I baked the new fish that we just bought for the fish tank. Well, not baked like on a pan in the oven for dinner. It happened in the tank, so I guess the appropriate term for what I did to him would be “poached.” I feel really badly about this. I’ve wanted and waited for this fish for a while. The tank was set up and ready for so long that regular visitors finally stopped asking “You still don’t have a fish in that tank?!?”
Green Spotted Puffer fish are my favorite fish, the only ones I’ve kept for years. I stumbled across them years ago when I was working part-time in our local pet store. They seemed so friendly and fun, so I did a little research. What I found is that they are brackish fish, meaning that they live in partial salt water. The fish originate in estuaries off of rivers that feed into the ocean, and gradually migrate to the sea.
Unfortunately, many stores sell these cute little fish as non-aggressive freshwater fish. They can survive for a while in fresh water, especially when they’re small, but they don’t thrive. And though they don’t look it, they aren’t friendly. I know of one man who bought a puffer thinking it would be great for his community tank. He woke the next morning to find all 20 of his fish lying at the bottom of his 50 gallon tank, with their fins all chewed off. The puffer fish was swimming by his owner’s face, happy as can be to see him. I used to stick my fingers in the tank to say hello until I got a chunk bit off one day. They are just weird fish, which is actually why I like them.
I started out with two, and they lived together peacefully for a year and a half, until one started to get possessive over food and got larger than the other. Then he knew he could dominate and started to take bites out of his tank mate. I immediately created a new tank for him, a “timeout tank” is what I called it, thinking it might make him feel bad. It didn’t work. And he was pissed. He didn’t like the new tank, or being alone, or something. He took to beating himself against the filter. A few weeks later I found him lodged behind the filter, blown up to nearly three times his normal size. It was incredible, and really icky. My brother asked my why I didn’t dry him out and keep him, hang him up somewhere in the house. I told him I flushed him, because I don’t dry out and keep my dead pets, fish or not.
Incidentally, the beat up little fish lasted another year, scars and all. He ended up getting into it with the filter, too. Puffers are jumpers, and somehow he figured out how to jump into the filter. He came back out in pieces. His name, ironically, was Flips.
I haven’t had a puffer in a while. I had to clean out the tank completely, and then get it set up again. I finally did that, and then I couldn’t find a puffer anywhere. I ordered them and they didn’t come in. The tank has been up and running for months, waiting. A puffer finally came in last week.
He seemed to like his new home. He swam in front when we came by, ate all his blood worms, nudged the hydrometer/thermometer around the tank for fun. I posted a picture on Facebook and asked for name suggestions, and the girls and I tossed them around. Then he died. I figured he was sick when I got him, since the tank was healthy and everything seemed fine.
I found him floating near the back of the tank, looking less colorful. I went and got a plastic sandwich bag and opened the tank and noticed the heat. Not 78 degree fish tank heat, but hot tub heat. I pulled the thermometer out of the tank. It read 110 degrees. I didn’t even know the thermometer went that high. I used the thermometer to pull the very warm dead fish toward me and put him in the Ziploc baggie.
Maybe its pregnancy, but poaching my new pet makes me question my abilities at care taking. The poor little guy got cooked on my watch, in a tank I’ve spent months perfecting the salinity and bacteria levels. I’ve had the tank heater for years, but thought it worked fine, mostly because it’s never baked anyone before.
The ironic part of all of this is that the name we finally decided on for the little guy was Sushi. Raw fish. Yeah, right. Not even close. Poor little guy even had a burn mark on his belly…
I probably will order another puffer, after I buy a new heater. I’m sure by the time the fish actually comes in, I’ll be over the guilt.
