"Or the tale of how one fish's stomach was too big for his own good..."
The backstory: At our store we have two large marine displays. One is a 300gal reef display, the other is a 300gal predator/large fish display. It was near the end of the day yesterday when a customer approached me to point out that our gorgeous (and immense...almost 12" long) stars and stripes puffer in the predator display wasn't moving from one corner of the display. My initial thought was that he was just doing the old puffer resting thing, but as I walked around back and hopped up on the ladder to glance down into the tank, I knew something wasn't right. I prodded the little guy with a net, and while he moved, it wasn't of his own accord. I also noticed that when I touched him, he wasn't the only thing in the tank that moved. The powerhead cord in that corner also moved with him. Now, not to say that our little guy had an eating issue, but this fish ate on the order of three sheets of nori (I know, I know...nobody told him he wasn't an herbivore...) and about 1/4 lb of krill on a daily basis. Apparently, though, he finally found something to chew on that got the better of him. Long story short, after prying him (I literally had to pry his jaws open....ewwwww....) off of the powerhead cord, we are now short one very active and fun fish in our big display.
Sorry...just had to relate the tale. Anybody else out there have any of their big fish commit suicide in an interesting way? Who else wants to commiserate with me?
Later,
Austin
The backstory: At our store we have two large marine displays. One is a 300gal reef display, the other is a 300gal predator/large fish display. It was near the end of the day yesterday when a customer approached me to point out that our gorgeous (and immense...almost 12" long) stars and stripes puffer in the predator display wasn't moving from one corner of the display. My initial thought was that he was just doing the old puffer resting thing, but as I walked around back and hopped up on the ladder to glance down into the tank, I knew something wasn't right. I prodded the little guy with a net, and while he moved, it wasn't of his own accord. I also noticed that when I touched him, he wasn't the only thing in the tank that moved. The powerhead cord in that corner also moved with him. Now, not to say that our little guy had an eating issue, but this fish ate on the order of three sheets of nori (I know, I know...nobody told him he wasn't an herbivore...) and about 1/4 lb of krill on a daily basis. Apparently, though, he finally found something to chew on that got the better of him. Long story short, after prying him (I literally had to pry his jaws open....ewwwww....) off of the powerhead cord, we are now short one very active and fun fish in our big display.
Sorry...just had to relate the tale. Anybody else out there have any of their big fish commit suicide in an interesting way? Who else wants to commiserate with me?
Later,
Austin
I am sorry! I've had the usual carpet surfing deaths but nothing to compare with your story of puffer-cide!
