[Gina]

I found this information in our knowledgebase about puffers. Hope it helps!

Poisons

Often you hear about the poisons found in many of the species of pufferfish in the aquarium trade. Not to lesson anyone trust in my expertise, it was this sort of "possibly dangerous" mystique that turned me towards raising and caring for the Tetraodontidae/Diodontidae family. When I started out raising the freshwater and brackish varieties of puffers I was so nervous about any sort of puffer poison mishap that I would use plastic bags, rather than nets, to catch the puffers, and even purchased a pair of gloves. This was all just to avoid any sort of direct contact. Now, I had read info stating that puffers couldn't sting you, it was a poison that did you in, and only if you ate the little thing. But, it still didn't stop my brain from thinking "what if...” The somewhat fad of pufferfish hadn't even begun yet, and I was quite surprised and the lack of information on the web. But, since I'm writing this article after years of raising puffers, it seems that my fears were a bit unfounded. In fact, I've seen many people that could pet their puffers as if they were a cat or dog. None of them have ever died after doing this, so I believe that it's safe.

The toxin found in pufferfish is called Tetraodontin, which gets its name from the puffer, even though this toxic substance is found in many different species around the world. Creatures like the rough-skinned Newt, and many varieties of frog like the Harlequin frogs of central America, all have this located in the skin, thus making ingestion the only way of getting poisoned. But other creatures like the Blue-ringed Octopus, which delivers the same toxin, uses it's bite to do the job. As a special note, I would like to add in that this toxin is the main ingredient found in Voodoo Zombie Powder from Haiti. Also, this same stuff is responsible for over 150 human deaths last year in Japan. This is due to the Japanese tradition of eating of raw "fugu" pufferfish. Many people wonder why a person would risk eating something that could kill you. Is it just for the thrill, or is there another reason. People that I have talked with that have tried eating puffer, say that you gain an odd euphoric feeling after eating it. Your body gets a tingling sensation in the extremities, and you have a unique “high” sensation. Scientific reason for this; you are actually getting ultra small doses of neurotoxin, that is stunning your body and nervous system. Sort of takes the mystery and awe out of it now doesn't it…

As I mentioned above, there was very little info available to the aquarist in the past. Luckily websites are popping up more frequently as these impressive fish are finding their way into peoples homes. But, at the time I'm writing this there is only one book truly devoted to pufferfish, and it only deals with freshwater and brackish varieties, "The Puffers of Fresh and Brackish Water" by Dr. Klaus Ebert. Like the title suggests it doesn't deal with marine puffers at all, but it still is an interesting book to add to anyone's collection. As for other books dealing with Marine puffers, for the time being you will have to make due with the small sections in many of the general marine fish books on the market.


If you think that there is a poison in your tank, I would do frequent water changes and add charcoal and filters to your sump, if you have one.
I don't know alot about puffers, hopefully someone who has some experience with them will chime in.
Good luck!