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Sneaker

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
May 31, 2003
Messages
159
Location
Chicago
I am fish sitting my friends tank while he is in England and the porky pine puffer is in trouble.

The curious thing got himself wedged in a reef rock, his is stuck in there prety deep and he can't frre himself.

Hes been like that for a day or so and my LFS told me to leave him, and that if a fish can get in there he can get out.

I am having trouble believing this, it seems his spikes are preventing him from getting out, seems like they are getting stuck on the rock when he trys to wiggle out. The rock is huge and I can't take it out of the water cause its a puffer, I was thinking about breaking the rock but the more I thought about it and the way he is stuck it seems impossible...

Can anyone help me out?
 
Don't try to break the rock you'll probably only break the bottom of the tank. If you can move to rock any you might try that otherwise I agree with your LFS, if it got in it can probably get back out. JMO
 
I agree with if he can get in, he can get out. If you try to help him, you may make him angry, and he might try to puff up and really get stuck. A healthy fish can live for about week with no food, so maybe the owner would be back by then to alleviate the problem.
 
The puffers color looks lighter then usual and he is breathing heavy, do you think the stress will kill him?
 
he's pretty stress.. i've seen a porky puffer at a pet club store that had no tail.. he didn't swim much.. looked pretty stressed.. but he lived for about 3 weeks already.. i think he is still there.. just be careful.. i lost a hippo tang or pacific blue tang due to that situation.. didn't know it was dead until a couple days later.. sad story..
 
He's still stuck, last time I saw him free was Saturday, If he is still stuck when I check on him after work I am busting him out before he dies of starvation and stress...
 
Well I couldn't wait any longer and I didn't want him to die so I broke him free with plyers... the actual break point of the coral was very small and it snapped easy. The coral fell to the right not harming th puffer and he swam right out and came up to the glass to say thanks...

He seems allright minus the scratches he indured while wiggling for 4 days, I threw a piece of squid in there for him and he ate it up, I think he will be ok. :D :D :D :D



stuck.jpg


puffy1.jpg
 
good job if that was my fish i would be thankful you did it :)
 
the picture with the drawing really is priceless. I would like to nominate that photo for the july photo contest. :D :) :D

-Dan
 
Good deal. Glad he is free. When you mentioned breaking the rock I had visions of a hammer in the tank. Nice to see you could use focused pressure instead of hacking away with a hammer.
 
hehe, that picture is kind of elementary... :lol:

fishfreek: yeah, no way I was going to hack away at the rock, I thought about it and planned for a bit, it all worked out really well.
 
That's the cutest pic I've ever seen!

I don't know much about it, but do you think you should do something about the scratch?
 
espically because it's a puffer I don't think there is anything I can do, I think he will heal up fine, he might have some marks left but th important this is, "hes alive and free"

Wait till the owner gets home Saturday and I have to explain what happened...
 
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