Oral Abscess?
Ph 7
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20
55 gallon tank with 125 gph of filtration.
Other inhabitants, red eyed red tailed puffer. There is a divider between the two.
Feeding every other/every third day. Snails, krill, earthworms.
Water changes every other week. Adding only Stress Coat Plus.
No recent changes to tank. Established tank, 4+ years old.
I have a brown/Mekong puffer (turgidus) with a lump on the upper left side of his mouth. It's quite puffy and he refused food tonight. I've never needed to trim teeth. I have finquel so I suppose I could sedate and poke around. I'm going on vacation Saturday and will be gone for a week. I would like to get a handle on this situation before I leave. I'm hoping someone here can help. Thank you!
Oral Abscess?
Forum rules
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.
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.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32771
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
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Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
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T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
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Re: Oral Abscess?
Gonna need a pic.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
-
omplmpa3
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 211
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 9:09 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: 1 Turgidus
1 Irrubesco - Location (country): United States
- Location: Wisconsin
Re: Oral Abscess?
Hopefully this helps.
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omplmpa3
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 211
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 9:09 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: 1 Turgidus
1 Irrubesco - Location (country): United States
- Location: Wisconsin
Re: Oral Abscess?
Here's another picture. I did sedate him. I did a teeth trimming while I was in there. The abscess does not appear to be related to the teeth, and seems to be in front of it. Pictures are from after the trimming.
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omplmpa3
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 211
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 9:09 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: 1 Turgidus
1 Irrubesco - Location (country): United States
- Location: Wisconsin
Re: Oral Abscess?
A local pet store suggested Artemiss, thoughts?
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32771
- 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: Oral Abscess?
What did you see in there?
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
-
omplmpa3
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 211
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 9:09 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: 1 Turgidus
1 Irrubesco - Location (country): United States
- Location: Wisconsin
Re: Oral Abscess?
It's just swollen. I thought maybe a piece of snail shell could be stuck, but I couldn't find anything. The teeth seem fine as well, the abscess appears to be in front of the teeth. I was able to trim the teeth in that area without issue. If I add Epsom salt, how long do I leave it in for?
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32771
- 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: Oral Abscess?
You leave it in until the swelling has gone down. Replace what you remove in weekly WC.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
-
omplmpa3
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 211
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 9:09 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: 1 Turgidus
1 Irrubesco - Location (country): United States
- Location: Wisconsin
Re: Oral Abscess?
That's what I thought. There's been no real change but at least it's not worse. He doesn't have an appetite but gill function is normal and he's moving around.