trade. Please don't buy from there anymore. I know it seems like kindness saving these poor animals but by buying from them you are endorsing this terrible behaviour. If no one bought the animals they would have to treat them better.

Davud