Mbu pufferfish at Walmart.

[paultl80]

A friend who doesn't know alot about fish recently bought a Mbu pufferfish to put in his tropical community 20 gallon fish tank....FROM WALMART!

He says it was clearly labeled as a Mbu pufferfish.
Only when he got it home and it bit his finger did he look up the fish online where he found out how big it gets and how much upkeep it takes.

What the hell is that store thinking?

 

[Gourami Swami]

What the hell is that store thinking?

That people will buy the fish without knowing about it, and they will make money. Using your friend as an example, they were right.

 

[dysfunctionaljd]

Did he get a good deal on it? Around here they seem to be pretty pricey, and i cant see walmart selling a fish at those prices. Maybe he can take it to a LFS and get loads of store credit and some smaller fish.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Is it possible it was mislabled? I can't imagine W-mart selling those. A pic would help. Is he prepared for a monster puffer?

 

[paultl80]

He said it was under $10.
He said is matched the pictures for the mbu puffer and didn't look like the other types of puffers.

He very briefly thought about setting up a larger tank just for him, but couldn't be bothered with it as he's going on deployment (spelling?) in June.

 

[Pufferpunk]

So what's happening with the puffer? Why did he buy a fish at all?

 

[Newt]

Weird! $10 would be a great price for a Mbu, if you knew what you were getting into!

The only puffers I've seen at WalMart are Green Spotted puffers. Your friend is absolutly SURE it is a Mbu?

Anyway you could post a picture?

 

[paultl80]

It was an impulse buy for him. That's how he has purchased all of his fish. He returned it the next day.
I just didn't have the room to setup Another fish tank to take him.
No picture, but I'm going to the walmart soon, so i'll try to get a picture if they are still there.

 

[Oddball]

Young mbus and young fahakas resemble each other. For $10 it's more likely a fahaka sociopathic tankmate killing machine.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I doubt they'd be selling fahakas there either. My guess is a T sabahensis. A "giant" morph of the GSP, with mbu-type markings, found mislabled always.