The Puffer Forum

As the title of the thread suggests, I am filled with mixed emotions right now.

I am so sorry I haven't replied to all of you who have been kind enough to respond to my previous threads: I have been busy with finals, my Father came up to visit last weekend, and then to top it off I found my newest puffer, a Figure Eight named Luxemburg, dead last Sunday.

Here's the story:
In celebration of my much deserved summer break from college I ordered my dragon goby last week. I then spent the weekend with my family & catching up on lost time with my father. Needless to say I was nothing but optimistic last weekend with finals week ending and a new arrival on the way...

When I came home from some activities on Sunday I went to check on my sweet little GSPs and they all immediately swam up to beg like they always do. I fed them krill and they were content and went about scouring the tank for left-overs.

When I turned to my F-8 tank I saw my smallest (and my first puffer) F8 come up to greet me. I looked around and realized I didn't see Luxemburg, my latest puffer addition, also a F8. I looked around the tank and then on the floor thinking he may have jumped. When I couldn't find anything I checked the tank one more time and found Luxemburg in his favorite hide-out, a little rock cave, floating motionless with his eyes glazed over. I was shocked.

I checked water parameters and nothing was abnormal. I checked the temp and the salinity and I checked the filter. I couldn't find anything wrong. The only thing that stood out was Luxemburg was flat-bellied, but then again he was a couple weeks from being in the LFS and I was expecting him to fill out (he wasn't emaciated, I've seen that before). I have seen him eat Krill and some blood worms, he was eating and he was doing well; maybe a bit sluggish as compared to Hinden but not sickly. I assumed it was because he was still shy of me.

I don't know if maybe I didn't acclimate him slow enough to the salinity ( I slowly dripped the water into his bag over a 1 1/2 hour period), though the pet store does keep their puffs in light brackish conditions so he wasn't straight-fresh. However, I have never bought a puffer from this store, that may have been a problem right there.

Whatever the cause,
I worry over my fish as much as my birds (who are like children to me), and this loss hit me hard. Right now I have lost a lot of confidence in my fish-keeping skills... Maybe the power went out (as my husband suggested) and only my established fish could handle the stress, there was a storm during the weekend, but none-the-less I put the poor animal in an environment that failed him.

Since the death:
I changed the water and scrubbed the tank decorations and filter, and then changed the filter media. Hinden is still his robust self so I decided to pick up the Goby today and I placed him in the 15 gallon with some more ghost shrimp. He is eating blood worms and is very active, the ghost shrimp cluster around him and seem to feel protected by the big lug . At least my new Goby and Hindenburg are doing well, but it is still very hard to be happy when I feel this guilt.

If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear your input.
Here's the specs of my tank b/c I know you'll want to know:
15 gallon tall- Inhabitants were 2 F8's and a couple ghost shrimp
Temp: 80 deg
1.004 salinity
Nitrates 0 & Nitrites 0.
pH 8.
Aquaclear 50 Filter.
Heavily decorated.

Now I have 1 F8, the ghost shrimp, and the Dragon Goby in the 15.

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. I really doubt it's something you did.
The 15-gallon tank is the minimum for a single F8, so now you don't need to worry about upgrading...little condolence, for sure.
Chin up girly. :10:

wow, so sorry to hear of your loss. losing a puffer is always very hard!


:10:

Sorry to hear that.


I know what you mean about school, i just finished finals as well. As for Luxemburg, it sounds to me like it had nothing to do with you. If you had him for a week and a half i seriously doubt that it had anything to do with your acclimating him, something like that would occur with in the first day or so, he was most probably ill with something from the store and was weak from shipping to boot, especially as your params are good, and you other puffer was fine. If the Hobbyist is doing something wrong it usually doesn't just happen to one fish in the tank .I have had things like that happen with fish, that's why i have only gotten three fish from a store, all others i buy from a Friend of mine in Florida who breeds and has breeder friends so i don't have to deal with these kinda things. thank god. Feel Better

Thank you so much for your support guys. The community here is so supportive, I don't now how I got by before I joined this forum .

TFM: Thanks for being supportive, I really appreciate it. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who's lost a puff on here.

Rusty: I guess you are right about Lux. I wasn't sure how long a fish would take to die from being improperly acclimated, but if happens within days he must have had some sort of illness.

An update for everyone:

Hindenburg is still doing very well. His first reaction to the Dragon Goby was hilarious. He watched it floating in the tank and then when the Goby was released into the tank it promptly settled into Hinden's favorite cave. Hinden, of course, was insulted and hovered over the goby staring at it with those independently moving eyes for at least an hour until he gave up.

Hinden has found another cave to hide in since then and the Goby is pretty active during feeding time. He is eating blood worms quite nicely, and so far Hinden hasn't touched him or any of the 5 ghosts I put in the tank.

Thanks again for the support everyone. I will be posting some pictures of the Goby and Hinden in a couple of days.