A Diamond in the Rough - Tetraodon Biocellatus (F8) Rescue

About a week ago, a member on one of the forums I am regular on informed me of a friend who was moving and couldn't take their fish with them.  I got their contact information and began talking to them about this fish and was told it was a figure eight puffer - Tetraodon Biocellatus.  In gathering more information, I came to find out she was in a one gallon bowl getting monthly 100% water changes.  She was not being fed properly and I was honestly surprised she was even alive.  I told them I would take her if they were willing to ship, which they were.  I paid the absurd adoption/shipping fee that was involved with her and waited.  I begged for overnight shipping and paid more than enough to cover overnight but they were not willing to do so.  She was send via 2-day shipping, which isn't too horrible but we are dealing with a delicate, sick fish.  To my horror, she took three days to get here.

In finally receiving my package, I rushed upstairs to get her out of the box.  I gently carved into it, pulled handful after handful of toilet paper out and came across a bag with a silhouette of a puffer in it.  I didn't see her moving and my heart sank.  Once I pulled the bag out and examined further, I was happy to see that she was, in fact, alive and in much better condition than I was expecting.  I placed the bag in her new home to start acclimating her to the temperature and she took a quick look around, then began ramming the bag trying to get out.  When she realized that wasn't working, she started trying to jump out of the (still tied) bag.  I had to transfer her to a critter keeper to acclimate her so she didn't get out of the bag prematurely or hurt herself trying.

I took a sample of her bag water and ran it through my API Freshwater Master Liquid Test Kit to find she wasn't even provided fresh, clean water for the journey.  The results read as the following -
Ammonia - 8ppm
Nitrites - 0ppm
Nitrates - 40ppm
Upon seeing these results, I was so much more grateful she was still alive.  She swam around the critter keeper and I offered her a betta pellet which she mouthed (after circling adorably) and returned to the bare bottom.  I sucked it out with a pipette and let her be for the rest of acclimation.  Once acclimated, I caught her in a clean, fish-only coffee mug, draining as much water out as I could without exposing her to the air and transferred that to the tank, letting it slowly fill with tank water, only to have her decide the current was fun and ditch the cup salmon-style.  I was pleased with this as it meant I wouldn't have to put the dirty bag water in the tank with her.

She immediately begain exploring her new home and the next morning ran off with a pre-killed snail I dropped in.  I have still yet to find its shell!  She came to the front of the tank a couple times but was still rather skittish.  On day two, she stuffed her face full of frozen/thawed blood worms and passed a wonderfully normal stool.  She came out much more and just yesterday ate another snail.  She's still not sure about people being around the tank but loves it when my infant daughter is in her high chair looking at her.  When my daughter is ready to go play and is moved, Kai always goes to the side of the tank baby A sits on and glass surfs for a good hour or so.  I'm going to offer an earthworm today and see how she does with that.

All in all, it was money well spent to save this little girl from another home that would likely doom her to a small, inadequate tank.  She is still currently in freshwater but we will be starting the transition to brackish shortly.  She is so sweet and I am so excited to get my biotope really underway and add some more personable fish to my collection.

Here is my gorgeous Kai, sleeping after her first day home.  Enjoy!
dpmom