Fungus on puffer

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by suvattii2012 »

Pufferpunk wrote:I told you table salt, not sea salt. Is that what you use in your house?
1 tbsp/10g.
Yeah to late. :( its ground fine but is a sea salt.
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by J-P »

table salt, sea salt AFAIK are the same thing.

a few categories that I know of:
Table salt (includes both sea salt and kosher, both coarse and fine) usually iodized but not always.
Epsom salts, other than a muscle relaxant I don't know what they are used for and / or made of but they taste terrible.
Marine salt, used in aquariums in marine environments, LOTS of healthy nutrients an minerals that are not good for FW fish, slightly better tasting than Epsom salts.
Aquarium salt... no idea... never tasted it and rarely use it.

RTR published an article on salts. Maybe he can chime in and clarify. Possibly PM him?
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by suvattii2012 »

I have been treating for four days now and the patch of fungus seems have gone. Bad news is the left gill is very red and the fin looks like a small byte out of it. Fin rot aswell?

What could of caused this? new plants or snails? earthworms?
This seems to have all flared up after i moved the filter and he puffed up at himself in the side of the tank.

After putting 1 tbs of sea salt in i did a 25% water change because i had just done a 50%. Should i not change some water while im treating with the primfix&melafix ?

Thanks
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by bertie 83 »

Water needs to be perfect, change away but remember to replace any meds taken out durin waterchanges. You may have added a little too much salt which may have effected his gills? It's a possibility. Keep adding melafix to help his fins, the pimafix won't hurt either. Illnesses regularly manifest themselves when the host is stressed, it's easier to take a stressed host down, all I am saying is when he was constantly puffing he weakened and got ill. Keep with it he will be back in good shape in no time at all
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by Nuclear_Glitter »

suvattii2012 wrote:I have been treating for four days now and the patch of fungus seems have gone. Bad news is the left gill is very red and the fin looks like a small byte out of it. Fin rot aswell?

What could of caused this? new plants or snails? earthworms?
This seems to have all flared up after i moved the filter and he puffed up at himself in the side of the tank.

After putting 1 tbs of sea salt in i did a 25% water change because i had just done a 50%. Should i not change some water while im treating with the primfix&melafix ?

Thanks
How are your water conditions looking?

If the puffer does happen to have the fin rot, as well, then the current salt, primafix, and melafix should fit it, too. I have always had better luck with sea salt than table salt when it came to treating disease, not sure why.

What are the recent changes you've made? Hopefully we can get a cause pinned down.
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by suvattii2012 »

bertie 83 wrote:Water needs to be perfect, change away but remember to replace any meds taken out durin waterchanges. You may have added a little too much salt which may have effected his gills? It's a possibility. Keep adding melafix to help his fins, the pimafix won't hurt either. Illnesses regularly manifest themselves when the host is stressed, it's easier to take a stressed host down, all I am saying is when he was constantly puffing he weakened and got ill. Keep with it he will be back in good shape in no time at all

I really hope he is ok it looks painful. Im going to do a water change today then and add more melafix. Does the puffers imune system weaken after he puffed up a few times? Like on the vid i got he puffed up fully very quick. Im not sure about the salt i put the sea salt before i knew not to. Lets hope its looking better in a couple of days.

thanks again B
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by suvattii2012 »

How are your water conditions looking?

If the puffer does happen to have the fin rot, as well, then the current salt, primafix, and melafix should fit it, too. I have always had better luck with sea salt than table salt when it came to treating disease, not sure why.

What are the recent changes you've made? Hopefully we can get a cause pinned down.[/quote]


The water conditions are as usual, the nitrates out my tap are 40ppm but i have used it for a year all though i think for some reason thats higher then it was before.
Thats good to hear you use sea salt, thats what i put in and i will keep treating.

I have got two new plants around two weeks ago. The puffer ate some red ramshorns i got about 2 weeks ago. I have started using prime aswell about a week ago. Before i justed used API dechlorinator. He has been eating lobworms but from the same place i always buy them. I used to feed this fish feeder fish when i first got him and never once did he get sick. Now i don't ever feed fish and keep the tank spotless now he gets sick...
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by bertie 83 »

Puffing repeatedly would be stressful I imagine. Keep dosing as you are and remember waterchanges, any drop in water quality will be counter productive. The salt thing was just a theory, if you added as recommended it should be fine, it's just far too easy to overestimate the water volume in a tank.
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by suvattii2012 »

bertie 83 wrote:Puffing repeatedly would be stressful I imagine. Keep dosing as you are and remember waterchanges, any drop in water quality will be counter productive. The salt thing was just a theory, if you added as recommended it should be fine, it's just far too easy to overestimate the water volume in a tank.
I put 2 flat tea spoons for 25 gallons Yeah i will do a water change on the malafix it says after 7 days do a 25%. I did a 50 then 25% change four days ago when i started treating.
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by bertie 83 »

You got it under control. He will soon be a picture of health once again
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by suvattii2012 »

Thanks i hope so.
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by suvattii2012 »

Just a little update ive been treating with malafix for 10 days now and have just done a 60% water change and took everything out the tank again and cleaned it. My puffer lost about a quater of his left fin near his gill. The redness has all gone and his gill looks lighter colour. Looks like it's healing i will use the rest of the bottle wich will be a few more days.

He seems to act normal and seems to not be in pain, although i can't really know. Only thing he has not been doing the last 14 days of so since it started is burying under the sand he has stayed above all the time.

Should i add any more salt?

Thanks
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by J-P »

no.. no more salt.

Keep up with the water changes which will start reducing the salt content. Don't be alarmed if the fins don't grow back as quickly as you had hoped. Damage occurs quickly, healing takes time and it will be a while before it is 100%.
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Re: Fungus on puffer

Post by suvattii2012 »

Yeah before i could start trating it was to late. One day it was slightly red on around the gill the next day his fin had a bit missing and his gill was really red.
Thanks
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