Is this a parasite?

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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.
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Karatts
Puffer Fry
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Is this a parasite?

Post by Karatts »

Hi there!

I picked up my figure 8 puffers from my LFS a couple hours ago and I've been drip acclimating them in a bucket for the past 30 minutes (which is why the photo is such poor quality. The bucket blurs it a little). They've been eating well which is a good sign but I'm a little concerned about one of them. One has these weird little circles on it's body and I'm wondering if it's something I should be concerned about or not. I haven't been able to find a picture online of something similar. The circles are under it's eyes and there's one by it's stomach area too.

My LFS just got the figure 8s in today as well. All I was able to find out is that the puffers were transported in FW with a high pH.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Is this a parasite?

Post by Pufferpunk »

Is it a flat or raised?
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!"
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hadla
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Re: Is this a parasite?

Post by hadla »

Probably bites from another puff
Never trust big puffers. The fingers you save may be your own. -RTR
Karatts
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Re: Is this a parasite?

Post by Karatts »

hadla wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2017 7:17 pmProbably bites from another puff
That's what I was thinking! Phew, what a relief!
Pufferpunk wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2017 5:56 pm Is it a flat or raised?
They're flat. I did some more digging online after I submitted the first post and I think they're bites. I'm still going to treat for internal parasites just in case though.

They're both settled now and eating more than the first day. I'm just wondering how I can get them to eat more hard foods? One of the puffers doesn't seem interested in eating harder foods. It'll try to eat a snail, fail and then swim away. I tried to tempt it with shrimp but it wasn't interested. It seems to really enjoy bloodworms though.
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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: Is this a parasite?

Post by Pufferpunk »

Try crushing the snails.
library/category/feeding/
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!"
Karatts
Puffer Fry
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2017 1:20 pm
Location (country): USA

Re: Is this a parasite?

Post by Karatts »

Pufferpunk wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:48 am Try crushing the snails.
library/category/feeding/
I've tried crushing the snails but since I made that post that puffer still hasn't eaten anything. I've tried putting bloodworms in (he ate those when I first got him. Heck, he even went after crushed snail when I first got him.), I've soaked food in garlic, but nothing. Since I've gotten him, he's had a strangely lumpy stomach and when I got him, I thought it was just food. I think the first couple of days since I've had him, he's eaten some bloodworms and showed interest in snails but for the last couple of days (maybe the last week), he hasn't eaten anything at all. The lump in his stomach is still there but his head and the upper half of his stomach is starting to look a little thin. I'm concerned that he might have IPs. I've been treating the food, but he hasn't been eating it. I think he's becoming lethargic as well. Not sure what to do. Please help :(

The other puffer is doing really well, eating everything, has a rounded belly, swimming happily and I think it even recognizes me now!

I did a 50% water change yesterday and I just fed them (bloodworms and snails). The one puffer still hasn't eaten. Showed absolutely no interest. :(

Water parameters based on the API test kit:
pH: 7.4 (Normally it is around 7.8-8 but I think this change is from the water change yesterday)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm

They're currently in freshwater but I will be adjusting them to brackish in a couple weeks. My LFS said they were coming from a freshwater source as well.
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