The Puffer Forum

A. hispidus (stars n stripes):

Toady (he looks like a toad I guess. I didn't name him)

3 D. holocanthus:

Sweet Pea (he likes his peas!)
Smiley (really won't stop grinning)
Spike (duh)

I just realized I need to find names that don't start with s's.

Oh, that's too bad you returned them. I have 3 porky puffs and they LOVE their reflections. It's a big problem when I swim them in the water tunnel. Adding decos to their homes hasn't helped for me. They're perpetually waiting for someone to feed them too. I moved 2 tanks closer together so they cou...

It has the same spines but its coloration is really different than the C. antennatus. Hmm.

Thank you guys, but the advice you all gave was invaluable and I learned a lot about puffer care!

Well, for whatever reason my puff passed last weekend, actually, a week ago. I think it was a combo of too much handling, the injections, and the fact that I had to take him with me to San Diego so I could treat him over the weekend. The cytology results came back, showing lots of white blood cells ...

That eyeball photo… *gag* Yeah, that eyeball photo was really repulsive. But now we all know what a typcial eye w/ "cloudy eye" does NOT look like. Bright yellow snot! How horribly fun! Probably Made you wonder if you have a sinus infection but you must've had a good laugh. El Puffer is...

So, I finally managed to get the UCLA vets to get over here and my puff got some pus sampled, an injection of Enrofloxacin (Baytril), and a test to see if its cornea was damaged. It is...you take a fluorescein powder strip, dab it on the fish's eye, then take a squirt of saline solution to rinse off...

Hmmm. A nice fish vet/hobbyist called me last night and thinks it's an infection due to eye trauma. She suggested Maracyn-Two b/c most fish infections are from gram-negative bacteria, not gram-positive (which erythromycin treats). Anyway, here's a picture of a human eye, which is how it looked like ...

Yay, thanks you guys. This is a really helpful forum. Still nothing from people who get paid to diagnose. It's too early to tell, but its eye is looking a little better. I did add erythromycin today just to help out the Melafix. We'll find out tomorrow....

get you some epsom salts and add a tsp (teaspoon) per 5 gallnos of water that will relieve water pressure behind the eye and should help get the pus out too before the eye bulges and either blocks the optic nerve or actually forces the eye out of the socket entirely. get some tetracyline or eryromy...

I have had good sucess with Melafix & if severe, Hydrogen peroxide dips. Now if I could only find the info on that... Anyone remember how much, for how long, how often? Duh.. why didn't I write that down! :oops: I searched Google's cache and found one of your old posts from 19 Aug 2004: I have ...

Do you guys think the hydrogen peroxide will dry up the pus in its eye? I think I'm going to have to take him to a vet 50 mi away to have it drained! UCLA has its own vets but they don't know fish. Losers!

I added Melafix last night but this morning his eye is half-filled with white, creamy pus. I'll try the hydrogen peroxide today too. I decided not to use the Bacitracin ointment b/c it might form too much of a water barrier.

Do you think dropping diluted hydrogen peroxide on its eye would be ok rather than giving it a full-body dip? What about medicated eye "neosporin" for humans? I got some of that for myself and I was debating using it on the puff. Thanks for your help! Boy, I'm tired-- I meant to say that I...

I just bought several new Diodon holocanthus on Wed and didn't notice that one of them had a dropsy-ish looking left eye, which has since gotten worse. I got them from a warehouse dealer and they didn't really let me inspect the fish for disease. Anyway, the poor fellows have been dealing with being...