Help please!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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.
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onebadpuffer
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Help please!

Post by onebadpuffer »

Overnight, a raised, black, oval spot appeared on my new saltwater puffs back, right behind his head. It is solid black and may(hard to tell) have cottony stuff on it). I have looked all over the internet to try and figure out what it is, to no avail. I am very worried about the little guy. I put some Melafix in earlier. I am not sure, but am thinking, bacterial. Anyone know what this is and how to treat it?
onebadpuffer
Former Staff Member
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 4:34 am
Gender: Male
Location (country): United States
Location: Texas
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Post by onebadpuffer »

Looks like the cottony stuff is gone and like there is a depression in the middle of the raised black spot, the spot is about 1/8" long.
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Phaedrus
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Post by Phaedrus »

pimafix for the cottony stuff?
onebadpuffer
Former Staff Member
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Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 4:34 am
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Location: Texas
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Post by onebadpuffer »

Now there is a second lump on his belly. It is normal color except for a bit of off-yellow to it. Could this be a parasite?
onebadpuffer
Former Staff Member
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 4:34 am
Gender: Male
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Location: Texas
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Post by onebadpuffer »

Update, the little guy is doing really bad. I got the aforementioned stuff under control and then he got ich and velvet. I got the ich beat, but I am not sure how to properly treat the velvet. I have been doing freshwater dips and treating with formalin and malachite green. I have also raised the temp to shorten the life cycle as it is apparently like ich in that regard. I also added a airstone to the tank for extra oxygen in the water column. There is not much info on the internet as to the proper treatment. Has anyone been in my shoes before? If so, how did you get rid of the velvet? I really do not want to risk using copper on my puff or my tanks.
Jager

Post by Jager »

velvet is just that same treatment as for ich. keep up the formulin and the higher temps. feed yor puff what it will eat, and keep dosing and gravel vaccing the tank to remove cysts .

velvet is hard, but its not impossible to beat. you have my cell if you need to reach me further man.
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