ostración meleagris poison

[beuchat]

Hi,

Anybody have had experiences of tank poisioned caused by ostracion melagris?. A friend of mine would like to introduce a mated pair in his 150 gal reef tank.

 

[snorvich]

Well your question is somewhat of a Catch-22 because many people don't do this because of the risk. I recall seeing some folks on the board who considered doing so but do not recall any results.

 

[beuchat]

ok, thanks

 

[rssjsb]

There's a guy who posts under the name flameangel88 who had a pair of these in his fish-only system. I believe he lost one or both of them after introducing them into his display tank. It was at least 150 gallons. I don't remember if he lost anything else as a result, but my memory is that it didn't wipe out his tank or anything. You might try posting on the fish only board and see if he's around.

 

[beuchat]

ok, thank you

 

[flameangel88]

I bought a pair (5" & 3") back in July 2009 and the male got skinny while the female was growing. Three and a half months later the male died and every thing was fine so I didn't think they can poison the tank. Then in May of this year a few fish started dying all of a sudden then one day I noticed the skimmer was going crazy then found the female dead. It didn't happen the first time when the male died and I took my guards down. I'm pretty sure it released some toxin and it took a few of my prized fish along.

I would never put another boxfish with other fish again. I've heard people that keeps boxfish runs carbon in their tank but I'm not sure if it would take the toxin out quick enough.

As to your question about your friend wanting to added them to a reef I would strongly against it.

 

[beuchat]

Thank you very much for the information. Yesterday he decided not to buy them and It was a very good decision!!