View Full Version : Bye Bye Little Puffers
Well my brief experiment with Dwarf Puffer Fish has come to a sad end. I had bought 2 adorable little guys from WalMart almost 1 month ago, but I think that they were probably already too far gone by the time I bought them. They would eat a few snails but didn't seem to know how to catch them. I asume taht WalMart only put flake foods in with them and that they hadn't eaten a decent meal in a long time. As WalMart is the only place around here to get them I don't think I will get any more.
So my advice is that WalMart is okay if you want fish that are okay eating flake food, but any fish that need a more special diet is something to stay away from.
sorry for your loss :(
what else did you try to feed them on? i've struggled with F8Ps and South American (aka peruvian, etc) to get them to eat but bloodworm and brineshrimp seem to be good ways of starting them off. still waiting for my snails to get big enough fo food! (3 months now!).
I had given them snails (rams horn and pond) and they would eat them but only if they saw them when I put them in. A lot of hand feeding. I also tried all of my flake foods, betta floating pellets, freeze dried blood worms and frozen blood worms. I did capture some mosquito larva and they loved those but the supply was limited. I even tried feeding them fresh salmon tied to a string and danced around. But they only wanted to eat living things and were very slow at catching things. Like I said, I don't even know how WalMart kept them alive as long as they did. And they list flake food as only food you need at the store. I pity the supply of poor Dwarf Puffers that must die. Of course they are probably placed into small communtiy aquariums and get to eat the other fish.
i don't think its just dwarf puffers either. the SA puffers I have are both seemingly doing ok. i've had them for about 3 months. getting them to eat is still a bit of hassle. like you say they only seem to notice some food if its dropped right in front of them and even then don't always eat it.
i have more success with live brine shrimp which i gut load with vits (don't know if that helps or not?), but i realise i they need more variety than this.
what gets me is that the LFS i go to must have sold > 150 F8P, SA puffers, red line puffers and GSPs in the last couple of months (judging by the empty tankis), but i have never seen anyone else from this area on this or any other forum asking questions about them. maybe everybody else knows how to look after them, or maybe an awful lot of them die from being thrown into incorrect environments and fed flake food ar whatever else the rest of the tank gets.
i guess its then easy to blame the fish for being hard to look after, but the buck stops with the LFS in my book for selling them and giving bad advice in the first place. like when i was told that 2 f8s would be fine in my newly set up (and therefore uncycled) 15 gallon tank! they were not.
You hit the ball there. I really only have a Walmart around my place to buy fish. They keep the dwarf puffers in with Angles and Butterfly fish in a 10 gallon setup (all very small fish of course). The sign says good with tetras, barbs and cories. Well of course that isn't correct. One of the workers even told me she kept hers with convicts and she was happy they lasted for 4 months. Now that not a sign of the person I want to buy fish from. But alas I have a limited budget and small tanks and no where else to go. I do try to help people that I see in the store by giving them advice, and sometimes they listen, like the lady that was there to buy 2 more pictus catfish cause she thought hers was lonely. Then I found out she had a 5 gallon tank. Well at least she isn't going to buy anymore now. But I can't hang out there forever, so I assume there are a lot of large fish shoved into small tanks (they sell ID sharks as well) and a lot of misinformed people about fish diets, such as the puffers. I hope you have better luck in the long run than I did with your little guys.
do you think you'll be able to resist the temptation of buying more though?!
i mean, what are you going to do with all those snails...
Well the snails are now lucky and I am going to try and see how big of one I can end up growing in my snail only tank. They are all happily munching celery right now.
For now I will try something a little more durable. I am going to pick up some guppies. I have never breed fish before and this might as well be the time to try. Plus my Betta (separate 5 gallon) sure wouldn't mind a tatey treat of baby guppies.
cdawson
07-08-2003, 11:03 AM
I'm reporting another loss, my figure eight passed on this morning from heatstroke. My tank was at a whopping 86 last night, I think my heater got stuck on =(
sorry again! :(
a bad week for the puffers it seems.
in the recent hot weather (over here) my tank was getting up to > 84F, the puffers didn't seem to mind. well, they didn't stop eating or change their behaviour in any noticeable way. even in the day it was staying at 80ish for a few days.
luckily for them our summers don't stay like that for too long.
Yes indeed. Not a good week for puffers. Right befopre mine died their spots turned really dark, pretty much black. I think I read that this was a sign they were sick. I tried a broad spectrum medicine but I assume it was far too late. They were also very skinny when I pulled them out. Hopefully this will be the end of the deaths for now. Good luck with yours SBA.
Pufferpunk
07-08-2003, 10:01 PM
cdawson, Sorry for your pufferloss, but 86 would not kill a tropical fish. I recommend raising a tank to 85-87 degrees for 21 days as a ich cure.
MonoSebaelover
07-08-2003, 10:39 PM
Agree with Pufferpunk, 86 ain't too hot BUT it would be too hot if there is not enough water movement. If there is not enough water agitation then oxygen is extremely less available at higher temps than lower, so the puff could have drowned to lack of water agitation. Just a possible cause. Luckily in November of this past year I moved into the basement when I got my 209G saltwater tank, so all tanks have no problem with heat since the basement is coolest place in house. Sadly, is a bit too cold for me, but I can deal with a sheet, quilt and fleece blanket in the middle of summer! Sorry to hear all you guys's losses. Hope no more!
cdawson
07-09-2003, 11:04 AM
I'm sure the heat had some part in it, It's been really hot here and it was 85 at 10:00pm when I checked. The water was probably around 90 when it was at the peak hour. Oh well I checked for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. 0.3 ppm for nitrates was the only thing registering.
What kind of test were using for nitrates that could give fractional ppm readings?
cdawson
07-14-2003, 8:39 PM
the first two colour bars on the hagen test are 0 and 0.3 at least I think so, I haven't got the numbers for the bar just the colours.
I doubt that is the case, better check with someone who has the complete kit.
cdawson
07-15-2003, 12:04 AM
I've fixed the problem I had in my tank, I guess the tests I had were expired, because I bought the redsea FW test kit and I had alot of ammonia, I did the necessary water changes and it's gone back down now.I had to treat for ich, and parasites. Some of my mollies and my GSP were flipping off of the driftwood and plants.
brackishwannbe
08-02-2003, 10:15 PM
I have a 10g tank with some duck weed that I let grow untouch. After a month the tank was covered with duckweed, some strange midwater moss and filled, (I mean snails-to-snails on the walls) with all various types of snails . I had used the tank for some sailfin fry. So, with all the snails in the tank I bought two small puffers. It took them about a week to figure out the snails were good snacks, but man! did they clean house!! After the snails were gone, I couldn't keep enough of them to get started again, so the puffers learned to eat flake food that I was feeding the fry. Over time one dead and now the tank is filled with the moss and I have one puffer and a couple of small sailfins.