Remembering 14K

[PufferCorps]

One in a million.

14K passed away only a few weeks after his rescue from complications, due to Quality Pets recommended starvation diet at Walmart.

Puffers DON'T eat flakes.

 

[Fat Homer]

To be fair, the problem wasnt just the flakes, but rather whoever owned that puffer was hoping that by putting a high end brackish (GSP) Puffer into a freshwater tank would work out...

Although i know chances are it was most likely the store that said it would be okay...

 

[PufferCorps]

Mr Homer,

Walmart has been instructed by Quality Pets to feed fish flakes. Puffers do not eat fish flakes. Their diet consists of live or frozen food and crustasions. Even if they did eat flakes, which they do not, flakes are a poor substitute, and do not supply required nutrition.

Salt is another requirement for health, that QP has withheld. At best they throw a cup of aquarium salt in the tank which is dispersed through the filtering system, and lost.

Walmart associates are not instructed in proper handling, and often net and pull puffs out of the tank, where they puff air and die. They sell puffers to impulse buyers with no instructions what so ever, about diet, marine salt, dentistry, fin nipping, or safe handling of a tetrodotoxin species.

I rescued over 300 puffers from Walmart, before I stopped Quality Pets Inc from supplying them in the entire SF Bay Area.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

He was pretty , sad such a beauty died, rip

 

[PufferCorps]

He was pretty , sad such a beauty died, rip

Thank you. He was one of the last evacuations last year just before we ended sales here. His was the 14th store on my list to finally go Puffer Free. Right after that, I got a call from the manager saying he was going to bat for the Puffs and meeting with the regional marketing manager for the SF BAY Area. His son was just starting college to go into marine biology, and he was telling him about the crazy Puffer lady who's been bugging him about getting rid of the Puffs. He said his son stopped and said "Walmart has Puffer Fish???"
He takes his son pretty damn seriously, and I'm forever thankful.
So a lot happened last year, and 14K was one of the last to make it out. The ones that are rescued after parasitic overload has done its damage, don't make it more than a month. I lost 1/2 of all I rescued, partly in the beginning to inexperience. By the time I had my routine down, it was over. I'm glad it's over, but i do miss the rescues. There's no feeling in the world like leaving Walmart with the evacuation shuttle full of bedraggled hungry little refugee's, knowing they are safe, and will have clean water and full stomachs, and not suffering in those tanks.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

I agree this applies applies to any animal I have rescued, from baby birds, to cats or snakes, when I have bad days, and my life is full of bad days I remember all I have saved .. Keep up the good work

 

[rodger]

Mr Homer,

Walmart has been instructed by Quality Pets to feed fish flakes. Puffers do not eat fish flakes. Their diet consists of live or frozen food and crustasions. Even if they did eat flakes, which they do not, flakes are a poor substitute, and do not supply required nutrition.

Salt is another requirement for health, that QP has withheld. At best they throw a cup of aquarium salt in the tank which is dispersed through the filtering system, and lost.

Walmart associates are not instructed in proper handling, and often net and pull puffs out of the tank, where they puff air and die. They sell puffers to impulse buyers with no instructions what so ever, about diet, marine salt, dentistry, fin nipping, or safe handling of a tetrodotoxin species.

I rescued over 300 puffers from Walmart, before I stopped Quality Pets Inc from supplying them in the entire SF Bay Area.

Lol...... You don't need to explain puffers to Homer. He's forgotten more than you will ever know

 

[PufferCorps]

I agree this applies applies to any animal I have rescued, from baby birds, to cats or snakes, when I have bad days, and my life is full of bad days I remember all I have saved .. Keep up the good work

*Gulp!*
I get a little verclempt every time I think of their anxious little faces looking at me through the murky water begging for someone to notice them suffering. The very first time i saw them I knew I was never going to walk away from them. Every time i performed a rescue felt sick at the thought that I was contributing to the problem. It became my mantra -
If you turn your back on suffering, YOU have become the SUFFERING.

 

[PufferCorps]

Lol...... You don't need to explain puffers to Homer. He's forgotten more than you will ever know

I'm sure he does. I was just reminding him.

 

[Fat Homer]

Hahahah, its all good

I totally understand where PufferCorps is coming from and cannot give him enough credit for what he is trying to do for the fish trade...

It happens here all the time too, but sadly, making a quick buck is all thats on the a lot of LFS' minds here...