We quarantine all new fishes in a separate building before putting them in the aquarium tanks. We treat them for parasites and diseases. We have a large Caribbean Reef with some large fishes including one huge puffer and one small puffer. Big puffer bites little puffer and even took him into his mouth while trying to take his food away from him. Little puffer had to inflate before big puffer would let go. Little puffer's eye was injured and is now blind in one eye. He has been in quarantine for several months. We received a baby puffer recently and has been in quarantine along with little puffer.
Each department has their own name according to what animals they care for. The puffers are cared for by "Warm Salt" (there is cold salt, fresh water, inverts and shark quarantine). Warm salt decided both puffers were ready to be back on display and put them together in one small tank (80 gallons). Baby puffer was happy and swimming around. Little puffer was anxious and breathing hard. He sunk to the bottom of the tank and just lay there. We were all worried about him. He started swimming and kept bumping into the glass so we knew he didn't see well. Until he saw baby puffer. Off he went, like a rocket, and bit baby puffer on his back. We all know what puffers do. He blew up and little puffer had to let go. When baby puffer finally deflated it looked like his hair was ruffled and sticking up, except they are spines. He kind of looked cute, you wanted to stroke his spines down. The biologist intervened a couple of times using a net to keep them apart. She finally had to take little puffer and put him back in the big reef tank and just hope big puffer leaves him alone. He seemed so happy to back in his big tank and away from the boring quarantine tank.
When I dive in the Reef I have to be aware of the big puffer because he is such a bully. We have to feed him at the top before divers get in because he is so aggressive towards food. His favorite food is live crawfish. Once I was moving my hand in the water and it felt like I had touched a cactus then I realized big puffer was following me around. It taught me not to wave my hands around. One of the volunteer divers decided to dive without gloves and insisted he wanted to wear his gold wedding ring. Puffer bit his ring, smashed it and the volunteer had to have his ring cut off.
I'm diving in the reef tomorrow. I'm thinking of taking my underwater camera with me and taking pictures of the people on the outside who will be taking pictures of me. Just think, these visitors have pictures of me in a wetsuit. Yuck! I've got to remember to take my swimsuit back to work so I can wear it under my wetsuit. All of the 20 year olds are buck naked under their wetsuits. They still have these perky boobs and flat stomachs. I have to take an old swimsuit because it has to go in a bleach bath along with my wetsuit and mask. More about this later
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