Hi, I'm hoping someone here will be able to advise me.
I have a small fahaka puffer (about 1.5 inches) who has developed two bright red spots on one of his pectoral fins. The spots look like grains, like white spot but red. He is also spending most of his time buried in the sand and looks like he is breathing more heavily than usual. I have had him 6 weeks, symptoms appeared friday morning, (its saturday evening here now).
1) water parameters -
pH 7
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 0
2) Tank size -
currently in 170 litre nursery tank with four pimelodus pictus cat fish which were added a week ago, filtered by two externals, eheim ecco pro 2234 and all pond solutions 1000 EF with UV steriliser.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank
- He eats krill and blood worms, I have added kent garlic extreme to food, fed using a feeding cone and uneaten food is removed after 15 min. Feeding twice a day. The only other additive is seachem prime.
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week
- added plants and the pim pictus.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it?
-Tank was set up with mature filter media, and i also added jbl bacteria to second filter, and cycle for two months using food as an ammonia source.
I usually do two 25% water changes each week and test water before each, pH is high but stable, nitrate has been maximum of 5ppm. I did 50% water change yesterday.
I have googled, asked knowledgeable fish shops and other puffer keepers (and a breeder) and no one can tell me what it could be. The shop I bought my puffer from said they had seen something similar in one batch of puffers around two years ago and treated with a medicine containing acriflavine which has now been discontinued. They suggested NT labs general tonic which contains acriflavine and methylene blue at a half dose. I have heard these are quite harsh ingredients though?
Any advice you could give would be so appreciated.
Baby fahaka with red spots on pectoral fin
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.
-
Pufferpunk
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Re: Baby fahaka with red spots on pectoral fin
Thanks for your thorough answers!
It sounds bacterial. Any way you could get a good pic?
It sounds bacterial. Any way you could get a good pic?
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!"
Re: Baby fahaka with red spots on pectoral fin
Hi Jenni,
Woke up to find two of the pictus cats dead today
How do I add pictures to my post?
Woke up to find two of the pictus cats dead today
How do I add pictures to my post?
-
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: Baby fahaka with red spots on pectoral fin
Were they chewed up by the fahaka? Now you see yours is a killer. Or the cats very may have sickened your puffer. This is the only change you made to the tank recently, you said.
Load your pics to www.photobucket.com & link the img here. Please be sure they are not too large. Photobucket has a place you can edit images.
Load your pics to www.photobucket.com & link the img here. Please be sure they are not too large. Photobucket has a place you can edit images.
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!"