Puffer fish

Question
How u doing my question is I have 2 puffers in my 75 gallon tank everything
was fine for the first week I noticed that one puffer wasn't eating as much as
the other he was very selective when he wanted to eat or could eat in that
fact I don't know... So one day I notice my puffer not swimming like he
usually does but instead be was sitting on bottom and loosing color by the
minute.... So that's when I started to get nervous now here is where it gets
interesting he then swims himself inside this mushroom where offers plenty of
hiding spots so I figured he was goin in there to die within minutes of this
happining my catfish who always hides in there he is a marble sailfin catfish
about 6 inches long swims out and starts actin up like real weird and minutes
from that he died rite in front of me so as I lift my mushroom up i come to find
my puffer also dead.... My question is when a puffer dies does he give off
some kind of poison or anything that could of posibly killed the catfish cuz an
hour before this all happened the cat looked 100% and the puffer didn't the
cat was eating well and looked happy it was def. outta no where and a
complete surprise with the cat the puffer I can see it coming u know... Please
any advice will be much appreciated thank you.....   My tank has been set for
3 months those 2 fish have only been in a week... I have 125 gallon eheim
canister filter.... I have 3 plekos a jaguar, green terror, salvini, oscar, catfish,
2 puffers, a rainbow cichlid, arowana u know lil lizard guy and that's it any
info will be helpfull thank you again in advance....

Answer
Hi Brian;

What a tragedy, I'm so sorry this has happened. Make sure you get the whole body of the puffer out of the tank. Puffers do indeed have a very potent toxin on their skin and in their internal organs that can kill fish, and even people if it's ingested. This toxin is known as "Tetrodotoxin". There is no known antidote for the toxin and is very fast acting. It is also found on or in some types of octopi, newts, frogs, toads, etc. In Japan, the puffer fish is considered a delicacy. It's known as "Fugu" or "Blowfish" If not prepared properly it is indeed deadly. It is eaten for fun by thrill-seekers. Not my idea of fun, that's for sure.

It would be best to get a separate tank for any other puffers you may have too. Your tank is pretty overcrowded anyway. You would need at least a 150 gallon for all those guys to grow up together because they get so large. Puffers are not very good community tank fish anyway. They need to be in a species tank with other fish of their kind. Some puffers require special water conditions and some require salt too. If you have fish nipping each other or fighting in your aggressive tank, any other puffers could be bitten or die and you would face the same problem, perhaps worse next time.

Puffers require hard shellfish in their diets to keep their teeth worn down too. If the teeth, also referred to as the "beak", gets too long the fish can't eat anymore and they will have to be trimmed by hand, a risky procedure for obvious reasons. It can take a very small amount of the poisoned blowfish to kill a person, as little as barely a nibble.

Here are some articles about tetrodotoxin and how it has been responsible for accidental death and even used intentionally for medical reasons or....murder. Yikes...

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00041514.htm

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,374242,00.html

http://www.foodsafety.gov/~mow/chap39.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tectin_(drug)

http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/5402/new-test-kit-for-puffer-fish-toxin

I hope the rest of your fish do okay...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins