The Puffer Forum

Hi all,

First time here.

My figure 8 puffer is new to his 15 gal tank. I cycled it doing a fishless cycle and had everything ready to go. I brought him home and he seemed perfectly fine until about two days ago I noticed a blue spot on his side in front of his anal fin near his anus. I had no idea what it could possibly be. I checked my parameters:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 15
pH 7.6
SG 1.004
Temp 79 deg f

He seemed to be fine otherwise, he ate his freeze dried krill happily, had no odd behaviors besides buzzing around his new tank. He is alone in the tank and I have been doing a weekly 50% water change, though only once since I just got him recently.

I tried on other forums with no response, so I just went for a melafix treatment just in case it was simple. He's been on that for a day now. Today though I got a better look while feeding him and the spot went from one, to about three small spots that look like one big one. They are slightly raised and look almost like tiny silicate balls. I have no idea what this is after searching for several hours so can anyone help? By the way the dot has stayed in the same area for three days so I'm hoping that rules out nematodes. Thank you.

Is it raised up? It could possibly be a bite from another puffer. Was he in a tank with other puffers at the store?
Do you have a picture?

Sadly, I can't get a picture of it. It is raised and from some angles it looks kinda like a skin flap, its just the blue color that has me weirded out. I had a puffer before this one and it had been bitten and it doesn't look like that to me because it is a little cluster more so than a circle.

Keep on with the Melafix treatment and see what that does. I really cannot think of what these spots can be. Perhaps someone else is familiar with them, though it's hard to get a good mental image. :S

Thats probably the best I can do. The small grayish area is what I'm talking about, but he's a pretty fast mover as he is still nervous in his new tank.

Read through this side, and see if anything sounds like your problem.

Well the spot moved to the other side and it's not really blue its more gray now. Any ideas?