The Puffer Forum

Generally, it's caused from a tank being overstocked and/or contaminated water (the 2 sorta go hand in hand). Once it spreads(especially to that extent) there is little that can be done.

I'm so sorry about your puffer!

yeah, I'm sad now that my puffer passed away. My grouper is still fighting for his life. The sore has since gotten worse even after full dosing the tank as directed with furan2 for 4 days. I am guessing the medication is not getting into his body where the infection is, because the skin seems to be eaten away from the inside out, so I'm prob going to try Maracyn2 next. The fish is not eating =/
The only other possibility is some very tiny parasites I can't see, but I doubt that.

aw. that's too bad
I wish you and him luck.

Kind of like a flesh-eating disease. I'm not that up on diseases though.

PM pufferqueen, she should be able to help you more than we can.

Definitely bacterial in nature. Without a culture, can not say for sure the pathogen.....being that it spreads quickly - first guess would be either vibrio or pantoea.

Both can infect humans. Wear gloves (anytime you put your hands in any tank) as this can spread via the skin and any breaks or cuts are a prime portal of injury. These pathogens can be in the tank without any signs.

Marcyn-2 would not be my first choice of antibiotics. SInce you have been using a nitrofurazone agent, consider using kanamycin, or enrofloxacin (only through a vet).

I would also recommend adding beta glucan and vitamins to the diet to try and boost the immune system and promote healing.

Best of luck.

I would definitely not treat in the display tank as porous materials will absorb medications and make achieving a therapeutic level of medication impossible.

I would also consider removing all substrate and leaving the tank bare bottom or replacing with only a thin layer of sand. In a couple of cases of recurring bacteria in fish, when the substrate is cultured - the same pathogen is found in abundant numbers. Being that your puffer and grouper (both will rest on the bottom), have been infected.....there is a high likelihood that your substrate has a high bacterial count.

okay, no porous materials...so no LR? But then how to get healthy nitrate levels and no nitrites and ammonia in tank? I wouldn't have any biological filters if I removed all of the porous material from the treatment tank.
The infection is spreading across my grouper, but not affecting my sailfin tang to any visible degree, though the fish seem stressed due to bacteria being killed off from use of meds and higher levels nitrites than I would like(likely to have triggered a mini cycle?) I don't have a spare tank ready so the fish have been treated in the main tank without much success. The sand bed is highly uneven due to the grouper moving sand around, and the sand is about 5 inches high at peaks while almost completely bare on other parts of the tank(I've given up on trying to even it out).

Right now the back end of my grouper is consumed on one side by the bacterial infection, I can see the bones showing now through what thin layer of flesh is still present. It's eating my fish alive... very slowly. If the harmful bacteria is indeed in the sand bed(or worse, the porous LR), how do I get rid of the bacteria in there? Replacing all the LR and sand is pretty expensive and I hope there is an alternative?

grouper passed away today =/
The medication I ordered did not get here in time for me to treat him with it.
I am uncertain how to proceed from here. I am going to try and stabilize my tank right now because I've put a lot of meds into it and I want to get rid of all those chemicals so my LR can grow back and I can have a healthy tank again.

I'm sorry to hear that

I wish you good luck.

Leave the tank fallow for 8 weeks. That will get rid of the bacteria

That gets rid of parasites. Not so sure about bacteria.

would it be quicker to clean everything thoroughly, then re-cycle it? or is there live sand and rocks and stuff that you are trying to save?

yeah, I want to save the live sand and rocks and the fish I have in the tank. I only have two other fish in the tank, they are not showing any symptoms, but I have no other tanks to move them to. In addition, I don't know if the fish are carriers of the bacteria(is it possible?) so I'm not sure that I can safely put them into a new tank without contaminating the new tank as well.

Wait to see what PQ says about this.