The Puffer Diary Part 2

[Firsttanks]

Oct 6 - Chubbs is filling out nicely, and Skinner has lost that starved look and actually had a little pot belly today for the first time. Their colors are brightened up nicely now

Oct 8 - The puffers seem to have finished off all the snails and most of the Ghost shrimp, they still pick at the frozen medicated foods, but it seems they are on the mend nicely.

Well rather than bore everyone with the rest of the story day by day I will finish off with the most recent pics of my newist little terrors Chubbs and Skinner, a couple of little Tetraodon leiurus - Target Puffers who seem to have made a full recovery and are waiting to be relocated to a nice 35 gal tank where thay will have lots of room to swim and hunt (for now :huh: )

Chubbs

Skinner

 

[cdawson]

Dude I would be careful with those puffers. target puffers are pretty **** aggressive and will most likely kill each other unless separated.

 

[Firsttanks]

Thanks cdawson, I for got to change the original post...after some more research I have discovered that they are actually Tetraodon cutcutia, and I believe I lucked out and got a male and female, so I'm hoping they will turn into a breeding pair....they are scheduled to be moved into a larger thank within the next week or so.

 

[yashinfan]

Aww, I love happy endings

 

[Hans]

how do they eat snails? suck them outta the shell??

 

[cdawson]

Nope, they actually EAT the snail. Puffers have very strong beaks that basically can crush anything modern evolution can throw at them. Even small puffers are pretty much at the top of the food chain. They even contain a deadly neurotoxin (the most deadly in the world) that's used by several other animals, like the blue ringed octopus, the stonefish, a species of jellyfish, and the south sea conch shell. It's in their muscle and organs, so if they're ever eaten. The assuming predator becomes the prey and if they haven't asphyxiated on the puffed puffer they'll die from the neurotoxin quite quickly. Many species of puffers are so aggressive they can stand up to pretty much everything, the only thing I've seen a puffer get taken out by is another, more aggressive puffer.

 

[Callidus]

As I have posted on the other site, I agree that they are Tetraodon cutcutia as well.

I had one called Elmo who wasn't incredibly agressive but grew very quickly; within 3 months went from 1" to 3". His tail grew brilliantly and he appeared to be extremely intelligent.

You will enjoy them and being FW (<--- Correct we if im wrong on this.) you dont have to put up with salt creep.

 

[Firsttanks]

These two seem to be getting along Ok for now, but I have seen noticable growth in just the last month. I expect them to have a bit of a spurt once they get into the larger tank.

 

[cdawson]

You're not putting them into a community tank are you?

 

[Firsttanks]

lol...no they will be getting their own 35 gal tank. I'll be keeping an eye out for the aggression level as the months go by, and if necessary will set up a second tank to seperate them.