What are these light grey rings i keep seeing on puffers?

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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.

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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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SaltCreep
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What are these light grey rings i keep seeing on puffers?

Post by SaltCreep »

I've seen them on dogfaces and I've seen them on green spotteds. Right now the LFS has a 20 gallon tank full of (over 12) GSP's that all have several of them. They did not have them when they first came in. I've been told that they are just bite marks but the source was not very trustworthy and i kinda don't buy it. They are all perfectly circular in a way i would not expect from even a puffer mouth. Also, the time i was told that it was bite marks, it was on a dogface and the only other fish in the tank was a clown trigger. Again, the spot was a perfect circle and identical to the ones i now see on the GSP's. Again it seems unlikely to me that a trigger would leave such a mark.

I do not have a photo of the actual GS puffers (though i might take one soon), but i found a photo on the net which looks identical.

Image

hope my img worked. haven't used forums for a while. it's on the belly.

anyways, it looks exactly like that. I've seen it many times, often times on fish which are not being properly cared for or sickly in other ways (then again most LFS's don't seem to keep brackish puffers very well). the LFS is keeping them at 1.005 salinity if that is useful information at all. they are on a gravel substrate with almost no hideouts, and yes they have been biting each-others fins up. they are mostly fed bloodworms and pellet.

any insight would be greatly appreciated. thaaaaaanks.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: What are these light grey rings i keep seeing on puffers

Post by Pufferpunk »

That's a bite from another puffer.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
SaltCreep
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Re: What are these light grey rings i keep seeing on puffers

Post by SaltCreep »

oh wow. i guess the guy was right then. except when he said it, there was just a trigger in the tank. but i guess it's the same thing. usually the guy is full of you know what, but i guess even a broken clock is right twice a day.

thanks
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hadla
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Re: What are these light grey rings i keep seeing on puffers

Post by hadla »

What pp said and look at that happy puff grin! :)
Never trust big puffers. The fingers you save may be your own. -RTR
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