The Puffer Forum

Hello I have a Green spotted puffer and recently I noticed he had something on his underside near his tail. Up close, you see can bits of skin hanging off and what looks like the under layer of his skin. His tail has also gotten more ragged looking. How would you treat this and has any of this happened to their puffers before? Is this a bacterial infection? I don't think it's fin rot because his tail doesn't look bloody? I have pictures. He is active and gets excited for feeding time. He also explores his tank.

He is currently in a 55 gallon tank with no tank mates at a salinity of 1.012. His tank water temperature is 81.1 degrees. His diet consists mainly of snails and blood worms with the occasional clam. Tank has been fully cycled for over a year. No changes to tank recently. Water changes are 30%-50% weekly

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 1.012(using seachem marine salt)

It looks torn, which is quite interesting because a puffer's skin is VERT tough! It's like leathery, prickly sandpaper. Anything sharp in there? It doesn't seem to be infected at all. Is it getting worse?

He does have some fake branches in there. They don't really have any noticeably sharp edges. Maybe he scraped himself by accident too hard. It's only recently he got that tear and it doesn't seem to be getting any worse.

It just seems really odd to me, because of how tough their skin is! You can try adding Melafix to aid in healing & prevent infection from developing.