The Puffer Forum

One of my GSPs has a white spot. Just one, on its back just before its tail. Bill is about 2 inches long, and is nice and fat and healthy. His spot is about 3mm in diameter, and is not fluffy. It's not like one of his black spots has turned into a white one, it looks more like he's rubbed himself on something. It's been like that for about a week, and isn't changing at all.

I've upped my water changes to 3 times a week see if it will help, but otherwise, nothing has changed. The tank has been up and running for about 8 months (but I used a 2yr old established filter), and the puffers are about 3 months old.

My ammonia, nitrates and nitrites are too low to pick up, pH is about 7.8 (normal). He's in brackish water, about 1.008SG. The other puffer is totally fine, and Bill is acting normal too. I'll try to get some pics, but does anyone have any ideas what it might be?

If you could get a picture of the spot we may be able to help you better. Until then I would use melafix.

Could be a puffer bite. Sometimes a hard scrape of any kind, including from another puffer beak, can scrape the pigment off the outside of the skin. My GSP Jillybean gets white lines on her face from forcing it into the live rock too hard when going for isopods, and I have seen puffer bites do the same thing.

I find spots like that usually go away but I use Melafix anyway. Keep an eye on it for any changes.