Pete is a girl!

[Fishboy42]

Pete the puffer is a girl!

Over the past several days, Pete has been getting bloated, and I worried that something was wrong with "him." Last night he was so severely swollen that (thinking he may have swallowed some air, clumsy fish that he is) I held him nose-up in the water to try to help him expel the air. Being so tame though, he didn't really seem to be bothered with what I was doing and wouldn't puff-up. He just didn't like not being "level."

This morning the 300g was full of eggs floating around and the tangs are going creazy eating them. Pete is back to normal and I think released the last few eggs as we were watching.

We'll have to say "Mrs. Pete" now. Going to be a hard habit to break, as I've had this fish a long time. Need to find a "Mr. Pete" too!

I'll try to put a few pics up later.

Matt

 

[Flavum]

Thats awesome matt! glad to here mrs pete is doing alrgiht.

what is the minimum tank size that they would feel comfortable in for one of these beautiful guys or girls?

 

[fishdoc11]

FWIW I call my girl Pete all the time. It's short for sweet Pete

Or you could use Petunia, Petrichia.......you can spell names any you want these days:lol:

Glad to hear Pete is doing well.

Chris

 

[EvilMel]

YAY! That's neat!

I like Petrichia.

 

[gflat65]

Awesome, Matt. I'd go with Petra.

 

[Fishboy42]

I don't know what the minimum tank size would be. Pete seemed pretty happy in a 45g hex for several years (it was linked with a 110g into a common sump), but I'm sure the 300g is a better tank for a puffer this big. I think providing a cave is pretty important since they seem to like to hang-out in a shady area a lot. When I've seen them while diving they are often sitting in a cave or the shade of a coral in the daytime. The food is probably what triggered the spawn if I had to guess. We feed the 300 and the shark lagoon a lot.

I'm just glad that Pete is ok; we were worried there for a bit and couldn't think of anything that would have triggered a problem since that system is in good-health (sps frags are even growing a bit!).

Unfortunately none of the tank-shots showing the eggs floating everywhere came out. I netted a few to get a picture of them though:

 

[jettster]

that's cool are puffers one of the fish that can be captive bred?

 

[Fishboy42]

I've seen a few reports of spawning in captivity, and a few people have even raised the larvae. This happened mostly in public aquariums, labs, or with wild-collected larvae.

The eggs and larvae are pelagic (instead of being deposited on a substrate like clownfish), but the larvae are fairly well-developed and can be fed on commonly-available foods (rotifers, brine, etc). Probably a big tank would be best for breeding (maybe 600+ gallons).

I was hoping for an immaculate birth like Trey's snake, but this evening it looks like the eggs are infertile