Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

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Tankmates
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Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

Post by Tankmates »

I recently acquired this cute little Spotted Congo Puffer and was told he has been treated for parasites(prazi); however, I’ve noticed this gray skin on top of his head. It doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
What could this be? Slime disease?

-He eats when he wants to and is definitely eating regularly (stable snail population in tank)
-He either is lazy or lethargic half of the time (lays in a few specific spots on the substrate) but gets up to swim around the tank often.
-After he gets up from ‘resting’ he will jerk around a little bit, but then he doesn’t do it again until he’s getting up from resting again.

He is thin right now but that’s how I received him. I imagine in a week or two he’ll thicken up a little.

Any help figuring out what this is would be great.
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Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

Post by Pufferpunk »

Please answer ALL the questions above, in red, so we can help diagnose your issue.
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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Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

Post by Tankmates »

It did not happen in my tank. He arrived this way.
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Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

Post by Tankmates »

1)____________________
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrates - unknown
Filter: AquaTop CF-500UV (rated at 525 GPH)

2)____________________
55 gallon Freshwater:
11 Harlequin Rasbora (1 year + in tank)
5 Guppies (Some born in tank some almost 1 year in)
3 Peppered Corydora (1 yr + in tank)
1 Electric Blue Dwarf Ram (1 yr + in tank)
1 Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami (1 yr + in tank)
1 Spotted Congo Puffer (3 Days in tank)

Heavily Planted (no tech, just light, fish and water):
Heavy Rotala
(New) Amazon Sword
Annubias
Java Fern
(New) S. Repens
Red Ludwigia
Bacopa

3)_____________________
Feeding: Every 2 to 3 days, flakes. once/2 weeks I feed a frozen krill cube for fun
Products: Topfin Water conditioner for water changes. Melafix for any blemishes (rarely used. maybe once or twice).
General cure for parasites.
25-40% water changes every weekend
Clean filter 1 time per month.

4) Currently dosing General Cure as the Puffer is new. Was told he'd already been treated with Prazi but I figured one more round on my end would be a safer bet than just trusting the importer took care of it completely. I also was recommended to do this from several other forums.

5) Aquarium has been active and healthy for over a year.
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Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

Post by Tankmates »

forgot to mention aquarium temp is steadily 79 year round.
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Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

Post by astrid37 »

Will be interested to see what others think. I once had an issue that appeared like this on some new fish in my cory tank that I suspected was Columnaris. I was able to successfully treat with methylene blue.
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Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

Post by astrid37 »

Does this look like it could be the issue? http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html
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Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

Post by Tankmates »

Hello all!
Jimmy Puff Puff has recovered, gained some weight and is thriving since my post.
I am not sure what it was but I suspect it was fungal growth due to bad water conditions at the place he came from.
I treated for parasites with general cure and noticed a week after treatment this white stuff started to disappear from his eye (he developed a cloudy eye after I made the original post). The skin began to heal up and two weeks after the dosing and generous water changes he healed completely!!
Addition: The problem never presented any open sores.
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Pufferpunk
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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: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

Post by Pufferpunk »

YAY!
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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astrid37
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Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?

Post by astrid37 »

Awesome! Thanks for the update!
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