The Puffer Forum

I have been having trouble with one of my filters today. This morning I noticed the tube thing that pulls water up was detached. I re-attached it, but it still would not work. The filter machine is kind of heavy so I was just going to wait for hubby to come home to pull the filter machine up and over so I could fix it..

No big deal I have another filter on the tank so I just added the bacteria from the broken filter to the other filter (the other filter moves water super fast, so I was not concerned)..

Husband is late coming home..so just now I figured I would give it another try..

And You can probably guess, what I found..I had my hands all over him, before I realized what he was

My problem right now is... The puffer was misshaped from being fulled through the filter..he has some gunk on him, a small chunk (looked like normal filter machine gunk) But I cannot be too sure.

You see I just took my night time meds....symptoms of night time meds are numb fingers..

My lips also get a little numb..But I am not sure if it is meds or puffer poison

I need to know if puffer poison could be transferred through skin. I have no open sores..but it is possible that my hands touched my face before I figured out what was going on. I can't remember.

So now I am just freaking out..need to make sure I will not be paralyzed ! His tankmate seams fine, happy as usual.

You'll be fine.

Your sure!!?? I hope you are right..

It has been more than 10 minutes..if I did get the poison I would be dead right?? Plus I was messing with the filter this morning..

My meds kicked in at just the wrong time, made me paranoid...I totally freaked out

It's really, really unlikely you are contaminated with deadly poison. Even if the fish had enough to be noticeable still stored in its system, the toxin spreads VERY slowly through flesh, so topical contact without broken skin would just be a local problem. Eating the toxin or contacting it with broken skin gets it into your bloodstream, letting it have fast and deadly effect on major muscle groups.

You should be fine.

The power of suggestion is totally messing with me..

My tongue feels funny, I keep making a lot of saliva..and when I complained about it my husband (just got home) giggled and mentioned that I have been holding my mouth open LOL..--subconsciously trying not to swallow in case there is poison on my face/mouth

I even had to take a breathing treatment with a nebulizer because I could "feel" my throat closing..it was not, but I felt like my throat got smaller

I never knew I was so neurotic.

I am going to go to bed before I some how paralyze myself..but, just in case..I have already written a note for my husband about puffer toxin, and the possibility that I would just appear dead (zombified from puffer toxin-it is a real condition!)

If the puffer was chewed up via the impeller, your chances of becoming intoxicated are minimal as the others have pointed out unless you ingested it.

I hope you didn't lick your fingers

I had a similar side effect to some meds last year.. very scary stuff. I hope you pull through with minimal stress.

So did you survive the night?

I survived the night!

Sorry for being over dramatic!

He was not chewed up by the impeller..he was stuck just before the impeller..so he had been squeezed from the flow of water..he just looked a lot smaller than normal and my brain somehow arrived at the conclusion that his poison could have been squeezed out of him..

No, I did not lick my fingers LOL...but sometimes I will move my hair out of my face or adjust my glasses..I did not remember if I had done that..

My medicine is really weird, usually I do not notice the side affect of numbish fingers and lips, the medicine sort of feels like a weed buzz for about an hour..but that side affect kick in right after I figured out what I had been touching..I had thought it was maybe a chunk of food or a chunk of filter gunk around a piece of food

I absolutely freaked out and over re-acted LOL

I'd suggest filling your bathtub, dechloinate properly, add melafix and an airstone, then stay there for no less than 10 days.

LOL!!

AFAIK, and I could be wrong, but the toxins are only present in the actual tissue of the puffer. That is why I asked about the impeller thing.

Unlike other fish that transfer toxins by stinging, or frogs that secrete it, puffers are just poisonous to eat. There are a tonne of other pathogens that one can contract from working a dirty tank without scrubbing up afterwards or having worked the tank with cuts and sores on the hands.