Mystery death of GSP and Autopsy Findings

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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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PuffFluff
Puffer Fry
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Mystery death of GSP and Autopsy Findings

Post by PuffFluff »

My Green spotted puffer - little puff - was happy as a sandboy, munching on bloodworm, perfect tank parameters, fully established tank - had her for 3 weeks (bought from Maidenhead Aquatics Uk) and was thriving going from fresh to brackish. She seemed sleepy this morning and an hour later was dead.

As a biologist I did an autopsy, I’ve done a lot of seals but never a fish but I knew I had to find out for the sake of my other puffer (big puff).

Autopsy findings - Black discolouration surrounding swim bladder towards anal fin.
Black tiny worm like (almost single hair strand size) around heart.
Digestive system - large yellow cyst - completely circular - attached to digestive system. Yellow/orange fluid inside. (What could this be!? Nothing should be that colour inside of her)
Air in stomach - unsure how as she hasn’t been out of water.
She was also full of faeces, though she had been feeding normally. Perhaps stomach not distending during feeding like her tank mates.

My other puffer is happy and normal. They got along well. Never any food fights. Fed frozen blood worm with occasional snails. Tank perameters perfect.
I’m going to be treating him for internal parasites tomorrow, as well as for disease.

My question is - what do you think killed her? Air in stomach would kill but I don’t see how she puffed with air. The orange ball in digestive tract seems to be an obvious cause but what could this be!?
And tiny black hair like worms around heart!?!

I’m really gutted. She was such a good character, would swim through my hand if I made an ‘O’. 😞 Under a year old.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Mystery death of GSP and Autopsy Findings

Post by Pufferpunk »

Awww... poor lil fella! It sounds like something that the puffer must have picked up in the wild. Air, in itself will not kill a puffer. It is what it does to the functionality of the fish. It cannot swim properly or right itself--essentially bobbing upside-down at the surface, which would prevent it from eating.
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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