Generally, it's caused from a tank being overstocked and/or contaminated water (the 2 sorta go hand in hand). Once it spreads(especially to that extent) there is little that can be done.
I'm so sorry about your puffer!
porc discolored purple?
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.
-
crazedpuffer
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1755
- Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:57 pm
- My Puffers: 1x Porcupine Puffer
1xValentini - Location: Long Island, NY
Re: porc discolored purple?
yeah, I'm sad now that my puffer passed away. My grouper is still fighting for his life. The sore has since gotten worse even after full dosing the tank as directed with furan2 for 4 days. I am guessing the medication is not getting into his body where the infection is, because the skin seems to be eaten away from the inside out, so I'm prob going to try Maracyn2 next. The fish is not eating =/
The only other possibility is some very tiny parasites I can't see, but I doubt that.
The only other possibility is some very tiny parasites I can't see, but I doubt that.
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-
Jase
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:13 am
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: RIP Hootey :(
- Location (country): USA
- Location: Montana
Re: porc discolored purple?
aw. that's too bad 
I wish you and him luck.
I wish you and him luck.
-Jase
edmlfc1 wrote:A house without a puffer is not a home.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- 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: porc discolored purple?
Kind of like a flesh-eating disease. I'm not that up on diseases though.
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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crazedpuffer
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1755
- Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:57 pm
- My Puffers: 1x Porcupine Puffer
1xValentini - Location: Long Island, NY
Re: porc discolored purple?
PM pufferqueen, she should be able to help you more than we can.
-
Puffer Queen
- Mentor
- Posts: 386
- Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:35 am
- Location: Louisville, KY
- Contact:
Re: porc discolored purple?
Definitely bacterial in nature. Without a culture, can not say for sure the pathogen.....being that it spreads quickly - first guess would be either vibrio or pantoea.
Both can infect humans. Wear gloves (anytime you put your hands in any tank) as this can spread via the skin and any breaks or cuts are a prime portal of injury. These pathogens can be in the tank without any signs.
Marcyn-2 would not be my first choice of antibiotics. SInce you have been using a nitrofurazone agent, consider using kanamycin, or enrofloxacin (only through a vet).
I would also recommend adding beta glucan and vitamins to the diet to try and boost the immune system and promote healing.
Best of luck.
Both can infect humans. Wear gloves (anytime you put your hands in any tank) as this can spread via the skin and any breaks or cuts are a prime portal of injury. These pathogens can be in the tank without any signs.
Marcyn-2 would not be my first choice of antibiotics. SInce you have been using a nitrofurazone agent, consider using kanamycin, or enrofloxacin (only through a vet).
I would also recommend adding beta glucan and vitamins to the diet to try and boost the immune system and promote healing.
Best of luck.
Kelly
-
Puffer Queen
- Mentor
- Posts: 386
- Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:35 am
- Location: Louisville, KY
- Contact:
Re: porc discolored purple?
I would definitely not treat in the display tank as porous materials will absorb medications and make achieving a therapeutic level of medication impossible.
I would also consider removing all substrate and leaving the tank bare bottom or replacing with only a thin layer of sand. In a couple of cases of recurring bacteria in fish, when the substrate is cultured - the same pathogen is found in abundant numbers. Being that your puffer and grouper (both will rest on the bottom), have been infected.....there is a high likelihood that your substrate has a high bacterial count.
I would also consider removing all substrate and leaving the tank bare bottom or replacing with only a thin layer of sand. In a couple of cases of recurring bacteria in fish, when the substrate is cultured - the same pathogen is found in abundant numbers. Being that your puffer and grouper (both will rest on the bottom), have been infected.....there is a high likelihood that your substrate has a high bacterial count.
Kelly
Re: porc discolored purple?
okay, no porous materials...so no LR? But then how to get healthy nitrate levels and no nitrites and ammonia in tank? I wouldn't have any biological filters if I removed all of the porous material from the treatment tank.
The infection is spreading across my grouper, but not affecting my sailfin tang to any visible degree, though the fish seem stressed due to bacteria being killed off from use of meds and higher levels nitrites than I would like(likely to have triggered a mini cycle?) I don't have a spare tank ready so the fish have been treated in the main tank without much success. The sand bed is highly uneven due to the grouper moving sand around, and the sand is about 5 inches high at peaks while almost completely bare on other parts of the tank(I've given up on trying to even it out).
Right now the back end of my grouper is consumed on one side by the bacterial infection, I can see the bones showing now through what thin layer of flesh is still present. It's eating my fish alive... very slowly. If the harmful bacteria is indeed in the sand bed(or worse, the porous LR), how do I get rid of the bacteria in there? Replacing all the LR and sand is pretty expensive and I hope there is an alternative?
The infection is spreading across my grouper, but not affecting my sailfin tang to any visible degree, though the fish seem stressed due to bacteria being killed off from use of meds and higher levels nitrites than I would like(likely to have triggered a mini cycle?) I don't have a spare tank ready so the fish have been treated in the main tank without much success. The sand bed is highly uneven due to the grouper moving sand around, and the sand is about 5 inches high at peaks while almost completely bare on other parts of the tank(I've given up on trying to even it out).
Right now the back end of my grouper is consumed on one side by the bacterial infection, I can see the bones showing now through what thin layer of flesh is still present. It's eating my fish alive... very slowly. If the harmful bacteria is indeed in the sand bed(or worse, the porous LR), how do I get rid of the bacteria in there? Replacing all the LR and sand is pretty expensive and I hope there is an alternative?
Re: porc discolored purple?
grouper passed away today =/
The medication I ordered did not get here in time for me to treat him with it.
I am uncertain how to proceed from here. I am going to try and stabilize my tank right now because I've put a lot of meds into it and I want to get rid of all those chemicals so my LR can grow back and I can have a healthy tank again.
The medication I ordered did not get here in time for me to treat him with it.
I am uncertain how to proceed from here. I am going to try and stabilize my tank right now because I've put a lot of meds into it and I want to get rid of all those chemicals so my LR can grow back and I can have a healthy tank again.
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Jase
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:13 am
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: RIP Hootey :(
- Location (country): USA
- Location: Montana
Re: porc discolored purple?
I'm sorry to hear that
I wish you good luck.
I wish you good luck.
-Jase
edmlfc1 wrote:A house without a puffer is not a home.
-
crazedpuffer
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1755
- Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:57 pm
- My Puffers: 1x Porcupine Puffer
1xValentini - Location: Long Island, NY
Re: porc discolored purple?
Leave the tank fallow for 8 weeks. That will get rid of the bacteria
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- 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: porc discolored purple?
That gets rid of parasites. Not so sure about bacteria.
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!"
-
Jase
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:13 am
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: RIP Hootey :(
- Location (country): USA
- Location: Montana
Re: porc discolored purple?
would it be quicker to clean everything thoroughly, then re-cycle it? or is there live sand and rocks and stuff that you are trying to save?
-Jase
edmlfc1 wrote:A house without a puffer is not a home.
Re: porc discolored purple?
yeah, I want to save the live sand and rocks and the fish I have in the tank. I only have two other fish in the tank, they are not showing any symptoms, but I have no other tanks to move them to. In addition, I don't know if the fish are carriers of the bacteria(is it possible?) so I'm not sure that I can safely put them into a new tank without contaminating the new tank as well.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- 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: porc discolored purple?
Wait to see what PQ says about this.
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!"