The Puffer Forum

I have an ammonia remover.. My nitrates and nitrites are fine so I am just using my dechlorinator I have, which does what prime does minus removing nitrates and nitrites.

I am just using basic aquarium rocks.

I am wondering if you could help figure out what this could possibly be on my puffer, if anything. I noticed today that the puffers fins seem to be getting white starting at the base and travelling though the spines. The fin that is most affected is almost completely white. The fins are intact and look fine aside from being white. My other puffers fins are all see through with a bit of grey so this doesn't look right. I tried to get a picture, but it's really hard to capture the defect on camera. Any ideas would be good


I am going to try and get a better picture. He swims as fast as he can to get away from me when I get close, so it's hard to sneak up on him. And even then I am sure it's not god for him :S

Oh wow, poor guy looks terrible. Could be the start of fin rot. Try using melafix/pimafix to help the guy recover, if fin rot is the case. Otherwise idk, I'd recommend you wait for some feedback from senior members. Your top priority is getting his environment STABLE ASAP. Any recovery will be made much more difficult without good conditions. So establish stable conditions, then treat for diseases/wounds. Good luck with your little guy, I hope he recovers.

Here is a better picture you can see the difference in the fin that is hurting..

Yeah he's pretty awful. That's my goal right now. Trying to get the tank under control!
It's weird because a week and a 1/2 ago I thought my other puffer was going to die, because he was doing the same thing. without the weird fin issues. I made a call to my LFS and they didn't really help much. He almost immediately started eating and recovered. This guy is a different story.

Is there something dead in your tank? Check your filters for dead anything...if your puffer is rotting you need quarantine him. His rot is probably causing your amonia.. prime should solve your problem if you do a 100% wc. This cant be a mystery forever if you do a process of elimination.

Looks like a possible ip infection. Is he eating?

He does eat, though not a lot and often spits it out or about 30 mins later will regurgitate. He does digest some as he has a lump in his tummy afterwards still. I am really not sure what to treat this guy for.. I put in melafix last night and as I was taking out the carbon filter a lot of debris from the filter into the aquarium and within a few minutes the healthy fish was freaking out and the sick one was curled up in the corner. I immediately did a 60%+ water change. I added a little more melafix this morning. Both fish seem good with it.

How would I diagnose IP? The only thing I have read is the sunken in abdomen. At this point I don't know it's from not eating very much or if there is something else going on?

Thank you all for your help with this. I am going to do some readings in a few mins and see where my water quality is at today...

Do a 50% WC & clean that filter more often. Use aragonite sand, to stabilize the pH around 8.
library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/

Test your water dierectly after treating with prime and test later to see how fast the quality is degrading

I had just had snails in the tank before the puffers, and I guess I didn't realize how much of a mess they made :S The snails were only in there for about a month before the puffers ate them all

How often does the filter need to be cleaned? Previously I had never cleaned it as I thought it would disrupt the bacteria?

Obviously I am still such a noobie at fish keeping :S

The crap in your filter is just that: crap. The bacteria lives on the surfaces of the filter media. It will not wash off.

Ok sounds good ...

Looks as though I will be trying to find a treatment for IPs.. I was watching him swim about and saw something protruding his anus and it appeared red in colour. I kept watching to see if it he would pass it to see what it was, but it retracted back inside and the shape of it`s abdomen changed... Yay..

Thanks for the help

I used prazipro to treat my f8. Just soak the food in a few drops of liquid prazipro, add some garlic juice too if you want, it hides the med flavor. A small piece of shrimp is a good food to medicate, they love shrimp and it's a veritable med sponge as far as foods go. Just add some prazi, some garlic juice, let marinate for 1 hour, then bon appatit. Treat for 5 days, you should see the sunken tummy go away. I did not physically see my f8 expel worms, but if you do, that's a sign you're doing it right =P.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PRAZIPRO-1-Oz-I ... 231ee83eb1

P.S. Remember to clean your filter media in tank water. I always coincide my filter cleaning with a WC so I can just use the water drained. As for everything else, if you follow the advice, you should see improvement soon, good luck with your little guys.

I went to the LFS to get something for the IP and they gave me Metro+. It apparently treats lots of things including IPs. So far it's been a challenge to get them to eat it. They take a bite and spit it out, even with the garlic and shrimp.

He seems more lively now, but the white coating is progressing and his eye is now foggy. Now I am thinking possible fungal? I don't really know what to do without going crazy with meds and killing what bioload I do have starting up. (ammonia has been around .50-1ppm which is what the tap water is) I am going to have to do at least a partial water change to vacuum the gravel as it's got a ton of shrimp throughout it.

I know the main goal is to get the water quality under control, but I feel as though his main issue is whatever disease he has and I need to treat it as I am getting the water under control.

Any ideas on how I can do this would be great.

more water changes will help with his condition, only with really high water quality can he recover.