Worried About Poison From Dwarf Puffer

I have two dwarf puffer fish in my tank but I haven't seen one for a few days and I think it could be dead. Obviously I need to clean the tank and everything, but I'm a little worried that if it is dead the poison within will leak into the tank as it rots if that makes sense? I know that dwarfs aren't always poisonous and I'm not going to eat one, but I am worried about spilling some water on the floor and my dog eating it, or some water droplets splashing on my lips as I clean it? Does anyone have experience of this?

 

Some people say they are poisonous, others swear they aren't. In any case, they are so small that any poison they might contain would not affect you that much, if at all, and certainly not when diluted by the water.

 

Welcome Anon.

 

Thanks. Turns out both are alive so nothing to worry about, I just panicked as when I googled the question a load of articles came up about how poisonous puffers are.

 

Thanks. Turns out both are alive so nothing to worry about, I just panicked as when I googled the question a load of articles came up about how poisonous puffers are.

It depends on the species. Saltwater puffers do have poisons. Some more than others. There is some disagreement whether the little pea puffers do.

 

More important, they are toxic, which means they have to be ingested to poison you. A dead Puffer cannot poison you unless you decide to eat it.

 

Here is one more info, 2 of my dwarf puffers were caught and eaten by one of my Marmorkrebs. Other than cloning, nothing happened to it.. It ate full while I watch. I saw it catch it and starting to eat. I got angry, but then decided to let it eat and see how it goes.

And yeah one more thing, most of the dwarf puffers are now bred in farms here in South East Asia. Not wild-caught. And the toxins are acquired from the wild, and there is nothing to acquire in fish farms.

And after that incident 6months ago, I moved the remaining 2 puffers to a 7G long tank. And they have been living there with an Oto cat fish for last 6months. And no nipped skins on my Oto. And my oto still hang out in the sand with them. Heck, this morning they both together attacking and eating a bladder snail from the many I had put yesterday as food. Which was next to Oto. Oto didn't move and they didn't care. So I would also want to say from my first hand experience, I did not see them attacking Oto cats also..

They take awful lot of planning, recce and brainstorming even before taking the first nip on a snail. HAHHAHA