Hello - I was wondering if anyone else is experienceing this right now? The company that takes care of our tank has received about 15 puffers in a couple different shipments and they seem to be fine for a while then all of a sudden they get the cloudy/white eyes, stop eating, turn white/almost translucent and then parts of their body start to flake off, sort of. We have had our puffer in the tank for about 3 weeks and just yesterday we saw the white eye and then today he looks horrible, I read something on another board that said they saw the same thing but I believe it was from a couple years ago, does anyone know why this happens or how to treat it, if possible? I know it's probably something they are bringing in from the wild, but it just seems horrible that there isn't anything to stop this parasite or whatever it is.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Sudden Puffer Death Syndrome?
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.
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.
Sounds like a truly nasty bacterial infection.
If you're in the US, you'll be able to get some antibiotics from your lfs (local fish shop), but for now, get hold of some Melafix - a tea-tree based med, dose as per instructions, and wait for someone better qualified than me to advise you on the antibiotic to use.
Hope he gets better..what kind of puffer is he?
It really sounds nasty, but I'm wondering if the company isn't sterilizing their equipment properly and is spreading this bug to loads of tanks.
Pami.
If you're in the US, you'll be able to get some antibiotics from your lfs (local fish shop), but for now, get hold of some Melafix - a tea-tree based med, dose as per instructions, and wait for someone better qualified than me to advise you on the antibiotic to use.
Hope he gets better..what kind of puffer is he?
It really sounds nasty, but I'm wondering if the company isn't sterilizing their equipment properly and is spreading this bug to loads of tanks.
Pami.
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Pufferpunk
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Overcrowding, stress, agressiveness towards each other, can cause serious threat to any fish's immune system. Pristine water conditions, doing large water changes will help, in addition ot the above advice.
Last edited by Pufferpunk on Sun Oct 02, 2005 12:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Feathers&Fins
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