Fin rot? Ich? Accident Prone Puffer?? Please help!

[Megangi]

Hello

I have a young porcupine puffer fish, named Squirt, who has a hole in one of his fins. I am not sure if this is some version of fin rot, a bad case of ich or if my pufferfish injured himself. Either way, I would like your opinions on what you believe it to be as well as the best way to treat him.

At the moment, he is acting normal. Begging for food, swimming around, sleeping at his normal time and reacting to us. See my answers to the normal questions below.

1) Your water parameters -
Nitrite: 0 ppm
PH: 7.8
Nitrate: 40 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants - 46 gallons. He lives alone outside of some live rock and some live sand. He is the king of his own castle.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank -- He eats a small piece of frozen, "people" shrimp every other day. He is only about 2-3 inches (if even that big). So, this usually gives him a "food baby" that lasts until we feed him. We usually check his stomach to see if he needs to be fed. His water gets changed every 2 weeks about 30% each time. We are working on making this a weekly occurance. There are no other products in the tank. We try to keep it au-natural.

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. -- When we noticed the hole, we did a 50% water change and cleaned away all the algae we could find. Previous to that, though, there were no changes.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? -- The tank was cycled before we got Squirt for about a month. We have had him in that tank since we got him around May/June.

I attached a photo that shows the hole on his fin. One other thing I wanted to mention, is that we have the live rock in the tank and it's in a sort of "cave" form because we know puffers like to "get away" from humans and have "me time." However, there is a small section in the cave that he likes to WEDGE himself in. Like he barely fits. So, I am not sure if one day when he was sleeping there, wedged up, if he "ripped" his fin on one of the rocks. However, the other fin does have some of the "white" marks like the one with the hole.

[Pufferpunk]

That hole doesn't look too bad, although I am wondering a bout the whited ring on it. Does it appear fuzzy?

Your nitrate is about double of what it should be. How much live rock is in what-size tank? Is there a sump, protein slimmer? Tank mates?

[Megangi]

No tank mates. We use a sump pump. We are working on getting the nitrate down doing more than one water change this week.

It doesn’t appear fuzzy in person from what I can tell. But there are some other white marks on his fin near it and on his other fin. But no where else.

I believe it is about 10 lbs of rock in a 46 gal tank

[Pufferpunk]

I believe it is about 10 lbs of rock in a 46 gal tank

This is why you are having nitrate issues. LR is the MAIN source of filtration. For a healthy working marine system, you must use 1 1/2-2 lbs LR/gal, along with a good-working protein skimmer.

You can try SW Melafix for the mark on his fin.

[Megangi]

Ooohhhh!!! Thanks! I didn’t want to overcrowd the little guy so I didn’t add anymore rock. Thanks for the help (:

[Pufferpunk]

You're not using any FW filtration, like a HOB filter or canister?

[Pufferpunk]

I didn’t want to overcrowd the little guy so I didn’t add anymore rock.

You might want to upgrade his tank soon.

[Megangi]

Oh don’t worry! That is definitely the plan! We were just doing research on how to do it in the same area his current tank is in (he gets a view of everything and is protected from getting bumped into) without stressing him out. (:

[Megangi]

We do have a canister filter. Sorry missed your other response

[Pufferpunk]

OK then remove the canister--they are known as "nitrate factories" when used for SW systems.

[Megangi]

Oh wow!! Okay. We looked at a bunch of fish supply sites/reviews and I didn’t see that!