Create A Tropical Fish Aquarium With Katy's Tropical Fish - A Complete Guide

Welcome To My Newsletter Series. In this newsletter letter series I will provide you with information about keeping tropical fish. The information contained in the newsletter comes from my passed experiences while working with fish, conversations I've had with friends and other tropical fish lovers, as well as knowledge I gain while researching material to write the book. So as you can see that the content comes from a number of sources, which I think make for a well rounded newsletter series.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter on to your friends who maybe interested in tropical fish keeping as well.

VENOMOUS SPECIES OF MARINE FISH

As you are about to discover, some marine fish are venomous, causing stings, bites, or poisonous toxins. These species can actually kill other residents of your fish aquarium and in some cases, can cause injury to humans. In this article, we will identify some of these fish and invertebrates so you know which ones require special handling. If you should be stung or bitten by a venomous species, we recommend you run the hottest water possible over the affected area and then seek medical attention.

If you have decided to keep venomous fish, you need to use the utmost caution. An envenomation sting is one that does not release much toxin into the aquarium. In this case, the only fish that would be affected is the one stung. However, toxic fish poisoning when the entire aquarium is affected would cause problem for all the fish. You would notice the fish swimming about erratically, losing their sense of direction, breathing heavy, eyes clouding over, fins becoming ragged, and the fish lying on the bottom, convulsing and then dying. Unfortunately, when toxins are released, the fish would go through these symptoms within minutes.

When poisons are released, you need to take immediate action or it will be too late. To buffer some of the effects, you can add a product called AmQuel. However, you also want to remove any living fish, placing them in a hospital tank. Then, the entire fish aquarium would need to be thoroughly cleaned and a complete water change done. Unfortunately, there are times when the toxins are so strong that you would actually have to replace the entire tank. After a poisoning, we suggest you replace carbon, gravel, rocks, sand, and so on, and then clean everything else. Some of the specific species of marine fish you should be careful of include the following:

• Scorpion, Rock, or Stonefish – These bottom dwellers are great at camouflage. The dorsal, anal, and pelvic spines can inject poison from poison-producing tissue located along the spine. The affects of the poison are two-fold. First, a venomous sting can be inflicted and second, toxic poisoning is released that can kill the tank residents. If humans are stung, the pain is intense although not fatal. In fact, the effects of the sting can last for months. The Volitans Lionfish is probably the most common type of Scorpion Fish kept in captivity.
• Hawaiian Turkeyfish and Hawaiian (Green) Dwarf Lionfish – Both of these marine fish are commonly kept in captivity. The Lionfish has a nasty sting but again, it is not fatal. Unfortunately, the poison released in the aquarium is very potent, easily and quickly killing off all the fish. Even the sweet looking Leaf Fish is in this family.
• Box and Trunkfish – If these fish should feel threatened in any way, they will release a fatal toxin from the body. For this reason, these fish have gained the nickname “Neutron Bomb Boxfish”. Once the toxin is released, literally everything in the tank will die, along with themselves. If you want to keep Box or Trunkfish, be sure you keep them away from Angel Fish and other types of aggressive fish. The Cowfish falls within this family and will produce the same lethal dose.
• Pufferfish – Also called Toadfish, Globe Fish, Blow Fish, Balloon Fish, and Fugu, they can store tetrodotoxin, a type of toxin found in certain species of Pufferfish. Although the Japanese will eat the meat, which is considered a delicacy, they can result in a serious case of food poisoning, even result in death on rare occasion if the food is not prepared exact. The two most common fish kept are the Stars and Stripes Puffer and the Green/Whitepot Puffer. The most toxic of all Pufferfish is the Spider Eye Puffer
• Squirrelfish – The dorsal fins can inflict a bad poke that results in a sting similar to a mild to moderate bee sting. Typically, you would only notice some slight swelling and redness.

When choosing venomous fish for your aquarium, keep in mind that some of the fish within a particular family only have slight toxins while others are quite severe. If a fish of this type should die and other fish begin to eat the flesh, they would likely die. We want to stress that you should be prepared for any type of problem that might arise from keeping any of these fish. The most important thing you can do is become educated, learning about the species, the type of toxin, and treatment should a problem occur.

I hope you enjoyed this article and look forward to the next article which looks at crustaceans.

Until next time...

Katy
www.kingdomofpets.com/tropicalfish

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