Poisonus Puffers?

[Shane Zundel]

I am curios if anyone knows if a Leopard Puffer is poisonous? I had two
puffers and two Cichlids. My first incident was the smaller of my cichlids
(6 mos) decided to attempt to eat a puffer. Once inside his mouth it spit
it out, and 20 min later my cichlid was dead. Needless to say it got my
puffer good enough that it died too. So comes the last cichlid and my last
puffer. The puffer happened to swim in the wrong place at the wrong feeding
time and got swallowed by my large cichlid, he was about 2 yrs old in a 55
gallon tank, so he was pretty large 6 inch long 4 inch high, easily fit my
puffer in his mouth, he spit out the puffer, and it survived, but an hour
later my cichlid was upside down dead, color changed and all.
So my question is if anyone knows if they are poisonous or not or if it was
a freak accident.
Sucks to lose a full grown cichlid to a small puffer fish!

Thanks

[Jim Brown]

Shane Zundel > wrote in message
...
> I am curios if anyone knows if a Leopard Puffer is poisonous? I had two
> puffers and two Cichlids. My first incident was the smaller of my
cichlids
> (6 mos) decided to attempt to eat a puffer. Once inside his mouth it spit
> it out, and 20 min later my cichlid was dead. Needless to say it got my
> puffer good enough that it died too. So comes the last cichlid and my
last
> puffer. The puffer happened to swim in the wrong place at the wrong
feeding
> time and got swallowed by my large cichlid, he was about 2 yrs old in a 55
> gallon tank, so he was pretty large 6 inch long 4 inch high, easily fit my
> puffer in his mouth, he spit out the puffer, and it survived, but an hour
> later my cichlid was upside down dead, color changed and all.
> So my question is if anyone knows if they are poisonous or not or if it
was
> a freak accident.
> Sucks to lose a full grown cichlid to a small puffer fish!
>
> Thanks
>

It's quite possible the puffer's toxic innards were the cause of the
cichlid's death.
As a rule, most puffers do better as solitary display animals or in a
brackish set up. Not that many cichlids adapt to the brackish water.
Research might have prevented this combination. It is hoped you learned that
not all combinations of fish work out.

Jim

[Eric Schreiber]

"Shane Zundel" > wrote:

>I am curios if anyone knows if a Leopard Puffer is poisonous?

Most puffers are poisonous, and very much so.


--
www.ericschreiber.com

[Eric Schreiber]

mindmeld > wrote:

>what about the dwarf puffers? I didn't read anything that suggested they
>were... did i miss something important?

I honestly don't know. I've looked for specifics about that species as
well, and not found anything conclusive. What I did find was several
references to the effect that all puffers carry toxins in their liver,
to some degree or another.


--
www.ericschreiber.com

[mindmeld]

well... i guess we'll find out when Newtron decides to live or die in the
near future (he's the newt i suspect ate the dwarf puffer).
AcH

Eric Schreiber wrote:

> mindmeld > wrote:
>
> >what about the dwarf puffers? I didn't read anything that suggested they
> >were... did i miss something important?
>
> I honestly don't know. I've looked for specifics about that species as
> well, and not found anything conclusive. What I did find was several
> references to the effect that all puffers carry toxins in their liver,
> to some degree or another.
>
> --
> www.ericschreiber.com

[Eric Schreiber]

mindmeld > wrote:

>well... i guess we'll find out when Newtron decides to live or die in the
>near future (he's the newt i suspect ate the dwarf puffer).

A newt, eh? Hmm.

I'm looking for something small and interesting I can add to my puffer
tank. I've got three dwarf puffers in a three gallon Eclipse. Snails
don't work as the puffers tend to nip at the tentacles. Aside from the
possible dining habits, how are the newt and the puffers getting
along?

Any other suggestions for tankmates? A fish would be fine, but
something non-fish would be perhaps more interesting. Has to be
something that can cope with the small space, and which is likely to
ignore and be ignored by the puffers.


--
www.ericschreiber.com

[Shane Zundel]

I have had Crabs in my tank and they seem to interact fine, in my tank right
now I have a "blue lobster" (blue crayfish) and they do ok. I have had
african dwarf frogs in there too and the puffers left them alone. My
puffers seem to leave most everything alone. As long as I keep them happy
with some brine shrimp!




"Eric Schreiber" > wrote in message
...
> mindmeld > wrote:
>
> >well... i guess we'll find out when Newtron decides to live or die in the
> >near future (he's the newt i suspect ate the dwarf puffer).
>
> A newt, eh? Hmm.
>
> I'm looking for something small and interesting I can add to my puffer
> tank. I've got three dwarf puffers in a three gallon Eclipse. Snails
> don't work as the puffers tend to nip at the tentacles. Aside from the
> possible dining habits, how are the newt and the puffers getting
> along?
>
> Any other suggestions for tankmates? A fish would be fine, but
> something non-fish would be perhaps more interesting. Has to be
> something that can cope with the small space, and which is likely to
> ignore and be ignored by the puffers.
>
>
> --
> www.ericschreiber.com

[Eric Schreiber]

"Shane Zundel" > wrote:

>I have had Crabs in my tank and they seem to interact fine

Like those little fiddler crabs, you mean?

>I have had african dwarf frogs in there too

I've definitely considered an ADF as a possibility. Thanks for the
suggestions. Now I have somewhere to direct my research.

--
www.ericschreiber.com

[mindmeld]

don't mix ADFs with newts, they eat the tails and toes of newts.

i suspect newts enjoy (eating) the occasional DPF. (day five? and
Newtron is still alive - no other sign of DPF#1's carcass)

DPFs enjoy nipping the tails of my white cloud minnows.

DPF#2 tries to 'eat' the bubbles coming off the airstone (any
suggestions why?)

I'm shooting for a trio of DPFs and a pair of 0tto's... assuming i can
EVER grow algae.(... what is WRONG with me?! that i can't grow algae and
snails like I want :)

.... but now I want a crab or crayfish too :) oooh!!! maybe fresh water
mussels... oops, they'd need current that the DPFs don't want.


AcH


Eric Schreiber wrote:

> "Shane Zundel" > wrote:
>
> >I have had Crabs in my tank and they seem to interact fine
>
> Like those little fiddler crabs, you mean?
>
> >I have had african dwarf frogs in there too
>
> I've definitely considered an ADF as a possibility. Thanks for the
> suggestions. Now I have somewhere to direct my research.
>
> --
> www.ericschreiber.com

[Eric Schreiber]

mindmeld > wrote:

>don't mix ADFs with newts, they eat the tails and toes of newts.

No surprise there, I guess.

>DPF#2 tries to 'eat' the bubbles coming off the airstone (any
>suggestions why?)

Clinical insanity?

>what is WRONG with me?! that i can't grow algae and
>snails like I want

Bah. I'm at the point now where I'm destroying the egg masses that my
apple snails lay. I started with two snails and now I have perhaps two
dozen rapidly approaching adult size. And unfortunately, they're the
plant-eating variety, so I can't even give them away.


--
www.ericschreiber.com