The Puffer Forum

Hi,

I really need someone's help. First of all, there has been no changes in my tank. It has been set up for over two years. My Puffer started getting a white puffy ring around his eye a few days ago. It has progressed and has covered his whole eye. It is so filmy and popped out. He is eating fine and swimming but I'm sure he can't see. Does anyone know what this is and how I can cure it??? I have attached a picture of his bad eye (worse now then when pic taken) and good eye. Please help!

Do you have a quarantine tank?
It looks like a severe/modified form of pop eye to me. I'd isolate him and treat him ASAP! PufferQueen could give you more detail on this.

Do you have any anemones in your tank?

If it is popeye, would it still help adding epsom salt to salt water like in fresh, or is it just redundant?

No, it's a different kind of salt & can be added to marine tanks. It would still help to post answers for the Qs above in red. Also PM Puffer Queen, she's the SW puffer disease expert here.

More history helps with diagnosis and treatment.....

What size tank is the puffer in ?
What other tank mates?
What are your water parameters - specifics please?
What are you feeding your puffer?

Without the above information....I would have to lean towards a bacterial infection.

I would move this puffer to a separate bare bottom tank. I would maintain pristine water conditions and start antibiotic baths. I prefer baths versus prolonged immersion as it preserves the biological filtration and doesn't require as much antibiotics (saves money) and the antibiotic quickly degrades when exposed to light, saltwater and air.

Enrich the diet with vitamins and beta glucan to boost the immune system and promote healing.

Best of luck.

Thank you for all your responses. Here is the information you asked for...

I had the water tested for 125 gallon tank and the results showed the salinity was very high at 1.035. I have since water changed 20 gallons out adding no more salt. Also, the ph was a tad low at 7.6. The other levels were normal. I set up this tank 2 1/2 years ago and cycled it for three weeks with 12 pounds of live rock and 6 Damsels. 3 Damsels remain in there today. There is also one yellow Tang(2 Inches) and one Lunare Wrasse(6 inches). There is a total of 6 fish and about 35 pounds of rock. They get fed every 2-3 days. They're diet consists of 4 silverside, a chunk of Sally's krill, a pinch of flakes, and within the past week or two 3-4 clams. I do a water change 3 times a year. I add roughly 3 gallons of r/o water every 2 weeks due to evaporation.

My puffer remains in the same condition. Please respond with any info or advice. Thank you in advance.

You should be checking your water parameters regularly. Answering the stuff in red up top will help us try to figure out what's wrong. What are "normal" levels? Puffers are very sensitive to water quality. Acceptable levels for other fish are harmful to puffers.

35 LBS of rock is not enough. It is recommended to have 1-1.5 pounds per gallon for sufficient filtration.

More importantly is to know what the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate is & what is your water change schedule?

yanya22 wrote:I had the water tested for 125 gallon tank and the results showed the salinity was very high at 1.035. I have since water changed 20 gallons out adding no more salt.

You need to check your water parameters more often. Yes, that is very high, but if you lower it too quickly that can also be very damaging. That high a level is not normal, but there have been experiments that prove fish can tolerate higher ones if it was very very slowly brought that high. I am not recommending you do this, I do recommend you recheck the salinity daily and bring it down no more than .002 per day.

yanya22 wrote:Also, the ph was a tad low at 7.6.

This is a big stressor on the fish. Once again, bring that number up slowly ~ 0.2 per day at most. Bringing it up too fast will kill it before leaving it at that level.

yanya22 wrote:They get fed every 2-3 days. They're diet consists of 4 silverside, a chunk of Sally's krill, a pinch of flakes, and within the past week or two 3-4 clams.

I personally feel that your fish may need more nutrition and need to be fed often in small increments. Their diet needs to be more varied including seaweed and various shrimp and other invertebrats.

yanya22 wrote:I do a water change 3 times a year. I add roughly 3 gallons of r/o water every 2 weeks due to evaporation.

If you are only doing 3 per year, there is probably not a large enough turn over of "fresh" water. Water changes physically remove waste, I don't think you have enough surface area on your rock to house enough bacteria to sustain your tank.

Also, when was the last time you added any of the fish you mentioned earlier? and how long have you had the puffer?

I hope everything works out okay.

HTH

This may sound a bit weird but think of it this way:
When you change the water in your tank it is like flushing your toilet. It rids the water of wastes and impurities.
When left to sit, the toxicity in the water gets to unbearable levels and results in infection and death.
You can set yourself up a schedule to change your water and it will take no time at all. Take one day a week 15 minutes maybe max and your fish will be healthy and happy.

I would still recommend treating the puffer with antibiotic baths.

I would add whatever the medication instructions say for 10 gallons to one gallon - ie one capsule per 10 gallons would be 1 capsule per gallon. I would aerate the bath well and bath the puffer for one hour daily (new bath water & antibiotics) for at least 7 -10 days.

The pH of the tank is low but with a fish only system this is a common problem and it usually drifts down slowly and probably has been at this level for a prolonged period. I would recommend raising the pH slowly - this can be done by improving your water changing practices. Addin buffer will only be a temporary 'bandaid'. I would recommend doing weekly water changes for at least a month and then every two weeks forever.

Thats a lot of tablets!
And chin, I think that is my favorite description of water changes I have ever heard.

You should also use tank water for the bath.