Burrfish

[Paul B]

How cool is my burrfish?
I collected this guy the summer before the last summer here in NY in the Atlantic. He came up on the Gulf stream as many tropicals do then they die when the water gets cold so you can say I saved his life. I also collected a bunch of other fish with him but I eventually gave them all away.
This burrfish is in my Local NY tank because if I put him in my reef he would just about eat through the corals, crabs, fish and glass. Burrfish along with porcupine fish are reef fish but not exactly reef safe. Porcupinefish actually prefer coral reefs and burrfish usually stay more on sandy areas. I feed him a large piece of shrimp or fresh clam every day and he grew from an inch to almost 5" in a 10 gallon tank.

 

[NWDiver]

Wow! fantastic looking fish!
How did you catch him?

 

[Paul B]

I have a 20' 2 man net that I drag through the grass flats on the south shore of Long Island

 

[IPisces]

Nice catch! He is a cool little fish! Well for now hes little.

 

[NWDiver]

So very cool! What else did you find in the net?

 

[Paul B]

You usually get these guys along with seahorses, pipefish, coronetfish, puffers, trumpetfish, wrasses and lookdowns.

 

[Krish]

Very cool Paul! You remind me of me. Even when I didn't have a saltwater tank, growing up, anytime we went to the beach, I'd grab my net and see what I could find! I miss getting out there as this year has been all upside down for us with the new baby and so forth, but I'm gearing up for the new year! Can't wait!!!

 

[Paul B]

You remind me of me

Are you bald also? :lol:
I also grew up surrounded by water. I spent my summers in New Rochelle where my aunt worked in a country club. They had a muddy beach there and I would sit for hours collecting worms, snails, horseshoe crabs, seahorses, pipefish etc. Once, under a rock I found a Mother toadfish of some type with a load of babies. I wish I could find that today. I miss those days but now I have a boat and I still do that whenever I can. People just look at me funny. I just have to look under every rock to check it out.

 

[Krish]

Are you bald also? :lol:

:lol: Not yet!!

 

[Paul B]

Here is just collected as big as a marble

 

[WABlonde]

SO CUTE!

 

[Paul B]

I have a call into Atlantis Aquarium in Riverhead Long Island to see if they will take him. I want to take down that tank and just have a 2 gallon tank there for snails and shrimp.

 

[ReefLogic]

So are these similar to puffers? I mean it looks like a puffer....are they aggressive? how would it fair in a tank with a BDSR?

 

[Paul B]

They are puffers but I am not sure if this one is agressive. The species generally is but he has never been in a tank with other fish so I am not sure. He does not eat live grass shrimp as he has a bunch in his tank and he also does not kill snails. I don't think he knows they are food or he could easily crush their shell. He does eat live fiddler crabs because I give them to him in the summer.
I don't want to give him to an aquarist or a store because I think he would like a huge public aquarium tank, if they will take him

 

[ReefLogic]

Man....I really want a puffer, I just don't know what kind I can get. Probably none....I don't care about coral nipping as I am trying to get rid of all my coral....hence the CL add with a 3 polyp red hornet frag at $60:loco: and 10 polyp blue hornet frag at $50:jaw:

 

[Paul B]

This guy would probably not bite coral. I don't think so anyway but if he did he would eat the entire rock

 

[ReefLogic]

I am more worried about how the shark or ray would interact....or eel for that matter.