The Puffer Forum

just got this little guy 2day, n hes been kinda hiding n stuff, which i expected, but hes eaten a couple of worms.now over the past couple hours or so, hes gotlike furrystuff over his mouth maybe fungus?ive put melafix in. when i went in the kitchen where his tank is bout 20 mins ago, he was just kindo hovering at the topof the tank, nwhen i loked properly his mouth looked completely covered with it i caught him, n gently tried 2 wipe it off his mouth with a cotton bud, cos i guess that could suffocate him coulnt it? buthes no better just sat on the bottom of the tank, nd his belly looks really dark now is there something i can do for him?

pH - 8
amm - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - less than 5

15g tank, just him and a few shrimps n snails

Do you know what ph he was kept, it may have been very different where he was purchased,when i received the puffer in my avatar box he was shipped to me in 6.5 my water was 7.0 so it wasn't as much of a difference as if you recieved your puffer in 6.5 and had to be aclimatised to 8.0 they are supposedly more comfortable in i believe softish 6.0 to 7.2 (pufferpedia states 7.8 so may not be an issue)but sounds like your treatment of the fungus is ok.not had to use meds on any carinotetraodon puffers, so if melafix dont work i dont know how you would go about treating.You could maybe dose him with some stress coat off and on since he seems stressed.

It sounds like a fungal infection. Instead of Melafix I'd switch to PimaFix (designed to treat fungus) and keep your water pristine. If he's at the top of the tank I'd look in to adding an air stone to make sure he is getting good oxygenation. The extra oxygenation can also help speed healing of fungal infections.

If this is columnaris, a bacterial infection that looks like fungus, then TONS of oxygen, a temp of 74 degrees, and aqarium salt will help. If it doesn't go away, a ten-day regimen of Maracyn or Tri-Sulfa would be needed.

Yeah, I'd add 1.5 tbsp salt to the system.

Doh! Forgot about the salt....

kk will go add salt now. i thought he was dead when i got up,but when i went 2 net him out, he swam away. all his mouth n nose etc hs changed colour, its really pale but then the bit where his beak is has gne dark. n yep it is actually melafix im using, always get them confused!! i did read the bottle 1st tho to check that it was the fungus 1. thanks for ya help!

I'm in no way qualified to give advice but did DadoF4 say 'Primafix', not 'Melafix'? The 'Primafix' might be even better at fungus.

One thing ive actually measured with Melafix is that the oxygen level drops - an airstone with loads of air going through would sort that.

Hope he pulls through, poor thing.

I think that Fish Alive's water is quite hard and other bits of durham city area can be quite soft - my tapwater is 3 deg calcium hardness. So instead of discus etc I want to keep brackish and marines! The pH is buffered to 7.0 by the water company but mine can drop to pH 5.5 after a few days if just left in a jar with no coral sand etc.

I've had very good luck using Pimafix. My Baileyi had a fungus on her body in different places and it was quite bad, but in 3 days of using Pimafix, it was all cleared up and she's fine now.

I sure hope your irrubesco pulls through rachy!

I was adding pimaflex when doing ich treatment and it worked out great.

Pimafix doesn't have any effect on ich.

But I used it anyway and ich was gone in 3-5 days

Ich is never gone in 3-5 days unless you're using an intensive treatment like copper or formaldehyde, which should be avoided anyway, as they're very hard on fish. It might look gone, but it's still there, just waiting for your fish's immune system to take a blow and let it get ahold. I heard it compared to a ninja once.

Pimafix is for fungal and certain bacterial infections. It has no effect whatsoever on parasites. Perhaps if you put the fish in a solution of 100% Pimafix, then the parasites would die, but then so would your fish, and that wouldn't be very helpful.

well iv just got in fromwork, and hes died rip little puffer x

Aw, poor little guy. Sorry