Porcupine Puffer Lockjaw

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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.
sgoorland
Puffer Fry
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 7:35 am
Location (country): USA

Re: Porcupine Puffer Lockjaw

Post by sgoorland »

Honestly, if it wasn’t for this site Fugu wouldn’t be here today. Admittedly, I’ve been more of a lurker over the years, but I’ve learned a ton from the posts here. I figured out all about the lock jaw from here, figured out a method to get vitamin food in him and thanks to you, understood that I had a secondary infection in Vibrio that I needed to treat asap. Fugu is now eating like the little pig he is, hes’ swimming around his QT like the little explorer he is, his skin is still raw but slowly healing. The combo of Kanaplex and Furan 2 has been fantastic, and, since he still has some raw skin, I’m going to extend the treatment to an additional second round (which the instructions to the meds contemplates). I can’t thank you enough for what this site is. My wife even recently came across several helpful posts as she googled things and it led to this site. I have several thoughts on new thread questions of interest to me. Though I do want to wait until Fugu is healed fully before I do anything other than care for him. Thanks again!
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
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: Porcupine Puffer Lockjaw

Post by Pufferpunk »

All wonderful news! Please consider donating to keep this forum running, if you can afford to.
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!"
sgoorland
Puffer Fry
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 7:35 am
Location (country): USA

Re: Porcupine Puffer Lockjaw

Post by sgoorland »

I would be glad to donate! This forum has been a wonderful resource! FYI Fugu isn’t quite out of the woods yet. He still has scarring that appears to be healing, but very slowly. I’m particularly nervous after having read about mycobacterium vs Vibrio. I’m hopeful it was Vibrio or something else, because mycobacterium apparently returns after antibiotics. But since the vet wasn’t able to find any bacteria microbes in the biopsy, I’m remaining hopeful it was Vibrio and the quick add of antibiotics hit it. She has me doing a second round of treatment until the remaining impacted skin heals. Fingers crossed....
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
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: Porcupine Puffer Lockjaw

Post by Pufferpunk »

Try adding SW Melafix to help with healing.
TIA if you do decide to donate!
There is a donate button above.
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!"
sgoorland
Puffer Fry
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 7:35 am
Location (country): USA

Re: Porcupine Puffer Lockjaw

Post by sgoorland »

Donation made! Glad to do so next year too :). You know, I like the Mela idea. I swear Fugu had this same disease 7 years ago. Skin started to show brown and white lesions all over, but not the rapid fin rot. I was warned by one local store expert that there was no cure. I used a combo of Mela and Pima, and he slowly healed. I know people think it’s voodoo medicine, including some well known marine biologists. But for skin lesions, I believe in the two of them. I’m also looking into the hypo. The vet also believes in that. I’m trying to learn what the benefits are.
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
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: Porcupine Puffer Lockjaw

Post by Pufferpunk »

Vibrio is very common in the porcy species & yes, is extremely difficult to cure.
Thanks for the donation! I just paid to keep this forum open another year.
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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