I have two SAP's (South American Puffers) living in a 28 gallon community tank. About three days ago, I finally gave them their teeth clipping I had been putting off. I used MS222. It's alwats a very stressful process, but they lost consciousness (about 30 seconds) and came back to full consciousness (a few minutes) around the right times. The only difference from usual was that because I let their teeth get longer than usual, it was more difficult to clip them and I accidentally cut a bit on the tissue around the teeth/lips.
A day later, and one of the puffers has a large white area on one side of his face where his coloring has almost paled. The surface of the skin looks the same, but the edges of the white area have a cracked appearance/pattern, although the skin itself is completely smooth. To be honest, I've seen this in both puffers in the past, but not as extreme. I can't find anything online about other SAP's having this paling cracking effect on their skin though. It is the coloring only and not the texture of the skin which appears to have changed. Since seeing this large white spot (warde than anything they've had in the past, I've been doing several large water changes in the past few days and trying to gravel vacuum more thoroughly.
1. Water parameters were last measured a few days ago before a 25% and a %50 water change.
Ammonia: less than 0.25 (hard to tell), Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 40 PH: 8.3 (same as usual)
2. Tank size: 28 gallons. Tank inhabitants: 2 SAP's, 1 balloon Molly, 15 neon tetras, 3 juvenile guppies, two medium bristlenose plecos, and 1
rainbow fish (moved into other tank today)
3. Feeding: two pinches of tropical bug bites for the smaller fish daily, a small pinch of Betta bites for larger fish and puffers daily (can find brand later if needed), an algae wafer or two daily for plecos (other fish munch on them sometimes too), and other miscellaneous foods here and there. Thawed out frozen food (variety pack) about once a week. Water change schedule: Usually between once a month and once every two weeks, averaging once every three weeks, 25%. Products: Only prime conditioner until today, I decided to use some all in one plant fertilizer from aquarium coop as well.
4. Changes in past week: I clipped the puffers teeth. Before that, a few weeks ago, their lights were destroyed and they were without lighting for about a week, so I had a lot of plants dying back and more plant matter.
5. The tank has been established about 2 years. The balloon Molly and rainbow fish and guppies were added about 6 months ago, the rest of the fish have been in the tank for atleast a year. When I first set up the tank, I let it sit for atleast a month without fish and tried to get the cycle going, it is for sure going now. Also, for filtering, I just have two medium sponge filters now, as I find sponge filters much easier to maintain.
I understand I may have been doing quite a few things wrong for a while, and I really want to remedy these things. Does anyone know what this white skin discoloration may be or have any experience with it themselves? I really want my little guy to be okay. Thank you in advance!!
Also, how to attach photos? I have some pictures of my puffers that may help.
