The Puffer Forum

I cant find my lil Puff Diddy. He always comes out when I put on the lights and feed them. I thought he may have jumped out but I cant find him around the tank either. If a dog ate him they would be done for right? This sucks as I just got him in a 65 gallon reef tank from the old 40 breeder and filled it with about 90 lbs of tonga branch rock. Now I have to stir all that up and find the lil body I guess.

If you have just moved him he could simply be hiding.

Freshly caught puffers may or may not be equipped with stored toxin. The toxins are not created by the puffer, but are the products of specialized bacteria in the wild. Those wild-source toxins may be present only at some certain seasons in the wild, so that local puffers may or may not have stored toxin when purchased from the LFS.

It is assumed but not fully confirmed that captive puffers lose their toxins over time in captivity, but the loss rate(s) are unconfirmed and likely vary with the species, the age of the fish, and the season of capture.

Newly purchased puffers are assumed to be toxic if freshly wild-caught, but if they were returned to the LFS after some captive period in another hobbyist's tanks, they may or may not carry their appropriate toxin.

Thanks guys, but unfortunately I found him. I thought he was hiding in the rocks maybe because I added a few pounds of new rock and moved some stuff around. He somehow got in the overflow and fell out the glass hole and went under the stand. I feel so bad now for putting off building the sump but the water parameters fine with the ehiem and hob skimmer.

Boo-hoo, so sorry!

Pufferpunk wrote:Boo-hoo, so sorry!

Thank you for your condolences. I know you didn't mean for it to sound like the Joker. Sorry for being a movie buff, lol.

I was out of town on Hubby's laptop & it's hard to maneuver on there, so I couldn't get to the sad smiley.

Its all good boss. I am just dealing with the loss of my lil diiddy at the same time as a family crisis. And I still wonder what to do with an empty 65 gallon reef tank full of about 80 lbs of ultra premium established Tonga rock

Add a valentini? Perhaps a couple small fish too. Sorry for your loss

Sorry to hear that. Hope you try again. GSP's are highly rewarding puffers to have.

I'm not going to rush into another puffer quite yet. I would have to at least finish building my sump and make some kind of screen over the overflow to make sure this never happens again. I am really just considering breaking the tank down and just adding all the live rock and sand to my 72 gallon tank, but I am afraid it would be too full of rocks and sand. Thanks for all the condolences and advice, I just know if I get another fish it should be a long term commitment. I need to do it right next time.

Planning in detail is a chore until you develop the habit. Then it becomes the most effective and efficient way to set up tanks. I do admit that I have been known to over-engineer tanks, but for fish which are effectively wet puppies for 15+ years that is not always a bad thing to do. GSPs definitely are on most our all-time favorite fish lists.