Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

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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.

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We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

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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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Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by ianbehnk »

hello

i need some help identifying some worms/parasites that are underneath my golden puffers skin. I have noticed this for about a week. here are a couple of pictures.
any help would be greatly appreciated

thanks
IanB
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by crazedpuffer »

Looks like your puffer is having an acne breakout. I guess puberty is setting in?
I'd PM pufferqueen, she's the expert.
My guess is it's some type of external fungal/bacterial infection. Treat in a quarantine/hospital tank with medicine baths daily.
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by ianbehnk »

ya it looks as if there is something inside the small pimples though. i have never seen a fungal or bacteria like this
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

They are correct, it's Puffer Queen (Kelly Jedlicki) that is the expert on SW puffer diseases here.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by ianbehnk »

this is the worst of the three pictures. i need to help him asap. please help.
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by SpockthePuffer »

I'm not sure if you read the above posts but you need to pm pufferqueen, she knows about sw puffer diseases.
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by ianbehnk »

ya i did that :) thanks guys for all the help!
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

Sorry we can't be of help here--I hope she responds quickly. In the meantime, post answers to everything above, in red. She'll be looking for that.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by spoot »

Are they under the skin or on top? Looks kinda like isopods. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rs/index.php
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by yunachin »

Isopods more commonly fasten themselves in the mouth of fish,but when on the fish externally you would be able to tell immediately. Here is one on a French Grunt and as you can see, they almost look like an out-stretched pill bug.
Image
I don't doubt that this could be some sort of reaction to a parasite or even some sort of bacterial infection though. I would wait for what Puffer Queen says ultimately. She knows what is best. :)
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by Puffer Queen »

Anyway you can open one of the areas in question and look at what comes out under a microscope......could be bacterial infection or worms. I have seen both.

I would isolate this puffer. Depending on what comes out of the areas, either treat with antibiotic baths (nitrofurazone or kanamycin) for bacterial infection or praziquantel both via bath and orally for worms.
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by spoot »

Isopods scare me so much!
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by Troender »

A friend of mine got those little things on a corydoras in a FW tank, at the same time as it was suspection of livoneca there. This was FW, but I guess isopods doesn't change so much from species to species. The thing went away after a cure of Flubenol and some other stuff she bought on the internet, that was to kill fish lice.
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by ianbehnk »

how and where do i get this medication?
i googled it and it looks like i need a prescription
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Re: Internal Skin worms/parasites on golden puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

Flubenol isn't available anymore. Try your vet. Best to have some idea of what you are battling--as long as you're there, see if you can get them to look at a scraping under their microscope.
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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