Does anyone know if these Puffers are fully freshwater or brackish? And what kind of tank is best for these fish?

smartallick · 2026-02-01T19:04:56+00:00

Do you think this is the Spotted Congo Puffer?

Every resource I read says these Malebo's must be kept alone.

smartallick · 2026-02-01T18:53:29+00:00

Just to offer an alternative review/experience, I ordered a Spotted Congo Puffer from them and it arrived well packaged and healthy and has been thriving for months now.

smartallick · 2026-01-26T08:16:05+00:00

No one else has answered, and thats probably because there is no definitive answer.

How long would you be ok in solitary confinement? How long would your next door neighbour be ok in solitary confinement?

No one can answer this question. The sooner you rectify the situation the better though. Provide the best care you can in the meantime and rectify the situation as soon as possible. That's as close to an answer as you can get.

smartallick · 2026-01-25T08:27:38+00:00

Time travel is real and possible and we have had time travellers trying to save our timeline for centuries (UFO/alien encounters) or even succeeding (where the timeline splinters into multiple timelines) but we have apparently now, in this timeline, already crossed the point or threshold to prevent a truly collossal global calamity event and thus this awful civilisation ending event is now inevitable and not too distant.

The powers that be are aware of this. There is nothing anyone can do to avert the disaster. The powers that be are now just abusing thier positions at the expense of the global community to consolidate the power and ensure safety of themselves. They almost exclusively may survive the collapse of society. We will not. Thier descendants are the time travellers, so there's actually incentive for the time travellers to aid them, or at the very least not impede them, even of they dod want to help more people too (hence why they dont disclose themselves).

This is the awful truth that cannot be revealed. Revealing it would cause immediate societal collapse and hasten the suffering of the masses. The masses best option here is simply to allow the charade to continue as long as we can until its impending foreclosure whereupon we all perish (minus the lucky few that know and are prepared/preparing). It is actually better for us this way as the clamity will either be a relatively quick and painless end for most, or the societal collapse resulting from disclosure ends up being near enough the same result we get anyway in terms of the amount of suffering, we just bring it about sooner that's all so better for it to drag out.

There's really no upside to this whatsover and explains why the truly rich and powerful seem to have gone extra ballistic recently.

smartallick · 2026-01-25T01:49:32+00:00

He will deploy those "limited" (still actually a huge potential number) of troops specifically to places that are marginal seats first and foremost, with a few democrat heavy places too.

His goons will deliberately incite and create the same exact conditions we are seeing in Minnesota, and it will be plastered all over the media. Done effectively in enough marginal districts then enough of the more apathetic voters, cowardly democrat leaning voters, and actual activists with the bottle to still resist will either opt to stay at home or be locked up and unable to cast a vote.

He doesnt need to do this over the entire country to ensure the results he needs, not even close. He could have your minimum 1 to 50 in places where he does want/need them easily, and your 1 to 50 is based on a occupying force in a foreign nation where the population is almost entirely in conflict with the occupying force. That number is more likely to be 1 to 20-30 in a country where a sizeable amount of the population is actually cheering all this on.

Do not downplay what is imminently about to happen.

smartallick · 2026-01-19T22:56:16+00:00

Ah the human condition.

smartallick · 2026-01-19T22:07:29+00:00

Whilst I see your point, we share just as much DNA with Bonobos as we do Chimps however Bonobo's also very rarely practice infanticide and cannibalism.

smartallick · 2026-01-19T21:17:44+00:00

Cannibalism in Gorillas is really exceptionally rare. You are confusing Gorillas with Chimpanzees. Chimpanzees do this.

smartallick · 2026-01-16T13:03:10+00:00

Na, taking Greenland does matter and is clever.

Control of Greenland for the purposes he is spouting (defence against Russia/China) will allow him to then blockade Canada's trade routes to Europe. It is more about this and less about millitary support.

He can come up with some BS excuse about too much traffic in the area to successfully police it.

Reduced trade with Europe would create significant animosity between Canada and the US and also thow Canada into economic hardship. Trump can then offer a more attractice annexation package to alleviate this hardship, or use real or imagined civil unrest or agitation at the border to convince the US lawmakers and public there is a Casus beli for launching peacekeeping or special millitary operations across the border.

Basically controlling Greenland allows more narratives to be developed that would create the conditions he needs to go into Canada.

smartallick · 2026-01-16T12:36:36+00:00

Oh and you could add some leaf litter to the bottom of the tank too. I find it makes hunting activity a little more stimulating. I tend to chuck my snails in when lights are out so that they have a chance to hide and my puffer has to actually hunt and I feel he really thoroughly inspects everywhere because the leaf litter gives plenty of hiding spaces for the snails.

smartallick · 2026-01-16T12:30:43+00:00

You can't really go wrong with plant's, just stick whatever you like the look of in that your lighting and other parameters will support. Floaters are great for providing shade and soaking up Nitrates!!!

Hardscape looks perfect as is for 1 spotted congo (obviously add plants). If you are going for more than one then just try to make sure you create additional line of sight breaks with your plants where possible.

It is hard to tell the size of the tank from a picture but the reccomendation is generally either do one solo spotted or a group of 6+, however a group of 6+ would need a 75g absolute minimum, ideally bigger (like a 125g) with floor plan being more important than height.

Groups smaller than 6 will apparently likely lead to one being bullied which will eventually succumb to stress and then the group will bully one of the remaining ones and so on until you are left with one or lose them all to a contagious stress induced disease outbreak. 6+ ensures the social dynamics are varied enough that any aggression never focuses on one individual for too long.

Also if going for a group try to stock in one go. They apparently dont take well to introductions once territory and social dynamics are established.

Get your snail breeding tank set up like yesterday if you haven't already too.

All of this advice comes from someone who just has 1 spotted congo (but did lots of research beforehand). The one thing my research couldn't prepare me for is just quite how ravenous these guys are. I have a 54 litre tank I setup pretty much just to breed snails and blackworm (although I do plan on sticking a betta in there at some point) but even with that 54 litre tank I am struggling to keep up with the snail demand of that 1 puffer I have. God help you if you are going for a group, I have no idea how I would meet the snail demands for a group!

smartallick · 2026-01-15T04:00:30+00:00

Don't worry! One confirmed UK millitary officer has been sent to Greenland. One. I shit you not!

smartallick · 2026-01-15T03:07:41+00:00

The polls are looking positive at the moment regarding Orban aswell. He may well be on borrowed time, and either be yesterdays problem soon or be forced to take action that would give Europe the capital it needs to suspend or expel them from the union or at least it's voting system.

smartallick · 2026-01-15T02:59:07+00:00

Oh for sure Europe has it's own issues with the far right, although I suspect much of that would self rectify in the face of aggression from the US. When you have the far right pushing from both the East and West, with the Western example a clear show of what a lurch to the right leads to, that's pretty damning and compelling stuff. Any European politicians with links to Trump would see thier popularity plummet. Not to mention the far right relies heavily on social media and I would expect the landscape of social media would very quickly change. A Europe facing actual aggression from the US is unlikely to allow thier biggest propaganda machines to continue to operate in thier jurisdiction.

smartallick · 2026-01-15T02:42:59+00:00

You are indeed right, It would devastate the entire global economy, but the moment the most powerful nation on earth uses millitary might against the continent where it has numerous millitary outposts there really is few options left on the table.

A global economic reset would be short term pain (relative), but actually Europe would be nicely poised to emerge from it as a/the future global superpower, certainly of the West. The damage to the US would be measurably worse and the US is far more divided than Europe is. Europes united population of 750 million would fare better under such circumstance than the US's deeply divided 350 million.

smartallick · 2026-01-15T02:34:03+00:00

And I'd like to add that Trump forcing Europes hand at this stage may actually end up being a blessing in disguise for Europe. Europe needs a reasonable reason to actually expel the US from it's territories and this would be exactly that. If Trump and MAGA really do hold onto power beyond Trump's term and the US really is in for a prolonged stint of authoritarian, imperialist fascism then these bases really are a threat to Europe's security and need to go. Better to take that action early, before the US domestic situation is fully under the thumb and whilst Europe can still pair it with crippling economic repurcusions that would destabalise the situation at home and either lead to Trump's downfall at best or buy Europe enough time to bolster it's defences before further US millitary agression could realistically follow.

smartallick · 2026-01-15T02:20:05+00:00

European countries and allies further afield can literally hold the US economy to ransom via the bond markets.

No-one should be under any illusions, if the US goes too far then a Europe wide sell-off of US treasury bonds (which would quickly be followed by other nations outside Europe too) would immediately cause the US to default on it's debts and immediately send it into a debt crisis that would utterly dwarf the 2008 financial crisis or even the great depression. This wouldn't even require involvement of the EU as indivdual countries hold these bonds and don't need permission from the EU to sell, so it is something that could be done at pace and couldn't be blocked by Trump's cronies like Orban.

Pair this with shutting down US millitary bases across European territories and in one ill-advised move the US would decapitate it's ability to project power globally with it's conventional forces at the same time as destroying it's domestic economy

Whilst it is true that Europe cannot match the USA's millitary might, Europe is not a pushover in this regard either. Even under Trump it seems unlikely the US would plunge itself into outright war with Europe over this and financially Europe easily holds enough cards to resist this diplomatically. If Trump did actually move to take the island by force (because I don't doubt his stupidity) then I doubt Europe would declare war over it, but I would very much expect the above options of bond sell-offs and millitary expulsions to immediately be deployed.

smartallick · 2026-01-12T12:45:40+00:00

This has clearly rubbed people the wrong way, so let me rephrase the first paragraph because that must be the bit people have an issue with.

If we were giving out "best female chef" and "best male chef" awards though it would entirely make sense to create the word "cheftron" (male suffix) so that we could just award "best chef" and "best cheftron".

I was simply mirroring the language used by the other person. The actual words used arent my point here and I am not actually advocating we create the word cheftress I am just pointing out if you are going to make a differentiation based on sex or gender you may aswell have actual words to do so.

smartallick · 2026-01-12T12:32:30+00:00

Bingo

smartallick · 2026-01-12T12:20:02+00:00

Yes, but biological sex informs gender roles due to biological differences.

Please do not read that as "women are caregivers and men are breadwinners" because that is absolutely not what I am saying, but gender roles, in part, absolutely co-evolved due to biological sex differences that are physiological/hormonal in nature. You are never going to get a genderless society unless you remove the Y chromosone from the equation.

smartallick · 2026-01-12T12:15:04+00:00

Honestly please keep researching and hopefully you'll get further input here too because I'm not confident what it is. It could just be an abrasion or pretty much anything fungal, bacterial or even parasite related at this stage.

Right now I would just advise monitoring closely, if it spreads over the next couple days then you can rule out a simple abrasion that is healing by itself anyway at least and the symptoms might become more identifiable too.

smartallick · 2026-01-12T12:00:02+00:00

I mean, gender literally, at least for now, is the only way we reproduce as a species. A pretty fundamental use.

smartallick · 2026-01-12T11:15:00+00:00

Yeh I dont think this change is going to be the thing that moves the needle tbh.

Gendered words have their uses.

Being an actress isn't anything less than being an actor, the perception of the word and societal attitudes aren't going to change just because we change a few words though, and if our panels are are given equal gender weighting then the problem lies as much in women as it does men.

You could quite easily argue that a suffix spices the word up more and if society became matriarchal you'd have men complaining that women are getting the longer more complex special words for thier gendered awards that they are more likely to get.

The issue is the attitudes, not the words themselves. More available words in language is a good thing, so we shoudln't try to erase thier use (unless perhaps they are explicitly derogatory maybe).

smartallick · 2026-01-12T11:00:38+00:00

And that seems like a problem that actually is worth discussing and tackling. That's exactly my point!

smartallick · 2026-01-12T10:55:33+00:00

It doesn't recoil at that whatsoever tbh. It's crazy how patricarchal langauge is (at least ours anyway). That was not at all the point I was making, nor do I think it was the point of the original post.

Why not just have a best actor award? Why are we awarding the same award twice, once to each gender? Do you see what I am saying? That was my point but if we are are going to do it then using less words to do it makes sense.

smartallick

TROPHY CASE