Does anyone keep spotted or white-spotted boxfish (Ostracion meleagris)?

[salty joe]

I've heard about the danger of them nuking a tank if they die. I've also heard that's an exaggeration, IDK.

Anybody out there keep this crazy looking fish?

 

[KrisReef]

Not me, but someone’s got to have experience. I have never heard anyone I know having a nuclear problem with them dying, seems like polyp picking is much more common and the reason why folks don’t have them?
BUMP

Good looking ina weird way!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I've heard about the danger of them nuking a tank if they die. I've also heard that's an exaggeration, IDK.

Anybody out there keep this crazy looking fish?

No experience with keeping them myself, but, for boxfish specifically, these guys aren't toxic when they die, they're only toxic when alive and stressed (they have to be alive to produce the toxin, and they only produce it when stressed). The toxin they produce is a potent ichthyotoxin called Ostracitoxin or Pahutoxin (ichtythoxin meaning it's a toxin that primarily effects fish, though this toxin has been demonstrated to slowly affect a wide variety of inverts too). In small quantities, the effects may be mild as long as the toxin is promptly removed, but the effects of it on fish are irreversible (meaning the fish - if they heal from it at all - will recover over a long period of time, and they will only recover if the damage is mild and the toxin is no longer present in their environment).

When the toxin is present even at 5ppm in the water (the equivalent - if my math is right - of ~3.4ml of the toxin in a 180 gallon tank), 50% of the following species of fish died within the following times*:
Abudefduf abdominalis - 6 minutes
Acanthurus sandvicensis - 8.5 min
Kuhlia sandvicensis - 10 min
Mugil cephalus - 12.5 min
Mollienesia litpinna - 15 min
Bathygobius fuscus - 30 min

Given that the damage is irreversible and lethal even at relatively small doses (and that boxfish themselves aren't immune to the toxin, though they are more resistant to it than other fish), I'd guess it's probably not an overblown risk (though it is something you could likely try to prepare for by running carbon and having a water change and QT ready at all times).

That said, I don't know how fast these guys produce the toxin, but as long as the fish doesn't get too stressed, it should theoretically never produce enough toxin to cause an issue (though I'd constantly run carbon on the tank just to be safe).

* The study I pulled the data from:

Toxic Stress Secretions of the Boxfish Ostracion meleagris Shaw on JSTOR

Donald A. Thomson, Toxic Stress Secretions of the Boxfish Ostracion meleagris Shaw, Copeia, Vol. 1969, No. 2 (Jun. 3, 1969), pp. 335-352

www.jstor.org

 

[KrisReef]

@ISpeakForTheSeas
That was a very good response regarding box fishes, way better than my own! Thanks for the info

 

[salty joe]

Thanks for those hard numbers ISpeakforthe seas. I've always wanted to get a boxfish but probably will not. I'm getting a nice collection of fish-as cool as a boxfish is, I can't stomach the risk. But with an 800 gallon system I'm tempted.

Nice boxcat, Krisreef!

@Jay Hemdal, do you know of anybody who kept this boxfish?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks for those hard numbers ISpeakforthe seas. I've always wanted to get a boxfish but probably will not. I'm getting a nice collection of fish-as cool as a boxfish is, I can't stomach the risk. But with an 800 gallon system I'm tempted.

Nice boxcat, Krisreef!

@Jay Hemdal, do you know of anybody who kept this boxfish?

I’ve kept various box fish over the years. The only time I’ve had issues with toxins were with boxfish I had just caught myself and placed in buckets on the boat.
That said, this is one of those fish that appear to do fairly well, but asking who has kept one longer than two years, not many hands in the air. The only ones I have had long term success with were temperate Australian species.

Jay