My new stocking!!! (Pics coming soon) - Page 2

ggmichael · 10-29-2006, 07:49 AM

Tommy so sorry to hear of your puffer troubles...me being a wife...I know what it is like to make demands upon the hubby and him wanting to please, but that said, us women don't like to see murder so get rid of the dang puffer!!!!

Tommy Gun · 10-29-2006, 09:43 AM

Well thanks guys!

It is always good to hear another person's wife's point of view! What boggles my mind is that she seems to really be mad at me for 'blaming her fish' for all my problems! I just cannot win.

So, today will be spent trick-or-treating as well as trying to convice my wife that this fish is going make sure he is the only fish in this tank and we need to trade him. I am mad because this was her idea as well (sort of) to get rid of my lionfish and snowflake moray eel in order to get more 'colorful' and 'active' fishes. Sheesh, now apparently I am the reason that mother nature has made things they way they are! LOL

TommysGirl · 10-29-2006, 11:03 AM

Hey Tommy,

Since you are the primary caretaker for your tank, does your wife know about all the other safer varieties of fish? You mentioned in another thread that she has good money saving ideas-tell her that her puffer could eat a serious hole in your fish budget

I'm really lucky in that my hubby could care less what I do with the tank, as long as he gets equal chance to improve his micro-brewery, then whatever I want to do is fair game!

Tommy Gun · 10-29-2006, 02:10 PM

Well, good news and bad news...As my wife was sitting here, she witness her puffer stalking one of the three remaining green chromis. Now, about an hour later, I am down to two of them and the biggest one (which my wife clearly saw was the puffer's target) was the victim. What gets me is that I didnt see it actually happen and so I am really starting to think that this puffer knows that it is wrong and is trying to hide this all from us. Believe that or not, I am convinced now!

Another interesting thing just happened as well. I put my big net in the tank to get out that poor fish and the dang puffer puffed up! I dont think that it was completely puffed, but it was about as big as a small apple. This is getting weird I tell you!

Tommy Gun · 10-29-2006, 02:13 PM

Oh, one more thing, I woke up this morning to notice that one of my clams finally became food for the puffer. I do not know if he killed it by breaking the shell or if it died on its own and he took some chunks out, but it definately chomped on it a bit. That is good because it is the whole reason I put them in there to begin with.

By the way, it is pretty easy to tell when they do die as their shells open up almost fully since their muscle obviously relaxes when it dies. Just thought that would help clear up some of the comments about my being able to tell when to take them out of the tank. I was sort of worried about that myself but now I realize that it is easy to tell.

Salt bitten · 10-29-2006, 10:43 PM

Tommy,

Why haven't you taken out the rest of your Green Chromis yet?

Nookuler · 10-30-2006, 09:34 AM

Tommy,

As you may know, I'm fairly new to SW so I'm making a suggestion as a pet owner (2 dogs, 1 cat, 2 birds, a cycling SW tank, a well established FW tank, and in the process of getting a Maine Coon cat) I would trade in E.T. and tell the wife that he's really eating (no pun intended) into your fish account. I'm sure you can get a pretty penny for the puffer, and she can pick out the next addition to your tank. My wife and I are doing the stocking list for my tank together. I try to keep her active in my hobby since she'll be taking care of my tank for a year while I'll be in Korea.

Just my 2 cents,
Ariel

Tommy Gun · 10-30-2006, 05:06 PM

Oh, do not worry, I have no more chromis in my tank; I took them back to my lfs even though the dude there swore to me that my puffer couldnt be the culprit. I asked him if he would be willing to keep my puffer for a week or something while I keep the smaller fish in the tank and he actually agreed. I didnt go through with it though because I already had the chromis in a bag and at the store and wasnt going to keep stressing them out any more than I already had.

I think my wife is starting to see the light a little bit though. This same guy told her today that it couldnt be her puffer and I kid you not, gave her two free clownfish to test with. Aparently, this guy says if the clowns are dead within three days, she is supposed to bring them in to show him what they look like (eaten or not) and he will give her the clowns back for free and trade us our puffer for a yellow tang.

I know what you are thinking here and first let me say that it is NOT my plan and I had nothing to do with this one. I guess in a way this may help make my case, but then again, two more fish are in jeopardy. I think I am going to take these guys back, or the puffer.

Salt bitten · 10-30-2006, 10:20 PM

Tommy,

I'm new to this whole hobby, so far I have spent a lot of time simply reading about compatibilty within various species. I'm just trying to know what I will be limited to on the direction I go. I have checked two sources that confirm that Puffers are not compatible with green chomis. The puffer is semi aggressive, your chomis are considered peaceful. I'm a little confused on that decision by your LFS but I certainly don't have all the answers, that's what Aaron is for.

BTW, what else would have shread your chromis? The killer Frankenstein clam you put in?

Tommy Gun · 10-30-2006, 11:37 PM

Salt,

Yea, the whole 'who shredded' the fish thing has been my point since day one. Still, I have looked at a bunch of compatability charts as well and being in the same boat as you are, both being beginners to SW, I am pretty confused about it all. Check out this chart quick for puffer compatability:

Marine Compatability Chart

This, and at least three others just like it (but without the convient moving lines) are what brought me to the belief that I would be ok. At any rate, there is no longer anything in the tank that the puffer can eat minus some rouge ghost shrimps here and there left over from the lionfish era of my tank.

Just so you know, I do feel really bad about all of this and I am not just putting fish after fish in the tank to see what will survive. I just get this info that falls into my 'rule of three' philosophy (get the same info from three unrelated sources and it is usually good info) and I get bad results every time. I really think this puffer issue is about to its end and I will make the move I need to in order to get the tank to where I want it to be.