Dodgey dealings

[dave maytum]

Ok, here it is. Today i purchased a dog faced puffer from a local marine specialist.

what's worrying me is the fact that the young lad who served me ( obviously didn't have a clue what he was talking about ) wrongly removed the puffer fom the show tank. The puffer inflated while being transfered into the transport bag.

At this point, i was ok but its what he did next . . .

The guy squeezed him to get all the water and air out of him! Am i right in thinking, what a plonker ?

I've got him in my Quarantine tank at the moment, and thats where he'l stay. i was windering if theres anything i should look out for with him, and wether or not its worth me making a scene, so to speak, the next time im in his shop. . .

any help and advice would be great.

many thanks, dave . . .

[finntyla]

I think i would have squeezed some air out of him and asked how he liked it.
Cruelty,pure and simple.

I hope your dogface is ok

[Confooseld]

Ok, here it is. Today i purchased a dog faced puffer from a local marine specialist. Who told you they were a specialist them? That story sounds terrible I would have refused to buy the fish.
1)You should never remove a puffer from water
2)You should never squeeze it back into shape (duh!)

[Reefcherie]

dave maytum
[welcome]

Reefcherie
RC Moderator

[dave maytum]

Well, it's now the second day and he's fine! he's eating well, in some cases even feeding from my hand.

I'm no marine expert but i know when somethings not right. I spoke to the manager of this place and he wasn't much help either! i just got a blank expression as if to say " so . . . "

It's people like that who really get to me! do you think i should take further action, or would i be wasting my time ?

dave . . .:)

[Reefcherie]

I suspect you'd be wasting your time. If you've already made the effort to talk to the manager, unless you can have a quiet word w/ the owner, you've done what you could. I'd take my business elsewhere. If you can speak w/ the owner, express your concern that their employees may need some additional training in the handling of marine fish and then either offer to do the training or hook him/her up with the right person.

[Steven Pro]

While I agree that removing the fish from the water was a mistake, it is also not unheard of to 'burp' a puffer by gentling squeezing them underwater.

[dave maytum]

I have to agree with that, and i have heard of "burping" or "purging" . . . but the way it was conducted is what i was worried about the most. . . Gary ( the puffers name as of 12:20 today) was being squeezed quite hard, while he was out of the water! it was a very stressful process, one that i think didn't at all help the situation . . .

:)

[T-T-Trigger]

my local 'specialist has a great technique should it happen again (there are no non-stressful techniques some just have fewer side effects!) He would net the puffer in the tank, and turn him head up (air rises after all), then swish the net back and forth, and after a few small inflation/deflations (from being agitated and PO'd) he had burped up all the air. Pretty cool to watch an experienced guy do this.


I am glad he is eating, good luck.

[Kahuna Tuna]

I used to know a retailer who had a dogface puffer come in totally inflated with air. The fish had bitten through his shipping bag and was puffed up the size of a cantaloupe, God only knows how long he was out of the water but he was still alive. This guy put him in the tank immediatly and the puffer was bobbing like a cork, about 2/3's of the fish was still out of the water because of all the air he swallowed. He gently grabbed the puffer by the tail with one hand and pulled the fish to the bottom of the tank while gently squeezing the air out of him with the other. He had to do this three or four times over a two day period but was able to finally get all the air out of the puffer. The fish recovered completely, this is one tough group of fish.