anyone else love their arrowhead

[bond007]

I always felt like I could only really love my monster fish (silver aro, Royal Clown Knife, P bass) but this little guy is AWESOME.

He's about 3.5" and super pretty with amazing camo patterns and stealth hunter skills. He doesn't move much but you can see him looking around the room all the time. Plus when he goes to hide in the sand it cracks me upto see him face down and then swim with all his might. I haven't been on the puffer section much but noticed there is a lack of posts about arrowheads. How common are they? post some pics if you have any, I'd love to see some tank layouts. So far mine is bare sand thats about 3" deep. Thanks

 

[scorp]

My mating pair Unfortunately, the female died last year after laying eggs for the seventh time. No visible marks or anything, just exhausted, I think, heart attack or something.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I love their dog-like snout!

 

[Nut]

I had an arrowhead for about 2 years before I gave it to a friend as a gift. He would hardly move until it was feeding time, but man was he ever fun to watch eat. Especially crayfish. Scorp that mating pair is sweet, I am sorry you lost the female.

As far as posts and information on puffers in general, this board is a little slow. You might try posting on at **************.com.

 

[bond007]

I now have a few questions, how do you sex them? and scorp yours look like they have clear eyes (the puple is all black) while mine has an almost metalic look to them. I thought puffers had crazy looking eyes or is there something wrong with mine. Also any full tank shots, I'm still undecided on aquascaping. Thanks

 

[Pufferpunk]

They can't be sexed. It is also a really bad to keep a pair together, except for spawning. There is a very good chance they will kill each other eventually.

http://www.**************.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/suvattibreeding/

http://www.**************.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/arrowhead/

 

[scorp]

It's true, they can't be sexed. You can see a distinct colour difference while mating though (the male being the darker one in my case)

There were no marks whatsoever on my female when I found her dead one day after weeks of mating/breeding/etc. No chases except when I introduced her to the tank for about 2 minutes. And they lived together for quite a while (2 years). And she was even eating the whole time, the male was not. That's why I concluded that it had to be the constant stress of the mating.

But what I would do differently now is to remove the female after laying the eggs, since the male wanted to mate over and over again after I had removed the slate of eggs.

Unfortunately, there are no full tank shots. Nevertheless, you can see in the picture above that there is a lot of wood and some plants in the tank. Tank size is roughly 30 gallons.

Regarding the metallic look on their eyes, mine have that, too. You just can't see it on the picture.

Cheers

 

[Pufferpunk]

What were you feeding them? Did you happen to do a necropsy on her? I had one for 6 weeks that dies & when I cut it open, it had fatty liver disease. Probably due to being fed feeders when at the shop.

 

[scorp]

Almost no feeders, once or twice a month maybe, but certainly not during the time they were breeding. I was feeding a varied diet of frozen seafood and fish: silversides, mussels, shrimp, various fish filets, etc.

And I usually only feed twice a week, so I can't imagine fatty liver as a reason.

I still have her in my freezer though, might take a look when I have the time.