I recently acquired this cute little Spotted Congo Puffer and was told he has been treated for parasites(prazi); however, I’ve noticed this gray skin on top of his head. It doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
What could this be? Slime disease?
-He eats when he wants to and is definitely eating regularly (stable snail population in tank)
-He either is lazy or lethargic half of the time (lays in a few specific spots on the substrate) but gets up to swim around the tank often.
-After he gets up from ‘resting’ he will jerk around a little bit, but then he doesn’t do it again until he’s getting up from resting again.
He is thin right now but that’s how I received him. I imagine in a week or two he’ll thicken up a little.
Any help figuring out what this is would be great.
Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
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.
-
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:53 pm
- My Puffers: 1x T. Schoutedeni (Jimmy PuffPuff aka Jimmy Puffermuffin)
- Location (country): United States
Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
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- Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
Please answer ALL the questions above, in red, so we can help diagnose your issue.
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!"
-
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:53 pm
- My Puffers: 1x T. Schoutedeni (Jimmy PuffPuff aka Jimmy Puffermuffin)
- Location (country): United States
Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
It did not happen in my tank. He arrived this way.
-
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:53 pm
- My Puffers: 1x T. Schoutedeni (Jimmy PuffPuff aka Jimmy Puffermuffin)
- Location (country): United States
Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
1)____________________
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrates - unknown
Filter: AquaTop CF-500UV (rated at 525 GPH)
2)____________________
55 gallon Freshwater:
11 Harlequin Rasbora (1 year + in tank)
5 Guppies (Some born in tank some almost 1 year in)
3 Peppered Corydora (1 yr + in tank)
1 Electric Blue Dwarf Ram (1 yr + in tank)
1 Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami (1 yr + in tank)
1 Spotted Congo Puffer (3 Days in tank)
Heavily Planted (no tech, just light, fish and water):
Heavy Rotala
(New) Amazon Sword
Annubias
Java Fern
(New) S. Repens
Red Ludwigia
Bacopa
3)_____________________
Feeding: Every 2 to 3 days, flakes. once/2 weeks I feed a frozen krill cube for fun
Products: Topfin Water conditioner for water changes. Melafix for any blemishes (rarely used. maybe once or twice).
General cure for parasites.
25-40% water changes every weekend
Clean filter 1 time per month.
4) Currently dosing General Cure as the Puffer is new. Was told he'd already been treated with Prazi but I figured one more round on my end would be a safer bet than just trusting the importer took care of it completely. I also was recommended to do this from several other forums.
5) Aquarium has been active and healthy for over a year.
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrates - unknown
Filter: AquaTop CF-500UV (rated at 525 GPH)
2)____________________
55 gallon Freshwater:
11 Harlequin Rasbora (1 year + in tank)
5 Guppies (Some born in tank some almost 1 year in)
3 Peppered Corydora (1 yr + in tank)
1 Electric Blue Dwarf Ram (1 yr + in tank)
1 Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami (1 yr + in tank)
1 Spotted Congo Puffer (3 Days in tank)
Heavily Planted (no tech, just light, fish and water):
Heavy Rotala
(New) Amazon Sword
Annubias
Java Fern
(New) S. Repens
Red Ludwigia
Bacopa
3)_____________________
Feeding: Every 2 to 3 days, flakes. once/2 weeks I feed a frozen krill cube for fun
Products: Topfin Water conditioner for water changes. Melafix for any blemishes (rarely used. maybe once or twice).
General cure for parasites.
25-40% water changes every weekend
Clean filter 1 time per month.
4) Currently dosing General Cure as the Puffer is new. Was told he'd already been treated with Prazi but I figured one more round on my end would be a safer bet than just trusting the importer took care of it completely. I also was recommended to do this from several other forums.
5) Aquarium has been active and healthy for over a year.
-
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:53 pm
- My Puffers: 1x T. Schoutedeni (Jimmy PuffPuff aka Jimmy Puffermuffin)
- Location (country): United States
Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
forgot to mention aquarium temp is steadily 79 year round.
- astrid37
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 117
- Joined: Sun May 14, 2017 2:37 pm
- My Puffers: Seven T. schoutedeni
- Location (country): US
Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
Will be interested to see what others think. I once had an issue that appeared like this on some new fish in my cory tank that I suspected was Columnaris. I was able to successfully treat with methylene blue.
- astrid37
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 117
- Joined: Sun May 14, 2017 2:37 pm
- My Puffers: Seven T. schoutedeni
- Location (country): US
Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
Does this look like it could be the issue? http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html
-
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:53 pm
- My Puffers: 1x T. Schoutedeni (Jimmy PuffPuff aka Jimmy Puffermuffin)
- Location (country): United States
Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
Hello all!
Jimmy Puff Puff has recovered, gained some weight and is thriving since my post.
I am not sure what it was but I suspect it was fungal growth due to bad water conditions at the place he came from.
I treated for parasites with general cure and noticed a week after treatment this white stuff started to disappear from his eye (he developed a cloudy eye after I made the original post). The skin began to heal up and two weeks after the dosing and generous water changes he healed completely!!
Addition: The problem never presented any open sores.
Jimmy Puff Puff has recovered, gained some weight and is thriving since my post.
I am not sure what it was but I suspect it was fungal growth due to bad water conditions at the place he came from.
I treated for parasites with general cure and noticed a week after treatment this white stuff started to disappear from his eye (he developed a cloudy eye after I made the original post). The skin began to heal up and two weeks after the dosing and generous water changes he healed completely!!
Addition: The problem never presented any open sores.
- Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
YAY!
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!"
- astrid37
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 117
- Joined: Sun May 14, 2017 2:37 pm
- My Puffers: Seven T. schoutedeni
- Location (country): US
Re: Spotted Congo Puffer- Slime disease?
Awesome! Thanks for the update!