Fat Puffer

[joloco]

i have a case of a decidedly fat puffer (no way she he it is pregnant) - had embarked on a heavy feeding program to get his weight up - he'd got very thin in the first few weeks i had him and now well, he's a bit of a heavy weight. what i'm wondering is whether there's any danger to him - i'm planning to cut him back a little but i don't want to end up with a puffer i'm coaxing to eat again.

i guess what i'm saying is does anyone have advice -- should i allow him to be a bit tubby or is better go for the more fit looking approach?

 

[Fella]

i have a case of a decidedly fat puffer (no way she he it is pregnant) - had embarked on a heavy feeding program to get his weight up - he'd got very thin in the first few weeks i had him and now well, he's a bit of a heavy weight. what i'm wondering is whether there's any danger to him - i'm planning to cut him back a little but i don't want to end up with a puffer i'm coaxing to eat again.

i guess what i'm saying is does anyone have advice -- should i allow him to be a bit tubby or is better go for the more fit looking approach?

It's quite easy to overfeed puffers. My attitude is that they should look tubby immediately after you eat them, and then slim within an hour afterward. If they still look a bit tubby, cut back a bit.

 

[joloco]

i wasn't planning to eat him

thanks, i'll put him on diet

 

[pica_nuttalli]

it could just be a matter of how often you're feeding him. how big is he?

 

[jenny6165]

i have one puffer who always looks tubby.. altho hes extremely good at finding every tiny little particle of food in the tank, even the pleco food!

and my other puffer is a skinny git... so i dont know.

obv dont over feed as it is very easy to do so! i actually purposely aim not to feed my tubby puffer cos he will get all the scraps and all the snails my skinny puffer misses!

 

[Fella]

i wasn't planning to eat him

thanks, i'll put him on diet

I've worked too hard today

 

[joloco]

he's fed once a day every day

i'll charge the camera over night and then you can judge for yourself tomorrow!

 

[pica_nuttalli]

i bet that's the reason he's getting a bit hefty. larger puffers should be feed only every other day or even just once/twice a week. he's probably just reached the size where he doesn't need feeding so often.

 

[joloco]

yeah i guess

his little face is staring out at me with a decidedly feed me look in his eyes

just gonna add a photo

 

[InaneCathode]

i wasn't planning to eat him

thanks, i'll put him on diet

Puffers are poisonous afaik

 

[DarkEntity]

i wasn't planning to eat him

thanks, i'll put him on diet

Puffers are poisonous afaik

Only one certain part of the puffer is poisonous. The rest if done correctly is edible

 

[Fella]

i wasn't planning to eat him

thanks, i'll put him on diet

Puffers are poisonous afaik

Only one certain part of the puffer is poisonous. The rest if done correctly is edible

And in home aquaria, I'm informed that they don't contain any, as it requires a particular bacteria only found in the wild.

 

[InaneCathode]

i wasn't planning to eat him

thanks, i'll put him on diet

Puffers are poisonous afaik

Only one certain part of the puffer is poisonous. The rest if done correctly is edible

And in home aquaria, I'm informed that they don't contain any, as it requires a particular bacteria only found in the wild.

Not sure where i read it, but theres only one species of puffer eaten and it's only done so because only one part is edible.

That makes sense though, the bacteria bit. I've also read wild captured puffers can nuke an entire tank when they die by releasing poison invoulentarily.

 

[Rocker]

The majority of puffers that are available to buy are wild caught. Therefore they have access to whatever exactly it is that makes them poisonous. Whether or not this poison diminshes in the aqaurium is unclear and whether they need a constant supply to make them remain poisonous is not clear.
The bacteria that has been mentioned is found in algae that is found growing on shellfish. What is different about this algae I do not know personally.
The fish you are thinking about releasing toxins in the water is the boxfish not the puffer. A puffer will not release anything poisonous into the water.
HTH

 

[nmonks]

The Aqualog book details the origins of the toxin in pufferfish quite well. As Rocker says, it comes in from the diet.

It isn't 100% known how they do this or what food items are involved. The whole thing is rather complex. One theory is they simply accumate toxins that occur in low quanities in their prey. Another theory is that they actually change chemicals in their prey to turn them into toxins.

Only some pufferfish are toxic, and their toxicity varies depending on many factors including sex, season, and geographical location. One species can be safe to eat all year round in one place, but harmful at certain times of the year at others. The toxins reported are tetrodotoxin (in marine puffers) or saxitoxin (marine and freshwater puffers). The South American pufferfish, for example, is known to contain saxitoxin.

The idea pufferfish lose their toxins in captivity may not be universally (or even widely) true. I've found at least one scientific paper where a pufferfish remained toxic in captivity for at least 1 year after it was caught.

Given this fact, and the uncertainty about which species are toxic and when, all pufferfish in captivity should be treated as potentially toxic.

Cheers,

Neale