White marks on body

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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.

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.
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TwistOfF8
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White marks on body

Post by TwistOfF8 »

I know you have a rule asking me to post specifics about my setup and water parameters, but I don't think this information is relevant to the question I'm about to ask. However, if you read my question and still want me to post the information I have no problem with that.

I just got three F8 puffers yesterday. They were kept in fresh water, and are in a freshwater tank now (I plan to switch to brackish). As soon as I put them in my tank I noticed that two of them have small white marks on the skin next to their dorsal fins. I've seen a lot of fungus on fish over the years and this doesn't look like it. The marks are not fuzzy and the fish are showing no signs of illness or odd behaviour. They're actively exploring the tank. To me it looks like they've been nipped or damaged by something, possibly the 1.5 hour transit journey to my home. I used plastic containers to move them. One of the affected fish has what looks like a bite out of the dorsal fin, in the same spot as the white patch. These fish were kept in a tank with GSP's.

Are these white patches like scabs on the fish? Will they disappear as the fish heals, or do I need to treat them with something?

Second question: Is the API Freshwater Master Test kit suitable for measuring the parameters you're asking for?
pokeystar
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Re: White marks on body

Post by pokeystar »

If these are small injuries then the treatment usually suggested is melafix. White spots on newly purchased fish though may also be ich/whitespot? Can you post a picture?
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Pufferpunk
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Re: White marks on body

Post by Pufferpunk »

Pics?
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!"
TwistOfF8
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2016 7:48 pm
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My Puffers: One GSP so far
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Location: Toronto

Re: White marks on body

Post by TwistOfF8 »

I've only been able to get blurry pics because they're so busy, and I have a crap LG cell phone which always takes several seconds to take a pic after the shutter button is pressed. You would probably have laughed watching me run back and forth in front of the tank with a cell phone in my hand.

The good news is that the smaller of the two puffers has lost the white spot on his dorsal fin and looks fine this morning. I did readings last night and noticed the nitrates were high, so I did a 40% water change and changed the filter cartridge. Maybe that helped? I'm going to do another set of readings today to be sure.

Image
TwistOfF8
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Re: White marks on body

Post by TwistOfF8 »

I tried to post a couple of days ago but it doesn't seem to have gone through. At first I thought it was due to the post not being approved yet.

I've had no luck taking a clear photo of the white mark. My crappy cell phone camera always focuses on objects in the background so I get a crystal clear pic of plants and rocks with a greenish blur puffer in the foreground. All I can tell you is that the mark is not raised, does not appear fuzzy, and is a very pure white colour. The smaller of the two fish has lost the white patch on his dorsal fin altogether. He has a tiny notch in the fin where the patch used to be. I'm not sure but it looks like the bigger one's mark is a bit smaller. Both fish are still behaving normally, and none of the other fish in the tank have developed white patches.

I've attached a couple of the least blurry pics in case they might help.

Image

Image
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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: White marks on body

Post by Pufferpunk »

It really doesn't look to be much to worry about. Possibly just a scrape? You could add Melafix.
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!"
TwistOfF8
Puffer Fry
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2016 7:48 pm
Gender: Female
My Puffers: One GSP so far
Location (country): Canada
Location: Toronto

Re: White marks on body

Post by TwistOfF8 »

Pufferpunk wrote:It really doesn't look to be much to worry about. Possibly just a scrape? You could add Melafix.
Yes the marks did look to me like some kind of scab. Now my other fish (in the pics) has lost about half of the white patch. I'll get some Melafix anyway, in case it's needed later. :D
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