F8 Puffer: Is this fungus? (pics)

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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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F8fan
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F8 Puffer: Is this fungus? (pics)

Post by F8fan »

To answer the questions in red above:
1) ph = 6.5 ( I know, it's really low, but that's what comes out of my tap and the puffers are all three-four years old and have been living in this water for all their lives), ammonia = 0, nitrite = 0, nitrate = 10 ppm, salinity = 1.008. Temp = 80 degrees F
2) 55 gallon. Three figure 8 puffers, one knight goby, two red tailed swordtails.
3) frozen krill, frozen bloodworms, freeze-dried bloodworms, baby clams (occasionally, maybe 2x a month) 50% changes a week, currently Genesis dechlor and liquid API Fungus Cure.
4) Added the liquid API Fungus Cure @ about 75% dosage
5) three years, completely cycled.

One of my figure 8 puffers seemingly has fungus on it's back. Has anyone ever seen a case this severe? He acts normal, eats like a champ as he always has, and there is no aggression between him and his tank inhabitants. It started out as a couple gray patches on his back. I added Fungus Cure to the tank 4 days ago at below the recommended dosage because I didnt want to over-treat as they are scale-less, and it became all white and morphed into one raised patch on his back. I netted him underwater yesterday and today and swabbed some pimafix on the wound. I'm going to do another 50% w/c today and add some carbon to the tank and remove the fungus cure as it has been the four days of recommended treatment. I think I will treat with pimafix. He doesn't seem to be bothered by the wound...he is acting normal, I have just never seen fungus this severe and protruding.
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crazedpuffer
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Re: F8 Puffer: Is this fungus? (pics)

Post by crazedpuffer »

Do you have a quarantine tank? I think it might be best to put him in there and treat it there.
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Re: F8 Puffer: Is this fungus? (pics)

Post by Pufferpunk »

Are you sure thst lump isn't coming from the inside? I have found mechurichrome to work great for skin funguses--just swab on like you are the Pimafix. It may be hard to find & you might have to use something close to it. Ask your pharmacist.
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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