Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

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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BrokenBoy
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Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

Post by BrokenBoy »

Hullo to all of you...
I've been given the link to your site from another forum I post on... Am glad to have been sent in your direction!

I have been keeping puffers in one form or another for several years, and for the last year had my heart set on a Mbu. Having worked out size and perameters etc, he was to go into my community tank until he got a little larger and then I was to custom build him something in the region of a 1000g tank.

Finally last wednesday one came into my -notoriously bad- LFS and I snapped him up...
He's 4iches not inc. tail.
Unfortunately not having a quarantine tank set up, and as they were being iffy about keeping him in for awhile, I bought him that afternoon and put him into my "Slow and Nice Tempered" community tank, and he is fine with all other inhabitants. The tank is well over a year mature, and I removed several fish to adjust for his bio-load. All my levels have stayed exactly the same, pH is 7, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0mgl, and Nitrate 0mgl...

He has however got what looks like a small Bacterial infection on the rear section of his tail (As shown in the below picture, apologies for quality) which looks like a small lesion of some kind... with ever so slight ragged skin around the white wound

Image

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to treat this with? It's been there since I got him from the damn LFS, but I don't wanna take him back as there isn't any more, and I love 'im already :)

So far I've just been doing daily 20 percent water changes, while I found someone who might know about this kind of stuff... Doesn't seem to have spread, doesn't seem to have got worse...

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be supremely grateful... Thank you for taking time out to read this post...

A most concerned AJ.
Owner of Olaf Leviathan Mbu Esq.
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Boxermom
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Re: Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

Post by Boxermom »

Welcome. Has the spot gotten bigger or worse? Is it fuzzy or furry or anything, or just look like a pimple?

Weird that you have no nitrates at all.
Tina

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Re: Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

Post by Pufferpunk »

You could spot treat it with mecurichrome or just add Melafix for now.
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!"
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BrokenBoy
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Re: Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

Post by BrokenBoy »

People thinking melafix the the way with puffs? I didn't get on well with it with my Fig 8's but am well willing to give it a try...

Spot is same sized as when I got him.... :( I just assumed it was part of the colouring as I couldn't get a good look (He was being shy)

now looking closely at it, it's slightly ragged around the edges... Not so much fuzzy and no loose flaps of skin....
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spoot
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Re: Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

Post by spoot »

You should send manutius a message if he doesn't chime in soon. I think this happened to his mbu before as well, or so I remember.
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manutius
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Re: Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

Post by manutius »

speak my name and I shall appear :lol:

Hi broken boy, congrats on picking up one of the coolest fish available. I do hope that you can get the 1000G tank asap, you and Olaf will be very happy about it. The sooner you can do this the better IMO

In reference to the spot, can you describe it a bit more for me please. Does it look like the skin pigment is blotchy/opaque or does it look red and sore? Are thre any other symptoms such as heavy breathing, are any of the other fish gasping at the surface or rapid gill movements? If its what Clooney gets I put it down to lack of O2 due to overefeeding.

Look here http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... verfeeding

Water changes and aerating the water will remedy it if that is the problem, you can aim the flow of your filteres upwards to ripple the waters surface.

If it is some kind of abbrasion use mela fix as prescribed on the label
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BrokenBoy
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Re: Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

Post by BrokenBoy »

Thanks very much Manuitus... I'm already well on the case with the tank mission :D

It's a white spot that has dark pigmentation around it... I guess for want of a better word it looks like a little ulcer...

All the other fish are happy, and apart from the abarasion he's really picking up now, being very social with me :D

I will try and take a fair few pics and post them on...

So in you ropinion, the melafix dosage on the bottle is the righht way?

Thanks for everyone's kind words and help. Me and Olaf both thank you! :D
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manutius
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Re: Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

Post by manutius »

From that description I would say it a is a harmles spot, possibly a swollen/sore spine. Clooney has had this a few times over the years and it goes without the need of treatment, I would stick with the melaifx to be on the safe side mate :D
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BrokenBoy
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Re: Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

Post by BrokenBoy »

You're a true star. Thank you for your help. Started Melafix tonight, will keep posted on improvements :)
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Re: Olaf the Mbu - Please Help? :(

Post by Hilly »

Looks like a heater burn to me. Melafix should sort it out no problem.
Hilly
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