Really Sick Puffer

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.
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Myaj
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Re: Really Sick Puffer

Post by Myaj »

I'm so glad to hear he's doing better Kolagirrrl.

The eye does sound like some sort of fungal infection (cottony/fuzzy looking usually means fungus) but I'm not a good source to tell you which medication to use. Someone who does know should be on soon to help you out, in the mean time the salt and clean water will help a LOT. I think Pimafix is good for fungal problems in conjunction with Melafix, but wouldn't know what to suggest as far as an antibiotic or anything. Since puffers are so sensitive to meds, I'd wait until PufferQueen or someone more familiar with medicating speaks up.

The white spots on his body very well could be his spines.. most puffers do have little spines all over their skin but unless you look close you often don't see them unless they are puffed. A photo would tell for sure, but if they've always been there and they haven't changed in appearance or placement, I'd guess they are just his normal spines.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Really Sick Puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

Now is the time to get a hydrometer & measure the salinity of your tank. Don't raise the specific gravity more than .002/week. So happy to hear he's pulling through!
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!"
Kolagirrrl
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Re: Really Sick Puffer

Post by Kolagirrrl »

:supercool: Thought I would let y'all know that Hootie is doing great! His colour is back, the fungus on his eye is almost gone now and he is hungry hungry hungry.
So good to have him greet me again. :twirl:
YaY

Ciao!
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Troender
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Location: Askim, Norway

Re: Really Sick Puffer

Post by Troender »

I'm so glad to hear that! Actually, I didn't think your puffer would make it. Good job, Kolagirrrl! :grats:
Inger Anne
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Just think how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are even stupider! -George Carlin

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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32976
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Greenville, SC
Contact:

Re: Really Sick Puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

Another TPF success! Yea!
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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