Well, I wish that my first post here wasn't with a health problem..but alas..
Yesterday after doing a water change, I noticed that my red eye has a large raised lump on his side about the size of a kidney bean. It's dark in color compared to the surrounding skin, and has a noticeable indention on the surrounding edge where it raises up from the rest of the body, like a wound will do when the skin is cut, but the skin isn't torn off and instead heals back up over the wound. Yesterday the lump had a hazy film over it, not really like fungus, but like a thick layer of slime coating. Today, the very center of the lump is torn open slightly and a thicker white slime is covering it. I'm afraid that it will start becoming infected soon, if it isn't already.
I've had Boma in the same tank for close to two years now and this is the first time he's ever had any problems. I'm wondering if he didn't get injured by ramming into a piece of driftwood, as I rearranged his tank yesterday. The lump could have been present before I noticed it the other day though..it's hard for me to get a good look as he hides most of the day and quickly darts back for cover if he notices anyone looking at him while he's swimming.
Usually I do a 10% water change weekly, but I've had a bit of a lazy streak lately, and went close to a month without changing the water before doing the 15% change yesterday. He eats a varied diet of frozen krill, clams, silversides, shrimp and squid, with the occasional live snail or crab. He gets fed every other day, and so far his behavior is still normal.
Tank specs are 20 gallon, filtered with a bio wheel 330, ammonia- 0, nitrite-0, nitrate-10, pH-7.6
Thanks in advance for any advice
help! puffer has a lump on his side
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.
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black_lung
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Puffer Queen
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black_lung
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I wish I knew for sure lol
A year or so ago, a 'new' species became available through a lot of wholesale stock lists known generally as 'red eye puffers'. At this time I was working at a lfs and we ordered these red eye puffers a couple of times- every time a similar, but obviously different, species arrived. Boma came from the first shipment.
He's a target puffer..almost 100% sure he's officially a Tetraodon turgidus, but there's a chance he's a T. leiurus or even T. abei
A year or so ago, a 'new' species became available through a lot of wholesale stock lists known generally as 'red eye puffers'. At this time I was working at a lfs and we ordered these red eye puffers a couple of times- every time a similar, but obviously different, species arrived. Boma came from the first shipment.
He's a target puffer..almost 100% sure he's officially a Tetraodon turgidus, but there's a chance he's a T. leiurus or even T. abei
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black_lung
- Puffer Fry
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Unfortunately I don't have access to a digital camera..so no.
An update for today, the lump itself has gone down, but the torn bit in the center that had some white slime surrounding it yesterday has enlarged and is now -completely- white. There's also a tiny bit of filament coming out from the center of this, like grey-ish threads. Maybe columnaris disease?
If anyone has any ideas as to what is causing this and treatment options, please share. At the moment I'm guessing some type of bacterial infection has set in; what caused the abcess to begin with, I'm lost. Tomorrow I'm going to pick up some Melafix as well as Marcyn and/or salt to begin treating. I'm hesitant to do much as I'm not 100% sure as to my diagnosis...so additional insight would be great.
An update for today, the lump itself has gone down, but the torn bit in the center that had some white slime surrounding it yesterday has enlarged and is now -completely- white. There's also a tiny bit of filament coming out from the center of this, like grey-ish threads. Maybe columnaris disease?
If anyone has any ideas as to what is causing this and treatment options, please share. At the moment I'm guessing some type of bacterial infection has set in; what caused the abcess to begin with, I'm lost. Tomorrow I'm going to pick up some Melafix as well as Marcyn and/or salt to begin treating. I'm hesitant to do much as I'm not 100% sure as to my diagnosis...so additional insight would be great.
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Pufferpunk
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black_lung
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black_lung
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Quick update on his condition, the whiteness around the tear remains, but is noticeably less than it was yesterday. In the center, the grey 'threads' remain, but are smaller; also, there are now some 'tufts' of white in the center as well. I don't know if they could be described as cottony or not. Overall it looks alot better, so I think that he may be healing on his own. Gobbled down his breakfast like there's no tomorrow..so that's a good sign I guess haha