The Puffer Forum

hello again,

I have been nursing a couple sick puffers back to health after buying/saving them from a LFS that had about 10 in a 2 galloon tank. Most of them looked half dead, I bought 3. One didn't make it.....although he had no visible signs of disease other than really pointy sharp overgrown teeth/beak. The other two weren't doing the greatest, and weren't eating much. I treated them for IP and for ich because of the photos below, thinking that's what it was. The are acting 100% better today, with healthy appetites. What I thought was Ich hasn't fallen off yet and is in the same spot it was 6 days ago before I turned the heat up to 85ish. From what I have read I thought if it was ich if would have fallen off by now and into the gravel. Any thoughts on what this could be? I'm also currently dosing pimafix and melafix into the tank as well. Only the one puffer has the white spots on his fins....you can see a cluster of it at the base and a couple spots towards the end on the close up. He has had the white spots since I brought him home from the fish store.

Here's a run down of my params
Temp:85
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:10-20ppm
Salinity :1.005
PH: 7.8

Tank size: 50gal
Fish Size: about an inch each
Other fish: One pleco that has always thrived in my brackish molly tank....he's growing like a weed.
**note the puffers and the pleco don't bother each other at all.
Filtration: Eheim 2217 Classic

Food: Mussels mainly -from local grocery store, freeze dried blood worms, frozen adult brine shrimp, and currently farming snails.

Fungus. It looks like it could have been from a bite that got infected. Either way treat with Pimafix/Melafix, and get some antifungal meds. If possible quarantine him.

Isn't Pimafix antifungal medication? Is it not strong enough?

Right I totally wasn't paying attention .Try just the pimafix/melafix and if it doesn't help get some other antifungal medication.

I've had much better luck with fungus that looks like that if I manually remove the fungus so the medication can reach the open wound. I'd do that before it reaches the body.

Nick wrote:I've had much better luck with fungus that looks like that if I manually remove the fungus so the medication can reach the open wound. I'd do that before it reaches the body.

manually remove the fungus? How do you go about doing that? My new GSP's aren't in the stage yet where they let my pet them. They still hide a fair bit.

I netted the betta, held him with one hand(out of the net with a wet hand, I figure well rinsed softened skin will be less abbrasive than the net mesh) and pinched it off with the fingers of my other hand, taking some of the dead fin with it.

It looks like you are doing a good job with them. If you do follow Nick's instructions, I suggest holding the puffer underwater (I'd use the net) & just take the infested fin out of the water to treat. You do not want the puffer to inflate with air.

BTW, the pleco may seem OK in the lower SG the juvie puffers are in right now but as you raise the SG to the required higher salinity the GSPS requite it will be very uncomfortable for the pleco.

Pufferpunk wrote:It looks like you are doing a good job with them. If you do follow Nick's instructions, I suggest holding the puffer underwater (I'd use the net) & just take the infested fin out of the water to treat. You do not want the puffer to inflate with air.

BTW, the pleco may seem OK in the lower SG the juvie puffers are in right now but as you raise the SG to the required higher salinity the GSPS requite it will be very uncomfortable for the pleco.

Yeah, I'm going to get the pleco out as soon as I can get another home for him.

As for the fungus, I don't think my GSP is healthy enough to put him through that much stress by picking him up and manually removing it. Any other safe meds for fungus? I'm on day 8 of Pimafix and Melafix and it doesn't seem to be helping.

I think that would be the best bet, it wouldn't stress him for long.
You might want to find a stronger antifungal/bacterial medicine.

on a side note, what's the longest you can treat with Melafix and Pimafix? On the bottle it says after 7 days, do a 25% WC then continue if required.

I really don't think theres a limit. It's all natural and doesn't harm the biological filtration in the tank.