R.I.P. Steve
It's a very sad day for me. My beautiful stars & stripes puffer, Steve passed away this morning. He had been fighting a hard battle with a nasty bacterial infection. He got this while I had been fighting to get the darn 180 working. He passed away less than a week after the 180 was fixed. I was keeping him in quarantine treating him with Maracyn 2. He was looking great for a while there, but suddenly seemed to go the opposite direction two days ago.
Steve was a great fish. He wasn't "just a fish". He was basically a finned dog. He created and influenced my love for puffers. I purchased the 180 specifically with him in mind.
Being a puffer, Steve and food went hand in hand (fin in fin?). He learned to recognize the cup his food defrosted in. He spat water when he felt he wasn't fed fast enough. Steve liked to press his lips against the glass and then point to the top of the tank, indicating that yes, he was hungry again. The first time I made the mussel/clam/scallop/shrimp/sea weed/garlic food concoction, I put it on a suction cup clip for all the fish to share. Steve ate the whole thing and lay on the bottom of the tank with belly ache for a whole day. When he and Dexter (the lionfish that also passed away from this horrible bacterial infection) would go after the same piece of food, Steve learned to respect Dexter and back away from the food.
Steve was such a gentle puffer. After reading that puffers eat starfish in the wild, I bought him one for Christmas. He watched it sink to the bottom of the tank and then lost interest. The starfish is still climbing around the glass. He never touched it. He also left snails alone, but liked to chew on hermit crabs and freshwater crayfish. I liked to joke that Steve was "defective", as he was afraid of freeze dried krill and would bolt to the other side of the tank and hide in the sand bed to get away from it.
When I got my foxface (Vixen) he was scared to death. I had six chromis and a damsel (all harmless juveniles) that I thought would work as dither fish. Then I got Steve. Vixen loved Steve. Felt safe and would always be near Steve. I think Steve was totally oblivious to Vixen hanging around him.
Steve would follow my finger as I moved it in spiral shapes around the outside of the tank. He was such a character. We really bonded in the short five months I had him. I miss him so much.
Please don't post what could have been done. I feel bad enough right now. When I'm ready, I'll ask. Right now I just need consonance.
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