Arothron Nigropunctatus subdermal parasites

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!

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.
Post Reply
gdsentropy
Puffer Fry
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:32 pm
Location (country): USA

Arothron Nigropunctatus subdermal parasites

Post by gdsentropy »

Hello,

I searched the lib and forum for endoparasites and got no hits..but then forum search functions aren't very compatible with how I try to use them. Regardless I wasn't able to find anything specifically about subdermal parasite treatment in puffers with Google either.

I expect the puff has had these for years, and without knowing what they specifically are and thus their lifecycle there is no way for me to know if they can spread. The puff is 7ish, and used to eat raw seafood, ramshorn snails, etc, which is where I suspect he contracted this if he didn't come with them.

These worms are around 2-3" long and burrow around under the puffers skin. I have never seen one outside the puffer.
What can I treat these with? Is it even possible? If they were intestinal or external, treatment would seem more possible, but subdermal? It seems like I would have to saturate the puffer with meds....which seems....bad.

I cannot get the puff to hold still for a picture, as when the worms are right under his skin the puff flies around the tank. I guess they burrow in muscle the rest of the time.

Unless veins are circles and S shapes, and change position....these are worms. If anyone else is infected, the worms aren't apparent.

With him there are a Tetraodon Nigroviridis, Arothron Hispidus and Diodon Holocanthus in the 220g, bare slate tile bottom. I run O3 in a Reef Octopus reactor at 3psi@2lpm connected directly to the intake of a SRO5000ext skimmer, 300-350mv via Milwaukee ORP controller, chaeto rock and mud in a half-dark refugium, the water goes through about a pound of Purigen and the same of GAC prior to return pump... SG 1.024, all other water params are boring and stay locked in place, a bunch of zeros. They eat 3x per day, all but the Diodon eat New Life Spectrum w/garlic and Hikari massivore delite, the Diodon eats krill (Hispidus grabs some too) and 4-6 bloodworm cubes per meal.

Thanks,
Ian
User avatar
Iliveinazoo
Fahaka Puffer
Posts: 826
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:09 am
Gender: Male
My Puffers: 1xFigure 8
Location (country): UK
Location: Southampton

Re: Arothron Nigropunctatus subdermal parasites

Post by Iliveinazoo »

I would try going for an off-the-shelf worm and parasite medication. Failing that the dog face puffer is known to tolerate brackish conditions so you could try housing in sg1.015 for a couple of weeks? I must say that I have no epxerience with dog face puffers though...
pokeystar
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 103
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:41 am
My Puffers: Fahaka aka Mr Big Puff
2 GSP Pickle and Noodle
My children name the fish
Location (country): Ireland

Re: Arothron Nigropunctatus subdermal parasites

Post by pokeystar »

After searching I found a thread here discussing a green spot puffer with skin worms. http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... 0&start=45

Sounds like surgery is the only option to remove them?
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: Arothron Nigropunctatus subdermal parasites

Post by Pufferpunk »

Yes, those are nematodes. Surgery is the only option. Or just leave them be.
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!"
gdsentropy
Puffer Fry
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:32 pm
Location (country): USA

Re: Arothron Nigropunctatus subdermal parasites

Post by gdsentropy »

Thanks for the replies!

The puff has pretty significant amounts of these foul things unfortunately, I would put it well over 20. I doubt surgery would be survivable with numbers like that. He may be reaching EOL, but I hope not. I guess I'll have to ask a vet at this point. Stupid worms.

I am going to read the rest of that thread for any clues to their lifecycle and such as well.

Thanks again!
Ian
pokeystar
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 103
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:41 am
My Puffers: Fahaka aka Mr Big Puff
2 GSP Pickle and Noodle
My children name the fish
Location (country): Ireland

Re: Arothron Nigropunctatus subdermal parasites

Post by pokeystar »

Good Luck. Let us know how it goes.
Post Reply