The Puffer Forum

I had my ninja puffer for two weeks now and a white spot start to appear on his lower anal fin, in addition to the white spot on his fin there is a white dot sticking out of his back like a parasite. Could this be ick or some kind of parasite?

I saw the same thing on my Mbu and I treated the water with aquarium salt and it disapeared

I'm not sure if you do the same with marine aquariums as they already have marine salt in them?!

Thanks for the fast reply. Since my tank have normal salt in it, I just wonder if I can add aquarium salt in as well.

At this point, I'd just watch it to see if more appear or if it grows. Sometimes puffers get an infected spine.. even on the species you don't normally see all their little "spikes" they are still there, and sometimes one gets irritated, kind of like an ingrown hair.

That would be my guess at this point, since it seems a little large for ich, and usually there's a scattering of the white dots, not just one.

Keep the water clean, maybe some melafix, and watch for more to show up or it to get worse/better.

OK, I changed 25% of the water yesterday and add some aquarium salt in it and the white dot on my puffer fish is gone. However the white circle white spot on his lower anal fin that I mentioned now have a white string sticking out of it. I guess this is a parasite? Can I use coppersafe to treat it?

Myaj wrote: That would be my guess at this point, since it seems a little large for ich, and usually there's a scattering of the white dots, not just one.

Good point. I would stick with the aquarium salt and keep a close eye on it.

I should wait to see if the salt get rid of the parasite?

The thing on his fin I'm not too sure about... it might be an anchor worm but I don't have any experience with those and not sure how you'd treat a puffer for it (have to be careful with puffers and medications).

Hopefully someone else has a suggestion for you.