Fahaka Puffer--quite sick.

[Fhkpffr]

First, I am curious. Why was your fahaka in a 29 gallon? Also, why is it in the 65 gallon now, instead of a bigger tank?

I would assume the scratching your fish was doing at first was because of the salt you were adding. Your fahaka is going to need really clean water to get better of course. You should begin addressing the IP issue, order the jungle parasite fizz tabs if you need to, but those are what will helps with the IPs. As already has been suggested to you soak the food with garlic and the IP meds.

Stop feeding the fish krill, and use something else. Krill can cause lockjaw. Order a vitamin supplement such as vitachem and start adding a few drops of that to your treatment food as well. It will help out the puffers immune system. Begin treating with melafix again.

Does the spot seem at all fuzzy, or to be spreading at all?

Do 20% water changes daily, that way the fish is getting clean water and has a better chance of healing.

Originally, he was in my 125 when I first got him. I figured him being two inches at the time, and my veil tailed tiger oscar being 10 inches, the puffer would leave him alone until I got another tank. That was not the case... poor oscar's fins (he's fine and beautiful now!). The 29 gallon was originally just for guppies and snails, but I had to put him in there until I could pull another tank together.

Salt will cause him to itch? I'd never heard of that.

I don't just feed him krill...I went to many great lengths to make sure he got a ton of variety. Krill was just his seemingly favorite dish. I'll be sure to keep up with the melafix.

In appearance, the spot looks like a scab. No fuzziness or spreading. Here's a super close up I took a bit ago while transferring him back to the 29 for some hardcore quarantine action --- http://i.imgur.com/pyI2x.png
It is convex in shape, if you can't tell from the picture.

I will be sure to do 20% water changes daily, also I'll be working the KH down to 10 as well, since I do have an RO unit.

[Nuclear_Glitter]

He really should be in the 125 to avoid stunting and other problems. However, in most 125s the front to back of the aquarium is only 18 inches, and this isn't enough turn around rate.

Anyway, salt doesn't make them itch, but it could have been burning/irritating his skin, and therefore was scratching himself on the decor/gravel/ other stuff to try and get the irritation off.

You aren't going to be able to house the oscar and fahaka together, so you're going to have to figure out something for this situation. Perhaps rehoming the oscar.

Anyway, we know it's at least not a fungus then (at least not most likely). The melafix should help and the wound over time should take its course. The biggest thing right now is getting rid of the IPs. Does he have any other symptoms of this beyond the sunken belly? How does his poop look?

[Fhkpffr]

He really should be in the 125 to avoid stunting and other problems. However, in most 125s the front to back of the aquarium is only 18 inches, and this isn't enough turn around rate.

Anyway, salt doesn't make them itch, but it could have been burning/irritating his skin, and therefore was scratching himself on the decor/gravel/ other stuff to try and get the irritation off.

You aren't going to be able to house the oscar and fahaka together, so you're going to have to figure out something for this situation. Perhaps rehoming the oscar.

Anyway, we know it's at least not a fungus then (at least not most likely). The melafix should help and the wound over time should take its course. The biggest thing right now is getting rid of the IPs. Does he have any other symptoms of this beyond the sunken belly? How does his poop look?

The salt making him do that would very well be what triggered all of this in the first place. If that's the case, then I'll be having words with the LFS who told me he was brackish. At least I'm not alone in that, since many people seem to have that question after some google-action.

Tank size isn't an issue for him right now. He's still quite small. Don't fret either, as there are long term plans regarding him that are slowing working their way toward fruition (something about wives and convincing them over periods of time). So please don't worry about him or the oscar in that regard

Regarding poop, I have no clue. He doesn't eat. No poo has been seen from him for a long time.

[Nuclear_Glitter]

LFS are the worst place for advice and are constantly wrong. They're there to make money. They don't care about you, or your fish. Always ask your questions here, first. Never listen to them. Really glad you found us. I hope your puffer can pull through. If he/she doesn't make it, try not to be too hard on yourself.

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

LFS's dont know everything......LOL!!! I have proved many workers at different fish shops over the years wrong time after time. When a lfs got my fahaka in, they started adding him to the brackish water tank. I was like HECK NO!!! You did not just put my pure freshwater puffer in a brackish water tank did you? The manager was like, they a brackish water tank and told him to do his research before he starts puting the wrong fish in the wrong tanks. Dont get me wrong this same fishshop do you alot about cichlids, reef, and marine tanks. But know nothing about puffers since they was new to brachish and freshwater puffers.

Best thing to do is to SLOWLY do water changes to lower the salt levels until is finally become a freshwater tank.

[Nuclear_Glitter]

LFS's dont know everything......LOL!!! I have proved many workers at different fish shops over the years wrong time after time. When a lfs got my fahaka in, they started adding him to the brackish water tank. I was like HECK NO!!! You did not just put my pure freshwater puffer in a brackish water tank did you? The manager was like, they a brackish water tank and told him to do his research before he starts puting the wrong fish in the wrong tanks. Dont get me wrong this same fishshop do you alot about cichlids, reef, and marine tanks. But know nothing about puffers since they was new to brachish and freshwater puffers.

Best thing to do is to SLOWLY do water changes to lower the salt levels until is finally become a freshwater tank.

By this point, the tank is probably pretty close to fresh. He hasn't been adding a lot of salt, and he did a 50% change very recently. We really need an SG measurement.

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

LFS's dont know everything......LOL!!! I have proved many workers at different fish shops over the years wrong time after time. When a lfs got my fahaka in, they started adding him to the brackish water tank. I was like HECK NO!!! You did not just put my pure freshwater puffer in a brackish water tank did you? The manager was like, they a brackish water tank and told him to do his research before he starts puting the wrong fish in the wrong tanks. Dont get me wrong this same fishshop do you alot about cichlids, reef, and marine tanks. But know nothing about puffers since they was new to brachish and freshwater puffers.

Best thing to do is to SLOWLY do water changes to lower the salt levels until is finally become a freshwater tank.

By this point, the tank is probably pretty close to fresh. He hasn't been adding a lot of salt, and he did a 50% change very recently. We really need an SG measurement.

Oh then he is going in the right direction. Sorry that I got in here alitle late. Yeah a SG measurement needs to be done. But dropping the SG to fast could cause problems also. So slowly dropping it should be done.

[Nuclear_Glitter]

\Oh then he is going in the right direction. Sorry that I got in here alitle late. Yeah a SG measurement needs to be done. But dropping the SG to fast could cause problems also. So slowly dropping it should be done.

Right, I understand that. I asked PP would the 20% daily be okay even with the salt, and she said sure.

hey Fhkpffr, could you maybe get a cheap hydrometer and get us an SG measurement?

[Fhkpffr]

\Oh then he is going in the right direction. Sorry that I got in here alitle late. Yeah a SG measurement needs to be done. But dropping the SG to fast could cause problems also. So slowly dropping it should be done.

Right, I understand that. I asked PP would the 20% daily be okay even with the salt, and she said sure.

hey Fhkpffr, could you maybe get a cheap hydrometer and get us an SG measurement?

Another nearby LFS has a refractometer. I can see about swinging in tomorrow to see.

[Nuclear_Glitter]

That'd be great. Thanks.

[Pufferpunk]

90% of every LFS I've ever been to (we have a tom of them here in Chicago) insist there is no such thing as a FW puffer.

[Nuclear_Glitter]

90% of every LFS I've ever been to (we have a tom of them here in Chicago) insist there is no such thing as a FW puffer.

Whenever I tell people that there are FW puffers and BW puffers they are always like O_o "No way!"

[Christie_ZXR]

Don't know if its been mentioned, but I use the API nitrate test and if you don't give it a good shake it reads 0, might be what led to the confusion?

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

PP, so true that most petshops around here also thinks and tells people that there are no freshwater puffers other then DP's. Thank god for google and the great sites out there like this one . If I would had known back then, what I know now. Then I would had not lost a the poor puffers that I did because of mis-info.

[scpion]

That's quite the opposite here. Here, mostly dun know brackish. And they insist that Ceylon, gsps, figure 8 are fw.