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FAQs about Figure Eight Puffers, Reproduction Related Articles:
Alone
But Not Lonely: The Importance of Keeping Puffers Individually
by Damien Wagaman, Figure Eight Puffers, Freshwater/Brackish
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The
Arrowhead Puffer, Tetraodon suvattii, miraculously malicious,
True Puffers, Puffers
in General, Burrfishes/Porcupinefishes,
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Puffy & Mr. Nasty, Puffer
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Related FAQs: FAQs,
FAQs 2, & FAQs on: Figure-Eight Puffer
Identification, Figure-Eight Puffer Behavior,
Figure-Eight Puffer Compatibility,
Figure-Eight Puffer Selection,
Figure-Eight Puffer Systems,
Figure-Eight Puffer
Feeding, Figure-Eight Puffer Disease, &
BR Puffers 1,
BR Puffers 2,
BR
Puffers 3, BR Puffer Identification,
BR
Puffer Compatibility, BR Puffer Selection,
BR Puffer
Systems, BR Puffer Feeding,
BR
Puffer Disease, BR Puffer
Reproduction, |
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Figure Eight Puffer Fry
Hello again Mr. Fenner,
I hope you are doing well. I am writing to seek some advice about one of my
quarantine inhabitants. I want you to know I have done all of the research I
could get my hands on, and have exhausted all of my theories. I am getting
somewhat desperate here.
<Let's jar your memory, give you a bit more to cogitate furiously with>
On October 24th I received a call from my LFS about a nasty torn finned Figure
Eight Puffer (Tetraodon biocellatus) they needed help with. I have little
experience with fresh to brackish water fish, but was happy to see what was the
matter. I went down there that day to see the puffer. The staff expressed to me
that they felt the puffer was pregnant. How they came to that conclusion I do
not know. :) I had no reason to doubt their concern, so I told them I would take
her home and see what happens.
She was about 2 1/2 -3" in length and beyond the norm for puffer
chubbiness. It's fins were torn quite badly
(I am convinced it was shipped and bagged with others of it's species)
<Common, and common result>
but she ate well and adapted to my QT tank without incident On November 2ed
almost over night, her belly darkened and had 2 distinct lumps. One below it's
mouth and 1/4" below that, a much larger darker swell. I did all of the
research (asked on WWF and Ananda was quite helpful)
<As I've seen>
I could, and honestly became convinced it could not be a pregnancy. Bloat? Naww..
she swam around like she owned the tank and ate like a mad fiend. Five days ago
I awoke to go start my morning tank chores to find one very FAT mama puffer and
5 little babies hiding behind a banana leaf plant. I put the puff fry in my
nursery tank and proceeded to freak out at how large mama was. Calmed down some
and guessed she ate the rest of the family. :)
<...! Are you sure these are puffer babies? All tetraodontiform fishes are
oviparous... not livebearers... Takes two to tango, with developmental period...>
I have tried everything under the sun to get these little fry to eat. I am down
to 3 fry now. They are about 1/2 the size of an eraser on a # 2 pencil. So cute
they will drive a person crazy. I have tried newly hatch brine, and Mysis,
slurry of all sorts of ingredients, baby snails and SMALL pods from my refugium
are all that seem to sustain them. Now they seem to have lost interest in that
and are rather lifeless. I think another puff fry is going to be lost today
because it is bottom dwelling and looking rather sad. I add a low dose of
vitamin supplements to their water as well.
Water quality for the fry and mama are all good.
Ammonia, Nitrite & Nitrate 0, temp a balmy 80*, soft water flow. 2 of the
three do look somewhat active, but how to stimulate their appetite is at this
point unknown to me.
Any suggestions are beyond welcome!
<Live baby brine shrimp... which you can hatch out... but for now which you
can have your LFS strain out (with a fine mesh, usually white in color, net
under their larger net...)
Now about mama. She is looking to have signs of bloat now. She will not eat,
hardly moves. I thought I would give a Epsom salt treatment a try, but I have a
nagging suspicion that it was birth her fry. any trauma related to it that is
causing this reaction. Is it at all possible for infection to accrue, as I have
seen with marine fish, after birth?
<Yes>
I always hesitate to give any kind of chemical treatment without a firm belief
in the cause of the illness. I am not sure about the presumptions I am making.
She was fine the day of and the day after her birth. It sounds like an infection
setting in to me.
<Which hopefully can, will solve itself with time, good general care>
Again, if you have some thoughts as to what might be at play here for both I am
all ears. I hope I gave all of the information needed. I have the fry and
mamma's plight well documented so if you need additional information I would be
glad to supply it. Forgive me for the long post. Hope to hear back from you
soon. I wish I could repay you for your time and effort.
Happy Holidays
Lenore
<No worries re notions of remuneration. My "pay" is manifold in
your, others involvement in life, concerns even just here, let alone the obvious
good exercised else... Don't consider that there is much more to do than you
have mentioned... if/when the young are a bit larger do try a glass dish on the
bottom with some Tubifex/tubificid worms... Be chatting. Bob Fenner>
Re: Figure Eight Puffer Fry
Mr. Fenner,
Okay, I thought I was freaking out before, now I think it can be called going
crazy. Not puffer babies?? ::insert hysterical laugh:: What the heck could be
going on that I could misinterpret this. I am 99.9% sure that the puffer in my
QT is in fact a figure eight. The babies are small, but I swear to you on all
that is holy that they look to be a miniature of the puffer.
<Amazing... strange>
Good grief, not live bearers. That's great. ;) Okay, now that I am thinking that
my .1% might be a big factor here. Could you suggest a possible other fish
(similar in appearance to the figure eight?) that I would mistake as a puffer?
<More likely... that whatever young they are were transferred in the bag,
introduced into the system in some other way... these do look like very small
versions of the "parent" I trust>
I will try the baby brine once again and cross my fingers that they will take to
it.
Thank you for your obviously much needed help. :)
Lenore
<A pleasure, yet mystery for sure. Bob Fenner>
Sexing figure 8 Puffers 8/24/05
Hello!
<Hi, Puffferpunk here>
A week ago we bought a figure of eight puffer and I was wondering how do you
tell what the sex of the fish is?
<Only the puffers know for sure, as there is no external differences between the
2 sexes.>
We were thinking of breeding them but we didn't know the answer to this vital
question!!
<I wish you luck, as these puffers have not been not bred in captivity.>
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
<Here's a good article on them:
http://www.thepufferforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=64 ~PP>
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