The Puffer Forum

Fluffy learnt last night how to chew through big apple snails...
I woke up this morning and he'd chewed through the thermometer!
Ive scoped him out and put him in a little plastic box full of water i had in a barrell left to do a 25% water change!

I know nothing about mercury poisoning!
What happens if hes eaten a little a bit?
Is he going die?
what do i do!!
Please help me!

There is little you can do if he has eaten any. Just keep a close eye on him. It is very common for puffers to chomp glass thermometers.

Mine chews the heater and the filter intake.

So there will be mercury in the water aswell then?
I rang a few places and they said they stoped using mercury in thermometers ages ago...
But i dont know!

Doubt there will be any mercury in the thermometer. Hopefully he wont have ingested the glass and just broke it up.

Ill go home tonight and see if i can piece the bits back together to determin wether or not he swallowed some.
Worth a try i guess.
Thanks for both your help!

Aquarium thermometers are not mercury 99.9% of the time. They're an alcohol with a red dye in it. I'd just do two 90% water changes in a row to make sure it's not in there, though it evaporates off quite quickly on it's own, being alcoho.