new fahaka, first puffer, white ball on gills

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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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dmopar74
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new fahaka, first puffer, white ball on gills

Post by dmopar74 »

got a 2" fahaka today and seems very healthy other than a white ball on one side of his gills, looks like a tiny piece of styrofoam(you know what i mean, its not really styrofoam). tank is at 79f and i added 4 tbls. of salt(40g growout tank)perams are 0,0,10. i was wondering if i could add seachem paraguard or if this was bad for the puffer? it looks like i could pull the thing off with tweezers but i dont want to harm him, one slip and i could really hurt him.
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Boxermom
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Re: new fahaka, first puffer, white ball on gills

Post by Boxermom »

I highly recommend against throwing medications at him without knowing what is wrong first. And they don't need salt in their water, they are purely freshwater, unless you are treating for ich or velvet.
Tina

Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
dmopar74
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Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2007 10:41 pm

Re: new fahaka, first puffer, white ball on gills

Post by dmopar74 »

i know they are pure freshwater, i added the salt to help cure whatever is on his gill, i suspect parasite but am not shure. adding salt has almost always helped any disease any of my FW have had unless the disease was extremely progressed.
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Re: new fahaka, first puffer, white ball on gills

Post by Pufferpunk »

[welcome]
Glad you found us! I answered your Q at MFK. I'd net him & keeping him under water, remove the thing. Add Melafix, to prevent infection & promote healing.
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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Hilly
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Re: new fahaka, first puffer, white ball on gills

Post by Hilly »

One of my puffers had something similar, like a white ball, eventually it fell off and left a pink circular wound behind. Took weeks to heal, you can still see the small scar where it was.
Hilly
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