Impaction Sand/Gravel

[losninos]

I know in keeping lizards you always hear about the dangers of impaction due to the lizard swallowing bits of substrate when grabbing prey. Is this a danger with a puffer ingesting tiny bits of coral sand when picking up food from the bottom?

[Myaj]

Usually no. If you watch them, they filter out the sand and gravel through their gills. And most of the time, what they don't, they just pass through with their waste. There have been a few rare instances of puffers dying and upon dissection, finding something hard and undigested such as a beetle shell or big hunk of gravel, but it is extremely rare, more of a "freak accident" than anything else.

[jus85411]

my green spotted seems to have sand in his mouth at all times lol. he wil randomly be swimming when im watching him and sand will randomly fall from his gills. i have heard of some picking up a piece of gravel and spitting it back out because it wasnt a snail like originally thought. like myaj said, probably more of a freak accident. my other GSP i had before giving him to a friend, used to dig in the sand looking for the nassarius snails in my sand bed. literally taking mouthfulls of sand and spitting them back out. some people also say they pick at pods they see while curiously peeking around the tank

[BeachORama]

Don't know about sand, but just saw my GSP take a small gravel pebble in his mouth and LITERALLY crush it to bits.

I'm getting more and more worried about my fingers as this guy grows!!!