morganrules

I walk into petsmart to get a background and stuff for my new 29 tank. i go over there start talking to the fish people and i asked if they had puffers and they said at one time we did then he said we sold them to people as feeder fish. when i heard this i just dropped all my stuff and walked out furious as ever. it was unbelievable.

TFA101

i swear my swordtails are going to be the last thing I buy from petsmart

lilFishyfish

That is crazy, that person must of been seriously confused to sell puffers as feeders?!?! As far as I know most puffer species are poisonous if eaten, which is part of their defense!!! Sorry you had to deal with that.....I don't think I'd shop there anymore lol!!

sirdarksol

Most puffers aren't going to be all that poisonous, presuming they're captive-bred. Even the ones that are poisonous aren't going to be as poisonous as wild-caught fugu.

But barring that, the whole purpose of the "puff" defense is that it makes the puffer dangerous to swallow. Fish that live around puffers either learn to not mess with them or have a genetic fear of them. I've seen a shark that died from swallowing a single puffer. This wasn't a small shark, either. It was big enough that it could swallow something many times the size of a puffer in one bite.

TFA101

or he could have o-FISH-ally impaired

morganrules

well im never shopping there again thank god i work at petco. there are smart people there. my coworker has a 29 gallon salty it is beautiful.