sars? help please!!!

balistidae

balistidae

Member
i have a big problem on my hands. I went away for the weekend a couple weeks ago and i came home to my dogface puffer stuck to the powerhead. When i shook him off he had a huge gaping wound. I thought he recovered but tehn a few days later he died. Now a couple days after the puffers death my undulated looks like he is on the verge of deat along with the tomato clown. The undulate has went like almost to a blackish brown and has a white slime on him and his face is all sucked in. I dont think there will be any chance that i can save him but what happened to my tank is what i want to know and what do i need to do to fix it so that my eel doest go down with the rest of em. I am thinking a massive water change...any ideas would be appreciated thanks
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Do a 50% water change immediately. The puffer likely released toxin into the water.
Get screens for your powerheads.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
A few cut and pastes for you:
Tetrodotoxin, a toxin found in some species of puffer fish
The word "tetrodotoxin" is derived from the naming scheme of puffer fish order tetraodontidae meaning "four-toothed". Thus, the direct translation of "tetrodotoxin" is the toxin derived from the four-toothed fish. Paradoxically, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the puffer fish do not make tetrodotoxin, instead this toxin is derived by a pathway encoded by bacteria which are associated with these fish. Tetrodotoxin is also known as anhydrotetrodotoxin 4-epitetrodotoxin, tetrodonic acid.
Another defense which makes the Puffer not an ideal choice is that the flesh of the puffer is suffused with Tetrodotoxin. Tetrodotoxin is a powerful neurotoxin that can cause death in nearly 60% of the humans that ingest it. A human only has to ingest a few milligrams for a fatal reaction to the toxin to occur. Once consumed the toxin blocks the sodium channels in the nervous tissues, ultimately paralyzing the muscle tissue. Curiously, the toxin seems not to be synthesized by the fish itself, but by bacteria associated with the fish! The fish has a mutation in its own sodium channels which makes it resistant to the effect of the toxin.
If you want to know, a puffer fish's internal organs have toxin in them. Inside of the puffer fishes body there is an organ that makes toxin.
Found these in less than 2 min on the net.
HTH
Thomas
 
T

thomas712

Guest
What can I say I've got a slow computer and a bandaid on one finger.
Can jlem come out and play? :D
 
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