Puffer bites / poison question?

Question

Hi - I have two green spot puffers in a 20 gallon tank for the last week now and have a question about getting bitten. I read that puffers have some kind of poison (tetratoxin?) but most of what I read deals with eating them. I was wondering - 1) how safe is it to put my hand in the tank (for cleaning and stuff) and 2) is their bite poisonous? Oh - and 3) when should I start feeding them snails? (I mean at what length - they're an inch right now). thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Your green spotted puffers will be quite safe to be around when you clean the tank. The poison in puffers is not a poisonous bite and it's doubtful they would try to bite you at all. They will most likely stay as far from your hands as possible. You should be totally safe.

How big they need to be depends on how big the snails are. Really small snails could be fed now.

MM

Answer 2

Don't worry about your GSP's biting you. They are very curious and will eat directly out of your hand, but you should be fine. I do recommend though getting a much larger tank. I had 3 in a 30 gallon and a great deal of "fish people" told me that you should have one in a 30 gallon tank.
They are very territorial and need a lot of hiding spaces to get away. You should be feeding them snails at least once a week. It's so their teeth can be filed down. You should be feeding them a variety of foods. I had shrimp, blood worms, brine shrimp, beef heart, plankton, krill, silver fish, and snails.
I went to my local petsmart and they usually will give you snails that they get when they receive plants. They are actually told to try and get rid of the snails before they put them in the water. You can also start breeding your own snails. It's very easy to do so. I grabbed a one gallon tank with a bubble filter and put the snails in from petsmart and fed them lettuce and vegetables and cleaned out their tank like once a month or something. And they grew like wildfire! It's the best idea because sometimes it's hard to find those snails especially if someone is following the rules and won't give them to you!
But definitely you should start thinking about getting a much larger tank for them because if you do take good care of them, they'll eventually grow to around 5-6 inches. And that sized fish alone should not be in a 20 gallon.
If you have any questions, i went to a fish forum on the net and learned so much more about those fish through them. And I'm here too!
Oh I almost forgot these fish need to be in brackish water. It basically has salt in it, but not enough salt to be called salt water. Your going to need a hydrometer the smallest one to measure salt in brackish water.

Answer 3

When a puffer bites you its not poisonous. What you read about poison from eating them is different from being bitten. When you're gonna eat them you need to remove the thorns and boil them to remove the poison.
If you are going to clean the tank you should use gloves to protect yourself. But even if you do get bitten you won't get poisoned. I know cause Im a spear fisherman and I have studied puffers.
As for feeding them snails, you should wait until they are at least 5"............

Answer 4

i had a green eyed porcupine puffer in my reef tank and used to feed it right out of my hand they are not poisonous to humans if you get bitten i never feed snails but i feed them krill that were about an inch in length but my puffer was about four inches when i bought it