The Puffer Forum

Well, it's not like I use my pocket knife to cut my butter everyday or my aquarium gloves to eat my bacon everyday. I could hypothetically keep them. I, too, read that puffers acquire TTX.. Rather than permanently being born with it. It's not like a really big deal, I was just standing at the garbag...

Nevermind, I think I may just toss all that stuff in the trash after reading about fugu, Japan, terrible deaths... I just had to know what was in that lump.

Scares me to think people are tossing their puffers in the toilets when they die with all that toxin in their body, with no known antidote.

Puffer skin is way, way tougher than I ever imagined. No wonder they survive attacks in the wild. I was able to get through some of it to get to the sore and lump. You would almost need to purchase a true scalpel if you were trying to get really precise. The lump was definitely air. I did not go to...

odd that the lump didnt have anything in it, sad that you couldnt get the air out I did get the air out. I poked it with a knife. Everything got kind of gooey at that point, and I didn't study the anatomy of a puffer beforehand, so I kind of gave up when I couldn't find any masses or severe discolo...

Puffer skin is way, way tougher than I ever imagined. No wonder they survive attacks in the wild. I was able to get through some of it to get to the sore and lump. You would almost need to purchase a true scalpel if you were trying to get really precise. The lump was definitely air. I did not go to ...

In the process of euthanizing him.. I planned on taking my sharpest knife to it and take a snapshot of what was trying to push out there. I will be sure to label the picture properly. I troubleshoot computers for a living, so I am always on the search in life for root cause :( Indeed, it may save an...

Ok, situation has worsened. I am fairly certain he's in pain now. Whatever is in there is attempting to push out and is about to bust his stomach open. These pictures are for documentation purposes, I am going to OD him on clove oil -- Need to run to store to get it. I really can't take seeing him s...

He was still alive this morning, same stuff.

Will be home shortly to take a look again.

New symptom -- Some kind of sore on his belly. Right on top of the "lump" -- Verified it was just not a piece of junk rolling around in the aquarium.

Pictures below.

http://img849.imageshack.us/i/img0688ww.jpg/

http://img221.imageshack.us/i/img0689wya.jpg/

Another dose of Melafix & epsom salt added. No antibiotics at this point. I wanted to give him 48-72 solid hrs of this to see if any improvement happens. He still has not moved in about 3-4 days at this point. He reacts to light when I point a flashlight at him and knock on the glass. He realize...

Where could this be purchased at? Just out of curiosity. So I know.

I looked it up -- Is this a human OTC medicine that works in fish?

Flutter wrote:I really wouldn't think so, especially in a FW fish. I'd keep the epsom salt and Melafix in there all the time. I'd probably try metro as well. Do you have a sedative on hand?

Is it back in its normal tank or still in a tiny one?

Normal tank -- Metro?

Not eating at all. Not even moving for that matter at this point. My biggest concern is that he has not eaten in almost 3 weeks. Has not really moved for about 36 hrs at this point. Did my usual tests in the morning -- He is still breathing and reacted to me tapping the glass and putting light on hi...

Feels like my dog is dying. Knock on wood. The epsom salt is now in.. 1tbsp/10gal. He hasn't moved much in 12 hours. He is looking around a lot more I can tell. Lump is still there. I'm sure his eye stuck in the gravel looks pretty icky, but I can't really do anything about that. We'll see how 12 ho...

My test every day has been shining a flashlight on him and then tapping on the glass - He is reacting to light movement as well as vibrations. I don't believe he is brain dead at this point. I was really interested in treating with salt from the beginning, but you guys had me moving him out of his l...