Sad day for me and my little Toby, R.I.P...

[OraLacerta]

This has been a very stressful week for me. I have been staying up all night working on my papers and studying for my college courses, and the past 2 days trying to administer emergency care for my Hawaiian Spotted Toby.

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... c&&start=0

My Toby has been in my 20 gallon QT tank for almost 2 months; I got him on 2/28. We were going to move him into his 75 gallon this weekend; we bought all of the sand, we got a nice skimmer and powerheads... 90 LBs of LR are arriving today that I was looking forward to looking over & curing for his tank...

The little guy was perky and curious, from the very minute I added him to the tank. He had a great appetite, he was very active, and would beg like crazy whenever he saw me. He has been in his QT tank along with a 3/4" Yellow-Tailed Blue Damsel that was in the same tank at the LFS with him when I got him, so the Damsel couldn't have introduced anything else to the tank. Starting on Sunday I noticed he was scratching his face with an ornament, so I inspected his spotted little body for ich (which was quite a challenge) and all I saw were two small little scuffs on his head from, what I assumed anyways, scratching his head. I kept a close eye on him, added melafix and some extra stress coat to aid in healing his scuffs, and continued to keep a close eye on him.

Water params were:
pH: 8.0
SG: 1.020
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10 - during his worst problems there were no measurable nitrates, but in-between water-changes it rose to 10.
Ammonia: 0
Temp: 80F
50% waterchanges 2x a week
Cycled with marine bio-spira

Monday: No changes in his behavior. I watched him and the damsel for strange behavior, white-spots, and scratching. The puffer was still itching a little, but was still attentive, eating, and acting normally. The damsel continues to have no symptoms. However, towards the evening and into the night I noticed he was breathing heavily and roaming the tank at night when he usually is sleeping. He began having problems swimming for extended periods of time.

Tuesday: In the morning he isn't moving from the area he usually sleeps; he is breathing hard with a darkened belly and splotchy coloring on his body. The damsel continues to be symptom-free. I inspect him over and over again for any ich-like spots or velvet-like powdery white coloring, nothing. I had no time to post anything on the forum in-between driving to school and then coming home, so on the way home I picked up some Formalin and Malachite Green. Tuesday evening I administered a freshwater dip (to both fish in different containers) with a 1/2 dosage of formalin and Malachite Green for 10 minutes in pH adjusted water. I then moved him and the damsel to a new tank with hypo-salinity of 1.009. He began swimming in the new tank and looking at me as I watched him. However, by bed time when I went to check on him he was worse than before the dip; breathing hard, tipping over and looking pale. his eyes looked dead, not bright and responsive as I am used to. I cried for hours hoping he would pull through, and dreading the morning knowing he might be dead when I woke up.

Wednesday morning: I slowly turned the doorknob and walked into the room not wanting to look at the tank. When I looked in the tank, at first all I saw was the damsel (as fine as could be), but then I saw the stiff, partially puffed corpse of my beloved little toby behind the cave I put in the tank for him.

I have no idea what caused him to die, and so suddenly! I have been obsessively measuring the tank's params every-other day, feeding just enough, keeping temp salinity and pH all steady... I don't understand how he could have faded from me so quickly after two months without any outside contamination. My beloved Toby has passed, but I need to figure out what killed him; otherwise I don't think I'm going to have the guts to continue with the saltwater hobby lest this happens again to the next puffer I try to QT. This is the first puffer I have ever lost to death, so I am out of sorts and still sobbing when I see his tank without him in it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[OraLacerta]

I forgot to add that when I scooped out his body this morning there was a considerable amount of slime-coat on his body that seemed quite excessive. The only sickness I could think of with this symptom is Brooklynellosis, but I would fail to see how he got this after two months of being in the same tank without any contamination from new fish.

His diet consisted of live mussel, frozen krill and shrimp, SF Bay Marine Cuisine and Emerald Entree along with Mysis Shrimp and squid.

[manutius]

I can't offer much advice but there was talk of stress coat not beinbg very healthy as it irritates their skin to produce more slime. I am really sorry to hear about this

[OraLacerta]

Thank you, Manutius.
I wish I had known that earlier. I have Prime and that is what I normally use during water changes to dechlorinate water, but I keep stress-coat around for first-aid. I didn't add any to the recovery tank though, and only 10 ml were added to the 20 gallon after I noticed the scuffs.

[Phaedrus]

As a long time college student, I feel your pain. There's never enough hours in the day to do all the things you want, and when something personally important happens and you have to ignore it or neglect it because you have too many other things to do sucks big time. You just gotta do triage and deal with what you can.

[OraLacerta]

Thanks Phaed. That's exactly it; there never seems to be enough time for the things I want and need to do, and it's made worse by having to spend 3 hours driving to and from school 5 days a week.

The Damsel continues to be in perfect health. Aside from being terrified of me now when I go to check on him, he's never looked better. That's part of the problem- I was taking the puffer's early symptoms less seriously at first because the Damsel wasn't showing any illness at all.

I'm thinking that maybe the fact I have been staying up late and keeping the lights on in the room disrupted the puffer's usual sleeping schedule and that triggered the stress that left him vulnerable to whatever this was that killed him. It seems odd to me that the Damsel never fell ill, unless I treated him before his symptoms had a chance to show.

[manutius]

I would think the fact that the puffer is scaleless and therefore more succeptible to the irritants is more likely than a few extra hours light. It is really tough to hear when people who spoend so much of their precious time in caring for their fish only for something like this to happen. I may not know you too well but I am truly gutted for you

[crazedpuffer]

I'm sorry about your loss. My toby just died also. He was doing fine for the week I had him in my main tank. Then one day he swam near the surface and the next day he was dead. He had a little greyish brown bulge near his anal fin. It looked exactly the same as the thing all my other puffs got and died from in that tank. I was doing frequent waterchanges and everything.

[OraLacerta]

Thank you again, Manutius, for your advice and your empathy. I'm so glad you mentioned something to me about the Stress Coat; I will only use Prime from now on.

Flamesofifreet: I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. I wonder what that bulge could have been?

[manutius]

I think it was Boxer who mentioned the stresscoat thing. I would go with Prime it seems to be what most people use

[The Fisherman]

Oh no!

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss Michelle.

That's so sudden...It must have been so hard.



I'm just getting into college...I already didn't have enough time for stuff, now I REALLY don't have time for stuff.

[PuffTheMagicFishy]

I'm so sorry, Michelle. I know how much you loved that little guy. College demands, demands, demands, and drains so much life out life... It's so frustrating when grades must take precedence over quality of life and ability to care for our other, equally valid, responsibilities.

I wish I could help you figure out what happened, but I just don't know much about saltwater fish. Hopefully Puffer Queen can come by and help.

I do know that damsels tend to be very hardy; they are recommended for fish-cycling marine tanks. Puffs are so very delicate, especially their scaleless skins as Manutius mentioned, which may be why your damsel did not get sick.

[Nusquam]

Just wanted to pop in and say sorry for your loss

[GSPdragon]

I'm so sorry, so unbelievably truely sorry. I'm in tears reading this, I know how much you loved this little guy/girl and how excited you were about the new tank (much like me with Wasabi).

Nothing more I can really say... I have no idea what could have happened, do you think the live mussels could have transmitted something? That was my only thought. The damsel didn't harass him at all that you saw?

I hope you can figure out what might have happened and in time be ready for another puffer in your new tank.

Candi

[OraLacerta]

Thank you everyone for your support! It's been hard dealing with this, and though I'm not sure if the constant grind of college is helping me by keeping me occupied or hurting me by preventing me from dealing with it emotionally, but all of your responses have really lifted my spirits. I appreciate it so much.

Puffthemagicfishy: I think that makes sense then about the Damsel, and hopefully he will continue to stay healthy then. I'm going to keep him in the recovery tank in hyposalinity (just to be sure) for another 3 1/2 weeks. I guess he will be the ruler of the 75 gallon for a while.

GSPdragon: Thank you Candi. I feel bad that my thread brought up memories of your little Wasabi... Hopefully both of us will have better luck when we decide to buy a new puffer to replace the ones we lost! I really hope the live mussels weren't to blame. I pick them up at the local grocery store every week, wash them off, break them open and then let my puffers go at them until they have had enough, then they are removed. I've been feeding the live ones hoping they would be safer because they are so obviously fresh. As for the Damsel, he's very tiny and had a healthy respect for the puffer. He ate the scraps my puffer broke up, and liked to stay in his little rock-cave I put in there for him while the puffer preferred sleeping in his cave on the other side of the tank, so I never saw them bothering one another.