Tail Injury or Rot?

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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themayorofearth
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2018 5:52 pm
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Tail Injury or Rot?

Post by themayorofearth »

Hello all, new here to the puffer forum and puffer keeping, long time aquarist.

Water parameters: pH: 8.5, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates currently 5, (though I test weekly and change water when it hits 20), specific gravity 1.008 (using seachem marine salt)

Tank: 55gal, No tankmates. Crushed aragonite substrate. Hardscaped with Seriryu stone, some anubias and marimo balls,

Feeding: 2-3 times daily since he's a juvenile. Diet of bloodworms and bladder (pond) / ramshorn snails.

Water change schedule: Weekly to bi-weekly. I test parameters at least once a week and do a ~30% change once nitrates hit 20.

Only tank changes were re-arranged rocks and added a few more anubias. Aquarium has been set up since September. Squishy was adopted in late December after tank was cycled.

I got my green spotted puffer in December. Around mid-january i noticed a little nick in his tail fin. It didn't look like fin rot and he was otherwise healthy, active, always hungry, and displayed no signs of stress. Figured it might've just been a nip from whenever I got him since he was housed with a few other juvenile puffers. The wound seems like its gotten a little worse since the last 2 months. Not sure if I need to do anything? He still seems happy and otherwise healthy. My best guess is bacterial infection, but Im wondering what you guys think. Picture attached. The nick is small, but it looks worse when his tail fans out. He wouldn't sit still to let me get a better shot...
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Pufferpunk
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Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
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2 T biocellatus
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Re: Tail Injury or Rot?

Post by Pufferpunk »

[welcome]
Try adding Melafix & raise the SG higher.
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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