The Puffer Forum

So i was warned this would happen, I came home from work today to find my female salivator with most of her side fin missing and several chunks out of her side, she is still swimming but in a bad way. I have moved her into a small hospital tank i had been keeping some ramshorns snails in with the hope of breeding them, I haven't tested the water yet i will post the results in a while but i just had to get her out asap before any more damage was done. I have put some anti fin rot/fungus medicene in. What else can i do to help her? Is she likely to recover? Any ideas appreciated.
Thanks
Ben

Depends on how bad it is. What kind of meds are you using and what size tank were they in? It sounds like all you can do is treat with medicine and wait it out.

Where are you located?

Im just outside of london in the uk. I've put in a dose of interpet antifungus &finrot treatment, its all i have in the house and everywhere is shut. It's a 20 litre tank. It should be cycled i filled it about 4 or 5 weeks ago and used filter media from my main tank. They tank they where in together was a 110 litre.

All you can do is keep the water clean and treat the tank with melafix anf pimafix and wait and see.

Hope that she pulls through, whereabouts outside London?

cheshunt in hertfordshire, she wasn't looking good this morning

poor thing, as Hilly says keep the water very clean and medicate with melafix, keeping my fingers crossed for you. I vaguely remember talking to you about where you live in the past, so many members its hard to keep track

Do the wounds look like they have secondary infection? Melafix usually prevents it, but if it's setting in anyway, a daily one hour bath in one gallon of water with a ten gallon dose of antibiotic might kill the infection before it gets deep.

They dont look infected but they are bad. She just lies on the bottom not moving. I thought she was dead this morning but when i put a net in she started moving around. I wondered wether to put her out of her misery, but its 30 hours on and she's alive, it's just hard to envisage her getting better she looks so beaten up.

To be honest I expected your next post to shes gone, however if there is any chance however small give her the chance to fight on. Mine died within the day. If she's still fighting let her fight, she may be a tough old bird, might not get 100% but give her the chance.

You have unfortunately fell foul of the Salivator curse but dont beat yourself up too bad Ben. I myself have tried and failed but if we dont try we never know what could've been. Experience is everything.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her. It's hard watching them suffer, but sometimes there can be miracles. I've had a catfish raising from the dead.

Troender wrote:I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her. It's hard watching them suffer, but sometimes there can be miracles. I've had a catfish raising from the dead.

cat fish (in my experience) are quite indestructible. my last pet cat came four hours home on ice, was almost cleaned, but I noticed it move and so got some water and got it back to swimming, then put it in my tank. it lived another 3 years until we had to move, so I put it in a local pond.

Ben, I hope your little lady makes it.

So she was dead when i got home today. Poor little thing. I did call the LFS and said to them I thought he should warn people about keeping them together because he'd told me they would get along fine. He said it was just down to individuals which i guess is true but it seems from all you guys and your experience that the majority of males are pretty much intolerant of females.
I really appreciate everyone's help and comments.
thanks to everyone, especially hilly.

sorry about your loss!

yeah, sorry she didn't make it.