Stonefish

[Stephen]

My wife has the opportunity to get a stonefish for her aggressive tank. The currant inhabitants are a medium size Volitan Lion, a Blue Spotted Puffer, a 4” long Yellow Headed Goby, and a very small Saddleback Puffer. The Saddleback is about 1 ¼” long. Her concerned is if the Stonefish would try to eat the little puffer. Does anyone have experience with stonefish? Do you think they could all get along?

Thanks,

Stephen

[MarkS]

Are you freaking serious!? Does your wife understand the danger she's personally in? These things are scary deadly. If she gets stuck by one of it's spines, she'll be dead before she feels the sting! I did not know these were legal to purchase.

[MarkS]

OK, I exaggerated a bit. It's still highly unlikely she would make it to the hospital and even more unlikely that they would have the antivenom for a fish species from Australia.

Here are a few links:

http://www.barrierreefaustralia.com/the-great-barrier-reef/stonefish.htm
http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic300.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002854.htm
http://www.arabianwildlife.com/archive/vol2.1/stone.htm
http://www.emedicine.com/wild/topic41.htm
http://www.henryfordhealth.org/13667.cfm
http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/002854.htm

[GaryP]

Kinda reminds me of a friend that told me kept a blue ring octopus in his tank when he lived in Australia. Now that is scary.

I'm sure there are many species of stonefish. I have been stung by the local variety from the Texas coast and it was no worse than a sting ray. I just treated it with some meat tenderizer and no trip to the hospital was required. I think you need to look into exactly what species of Stonefish you are dealing with and do some research before making a decision.

I don't think that puffers are generally prey items for most smaller predators. I would have thought your volitan would have already gotten it if it was.

Gary

[Stephen]

It may be a scorpion fish instead of stone, I'll double check. I know that it came off the coast of Florida. So it may be a less toxic species. I'll try to find out the exact species.

Stephen

[Instar]

A good dose of venom from a stone fish dorsal is not going to be real nice to you. They will swallow anything they can get their stretchy lips around and they dig sometimes. That little saddle back may survive even if swallowed cause it will let go with a toxic slime that may kill everything in the tank - will for sure bother the lion if that happens. The stonefish is likely to spit it out. I think the stone fish is likely to try to swallow anything that is slightly longer than he is on down. There are pictures in stonefish literature with half a fish sticking out its mouth while the other half is in its belly - too big to get down. I had 2 for a long time in a species tank.

[GaryP]

That's why you have to have a speical license in order to make puffer sushi (Fugu). Thanks Larry, I knew there was a reason why they aren't normally a prey species but it just wouldn't come to me.

As an aside, improperly prepared Fugu is deadly toxic to humans. You won't see it at your local Chinese buffet.

Gary

[MarkS]

It may be a scorpion fish instead of stone, I'll double check. I know that it came off the coast of Florida. So it may be a less toxic species. I'll try to find out the exact species.

Stephen

Chances are it's not the same fish. That's a good thing! I get terrified when I read posts like this, where the member gets a new fish that is potentially deadly and they know next to nothing about it. Sort of like: "I've got this cool new octopus that has these really cool blue rings that light up every time I poke it with my finger. What are it's care requirements?". <SHUDDER!>

[GaryP]

Anybody want one of my box jellies?

[Tim Marvin]

Stone fish are rarely deadly. The blue ring octo is. The fish you would be getting is an Atlantic Scorpionfish which is in the same family as the lionfish. Very unlikely you will be stung, as a matter of fact I have caught this fish a couple times to move it and helped it out of the net with my bare hands. These fish are very calm and no you don't need a special license to purchase them just as any LFS could purchase a blue ring if they wanted to. Here is a link to the stone fish, which is different from the Atlantic scorpion.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arabianwildlife. com%2Farchive%2Fvol2.1%2Fstone.htm

[Tim Marvin]

As with any creature put into our tanks, caution should be taken and knowledge obtained. A simple Tang could kill you if it ripped open your finger and an infection started that could not be taken care of with antibiotics. Some marine snails inject neuro toxins that can kill you. The best advice is to know what you have and be careful. Scorpions are slightly more potent than the lion you have. Now if you have an anaphylactic reaction to your lion sting you could be dead also. Hell, you could die going to the store for the fish food.......LMAO............