Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

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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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Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by Christemo »

I found this fish in a LFS, (Superpetz in Frederick, MD -- TERRIBLE fish!) and I couldn't help but rescue him. He has a nipped up tail fin, and isn't that big of an eater (never was). He's currently in my quarantine tank (3 gal -- I know, small, but he couldn't go into my other tank for fear of parasites, so I'm picking up a much larger tank tomorrow). I do water changes religiously.
pH: 7.5
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
Ammonia: 0
Temp: 77*F
Sal: 1.015
He really won't eat much of anything. I've tried giving him shrimp, but he'll take a little nibble, then swim away. I then tried blood worms and he ate it then spit it back out. He did that twice before giving up. He's the only one in there right now. I just have regular marine salt (the one in the silver bag), and I've been doing 50% water changes every day since getting the little fella. I've got sand as a substrate, which I prepped with the stocking method. It's been cycled for about 3 months now, and I used some ornaments and gravel from my neighbor's aquarium and ammonia.
I'm not sure if this is helpful, but when he was stressed (being brought home from the fish store) he was bright green, but now since going into the aquarium, he's turned a brownish green. Now, the theme of the tank is a brownish green, so I'm not sure if it's just camouflage or not. His stomach is white. When he breathes, there's something coming out of his mouth. Also, there is a little white "string" thing coming from under one of his fins. He's been laying on the bottom of the tank, and will only really move when you go up and either stare at him, or put your hand against the tank, but then at times he'll be active and swim all around the aquarium. He's a little bugger (about an inch long), so I'm worried for him. :(

I finally got a hold of a camera.
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He'll just lay there like that for a good amount of time.
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You can see where he's basically gotten his tail chopped off. :( I hate bad fish stores. :( :(
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by pufferfreak »

Congrats, you have a green spotted puffer :D , go to one of our members site at http://www.greenspottedpuffer.net
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by Christemo »

pufferfreak wrote:Congrats, you have a green spotted puffer, go to one of our members site at http://www.greenspottedpuffer.net

He is most likely stessed. What size is the tank?
Currently it's a 3 gal (it's basically my quarantine tank). As it says in my post, I'll be getting a much larger tank for him tomorrow, however, I'm scared to put him into this tank if he has some sort of parasite that could infect the entire tank. He's currently with no other tank mates.
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by pufferfreak »

I would get a 30 gallon as that is their minimum tank size, but if your planning on having other fish go with a 40. Just to let you know they require full marine when they grow up.

I would keep him in the QT tank for now and wait for him to get better while you are cycling the other tank.
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by Christemo »

pufferfreak wrote:I would get a 30 gallon as that is their minimum tank size, but if your planning on having other fish go with a 40. Just to let you know they require full marine when they grow up.

I would keep him in the QT tank for now and wait for him to get better while you are cycling the other tank.
He's staying by himself for now (limited budget), plus, knowing my luck, I'd buy a $300 fish, and Puffy would eat him in about 30 seconds. :lol:
I know they require full marine. My salinity right now is at 1.015.
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by pufferfreak »

Is that what he was in? If he was in freshwater i would keep him in that. How did you add him to the SW.
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by Christemo »

pufferfreak wrote:Is that what he was in? If he was in freshwater i would keep him in that. How did you add him to the SW.
He was in brackish at the store.
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by pufferfreak »

Oh okay. Be sure to check that link though and the article about them in our pufferpedia, :)
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by Pufferpunk »

The GSP article is in our Library.
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: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by StormySkiez »

Poor fella. He looks very stressed. He looks like he may have IP's. How quick does his belly sink in after feeding? How much are you feeding and what are you feeding? Is the tank cycled?
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by StormySkiez »

Here is the article on IP's: library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/

If you suspect IP treat ASAP.
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by Christemo »

StormySkiez wrote:Poor fella. He looks very stressed. He looks like he may have IP's. How quick does his belly sink in after feeding? How much are you feeding and what are you feeding? Is the tank cycled?
His belly barely rounds at all. He won't eat much.
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by StormySkiez »

Not good. What are you feeding him? My puffers love raw frozen defrosted shrimp in clean tank water from the grocery store. You have got to get him to eat and looks like treat him for IP's. Keep his water very clean to help heal the fins.
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by Christemo »

I've been trying shrimp and blood worms. He'll nibble at the shrimp, and he'll slurp up the blood worms and then spit them out afterwards. His teeth are looking normal, so I know that's the problem. I'm going to get a parasite treatment today, and I've been doing 50% water changes every day.
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Re: Stuff coming out of puffy's mouth? - Pictures

Post by StormySkiez »

Let us know what kind of meds you get him. I would do the baths per the IP article since he is really not eating. I'm sorry I have no idea where to get the meds listed in the article. Calling around to find them would be your best bet or order overnight online. I wish your puffer well.
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