Dogface who appeared to have ich

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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The Bruce
Figure 8 Puffer
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Dogface who appeared to have ich

Post by The Bruce »

I recently thought my dogface puffer had ich or some kind of parasite but he never had any symptoms besides white spots. these spots were not raised on the skin so i searched and searched the internet for what parasite this was, all the while my puff was in quarantine. after one week his spots doubled in the Q tank and i was perplexed, but then the other day i saw him puff up for the second time that i had seen, and he developed a couple more. Then i remembered the first spots i saw on him a month and a half ago appeared after i saw him puff for the first time. more net searching led to very similar stories as well as pictures of wild arothron puffers with the same spots. here are those pictures
http://www.fishbase.org/Photos/Thumbnai ... fm?ID=6400
and here is a picture of the white dots
Image
Pamela
Green Spotted Puffer
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Post by Pamela »

It's not columnaris, is it? Have a look for that on google.
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The Bruce
Figure 8 Puffer
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Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:58 am
My Puffers: 2xFahaka
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Location: Sacramento, CA

Post by The Bruce »

Well from my search i didn't read or see anything that said columnaris looks like little white pimples, pictures showed white stringy or velvety patches sometimes accompanied by red marks, i've read about many diseases and i still can't find a match to my puffers disease(if it is a disease). The spots on my puffer are in a cluster and do not have a salt-like appearance except for being white. but all ideas are welcome as i had not read about columnaris yet. so thank you.

also i should add that since the appearance of the spots, no other fish has been affected, and the puffer's behavior is and has always been the same, be at whatever side of the tank im at and beg.
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Steelgeek
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Post by Steelgeek »

Are you sure those arent his spines?
The rare and elusive SteelGeek has been known to cause great damage to his environs...
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The Bruce
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 193
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:58 am
My Puffers: 2xFahaka
3xDwarf
1xMbu
1xHumpback
1xDogface
1xMuirus
1xRedeye
Location: Sacramento, CA

Post by The Bruce »

after he puffed it looked like he was covered in ich, which were of course spines, but these spots in the picture don't go away after he's done puffing like the spines do, but im convinced the spots are not a disease if anything.
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