a badly hurt puffer!!!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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mixmastermike52
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a badly hurt puffer!!!

Post by mixmastermike52 »

hello everyone I woke up today and found my baby narrow lined puffer badly hurt! His skin has been torn off from the back of his tail up to his nostrils on the top half of his body. I mean completely riped off like where you can see his muscle tissue! It is such a horrible site to see him this way. Some how he is still alive resting on top of the heater taking deep gasps of air and occasionally coming to the surface to breathe,damn I'm so sad about this! I forgot to mention that most of my rock cave that has been standing for about 5 months now has toppled over and is scattered on the substrate. before anyone asks he is only about 2 inches long so there is no way he could have knocked it over himself. He must have been sleeping and in the middle of the night all hell came falling down on him. I wish I had pictures to show so I could get an opinion about this and the decisions I should make about the quality of life and the possible euthanasia of the poor little guy.He was doing so well :cry:
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Boxermom
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Post by Boxermom »

You can try using Melafix and Pimafix to help heal and ward off infections until the skin heals. If it was mine, I'd try that first. After removing all of the rocks and anything else he might re-damage himself on (sharp plants, etc.).
Tina

Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
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manutius
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Post by manutius »

That is awful, poor little thing. Just a thought boxer but will Melafix burn the muscle tissue and make it sore or will an aloe extract work better? I'm only throwing up ideas thoguh so could be wrong. I really hope that this little puffer can be saved
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Hilly
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Post by Hilly »

Could this be that weird skin eating disease I remember reading about, although that was on one of Fellas irrubesco.
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Post by Puffer Queen »

what are the other tank mates?
Kelly
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manutius
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Post by manutius »

Hilly wrote:Could this be that weird skin eating disease I remember reading about, although that was on one of Fellas irrubesco.
I thinkt he fact that the rocks have collapsed is more likely but what is this disease, it sounds nasty :(
mixmastermike52
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Post by mixmastermike52 »

Well yesterday was a bad day for my little puff. I figured he was on a downward slope so I just let him finish out his time here.He past away late last night and I promptly buried him. Such a sad story I guess I just have to be more careful with the construction of my rock work. :(
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Post by Nick »

Sorry for your loss... I tend to use aquarium silicone on anything I build that can budge, maybe try that when the cave is rebuilt?
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
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Hilly
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Post by Hilly »

manutius wrote:I thinkt he fact that the rocks have collapsed is more likely
Didn't see that the first time round.
Hilly
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Boxermom
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Post by Boxermom »

I'm sorry. Personally I don't like having rock structures in with my puffer who are active swimmers precisely for that reason. Since they don't have scales, its very easy for them to scrape themselves on stuff.
Tina

Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
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manutius
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Post by manutius »

Oh dear, poor little thing. Sorry to hear that.

I agree with siliconing structures as the current created by a swimming puffer is pretty strong. Mind you I've only had Clooney and he creates a wake like a jetski :lol:
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