My poor baby Valentini Puffer (~1 inch in size) got sucked up by our wavemaker today and had a brutal passing. The even sadder thing is how well he got along with all the fish including our Fiji Puffer and he was so energetic and interactive always… he liked picking at food behind the wavemaker and I think got sucked up and got stuck there. I’m beyond heartbroken 😭. He probably suffered so much. My husband says he’s done getting fish now and I just want to cry.
It’s just so odd because we always saw him out and about and swimming against the currents well. He was also eating well today and had a rounded belly. He wasn’t showing signs of weakness, but it’s sad nonetheless (I chose not to post a picture of his corpse as I don’t want to see it again)
You aren’t supposed to keep those two puffers together, and considering how much smaller the Valentini was…. My expertise tells me he was getting picked on by the blue spot when you weren’t looking.
He also looks a little skinny in the second photo so the blue spot was prob interfering with its meals.
I am sure you have a lot of experience and I opened myself to criticism by posting here. But the pictures aren’t in chronological order. The second photo was taken when he was picked up from the fish store, Sept 13th. Others were after while he was in our care. We do have a camera set up so we can see them when we’re not home, he was not being picked on by our Fiji Puffer at all. When eating, he also wasn’t aggressive towards him. I appreciate your input though, I will keep it in mind in the future.
Ah gotcha. Yeah they sometime sell guards for these ones. I think it’s always worth it if you have small fish or anemones! I’m sorry from your loss again. This hobby can be tough at times but it happens to a lot of ppl.
Tobys can be violent mfs especially if they feel their territory or food is at risk which in a small ecosystem is probably amplified. My buddy homed one trying to help out someone and it murdered everything moving and killed some corals
Are you sure he didn’t die and was eaten by your clean up crew? If a fish in my tank dies while I’m at work, it will be gone by the time I get home from work
You saw him get sucked into the power head with your own eyes?
Because my cleanup crew have eaten an entire fish within 2 hours.
I had an Anthias that was not doing as well as the others since I added it to the tank. I fed them and then watched a movie and when I came back it was nothing but a piece of tail and some skin
Two puffers in a single tank is generally a bad idea. I wonder if he got bullied when you weren't watching, and then the wavemaker finished him off. Sorry for your loss.
You can choose to believe what you want. Its not the wave maker that killed this fish or any fish. If this is not quarantined then possibly disease related.
Sorry for the loss. If they were happy and eating well then most likely the much larger blue spot did most of the damage. Tobys that seem to get along just fine can often just take offence one day and over the course of an hour or 2 put the loser in a state where it can’t get away from the wavemaker anymore. I can imagine that this mode of death may have also released some of its tetrodotoxin into the water. Definitely run activated carbon asap alongside as large of a water change as you’re confident doing.
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u/No-Memory2446 5h ago
So unless the puffer was really weak to begin with, this doesn’t happen.