What a CRAZY night!

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Last night around 11pm my fiance heard splashing from the tank. She called me over and I found my Porcupine Puffer puffed up and floating! I knew right away he had come to the surface and puffed in air. What I didn't realize at the time, was how much. I quickly put on my thick lobster gloves and held him under the water by the tail, head up towards the surface and wiggled him around a little. A few bubbles came out of his gills and mouth. I let him relax, holding him gently in my hands still and he tried to deflate but was unable. I tried again wiggling him around and a few more bubbles came out. This repeated for about an hour and a half. When we started, he was very, very hard and actually punctured through my gloves with his spines After about 2 hours of this, he was getting a little "softer" but I thought it was one of those situations I had heard about where the puffer never recovers. Basically I just held him for another 2 hours non stop and moved him around watched as he struggled now and then to deflate. Finally, all of a sudden, he started thrashing around a lot so I let him go and a whole bunch of bubbles came out of his mouth and he finally had deflated...5 1/2 hours later and now 4:30 am . Im used to being up late on a Saturday night but not usually holding my puffer and rubbing his belly! I felt so bad for him...

Anyways, this morning, he seems fine. Like it never happened. I assume there has been some damage done though and I can only hope he still lives a normal life. I know puffing shortens their life span and ruins their circulation, so I hope this 5 1/2 hour puff has not done too much of that. I can notice that a lot of his spines are worn down to the bone...kind of look like clear bones sticking out of his back. He ate this morning though and seems normal.

Just thought this was an interesting story.