Can a puffer eat himself to death?

[Dcash88]

Hello
I've had a 8" yellow belly dog face puffer for about a year and he died yesterday. The only thing I can think of happening in the days prior was a over feeding incident. I got a pearls cale butterfly that was being picky once I put it in the dt so I was going to try a clam on half shell. My puffer loves these as do my other fish so my plan was to drop 3 in, 1 on the right of the tank by the puffer, one in the middle by the rest of my fish and one on the left side for the new butterfly this way everyone would be distracted. Well I dropped them in and my puffer swam the length of the tank snatching all 3 up in like 10 seconds. Then later that night I notice he has eaten a huge turbo snail as well.

The next day he was sitting in the corner sulking. The next day he was sitting in the corner but now laying on the sand nd getting darker in coloration. By the end on the day he was basically black and just laying there. He was dead by morning.

All my other fish are fine. Params: 79 degrees, 8.3ph, 7dkh, 1.024sg, 0ppm nitrates, 34ppb phosphates.

I also carbon dose and have been slowly switching from half vodka half vinegar to all vinegar. However the ratio hadn't changed within a week prior to this.

As you can imagine I'm trying to figure out what happened? Can a puffer eat himself to death and would this time table match? Any other thoughts on what could have happened?

Thanks
Daniel

 

[MikeandNicole]

Was his name pizza the hut?

 

[Dmorty217]

I would venture to say that the fish did overeat. How often/much did you feed the puffer everytime other than this one

 

[Bent]

From a physiological standpoint. Lots of wild animals have no receptors in their stomachs to let them know they are full. It's a survival mechanism. Most animals have no idea when or where their next meal will come from, so the ability to over eat when a food source presents itself is a valuable skill that keeps them alive.

So it's the responsibility of the caretaker to provide the animal with it's caloric needs. Most animals operate on a more stretched and efficient use of food energy. So feeding an animal more like they would in the wild will be more familiar to them. (Daily or weekly boluses rather than multiple small amounts per day.)

So keep this in mind when you feed your animals. They will over eat when given the opportunity.

 

[Dcash88]

Dmorty i was feeding him every other day two pieces of meaty food about the size of my pinky nail.

 

[Paul B]

Puffers don't die from overeating but if he ate that snail with the shell that could do it. Fish will keep eating until they just physically fit any more food in themselves. I have seen flounders eat so many grass shrimp that they could not close their mouths.
The only fish that die from overeating are fish such as lionfish, anglers or groupers as these fish sometimes eat fish almost as large as themselves and sometimes the food rots before it gets digested causing all sorts of problems.

 

[Dcash88]

He didn't eat the whole shell but he may have ate the operculum. I have heard about the food rotting in anglers and that was one thing I thought could have happened to my puffer, but it doesn't sound like it.

 

[Paul B]

That happens with fish that eat other fish whole but puffers chew their food so it doesn't happen with them