The Puffer Forum

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

It's not columnaris, is it? Have a look for that on google.

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.

Are you sure those arent his spines?

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.