The Puffer Forum

I thought I'd post this as soon as possible vs waiting and seeing what would happen.

One of my 3 SAPS has a couple small dimples behind the eyes, about half way to the nearest fins. We'll call this fish "Fatty".
Today I noticed that the skin on one of the dimples appears to be flaking a bit. If you've ever had a blister and it popped then dried you know what I mean.
It is circular with a white outline and looks like a thin layer of skin is shedding.

As for the Q's in red: (2 part answer)
April15th:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 15~20
Phosphates 2.0~2.5
KH 6
GH 9.5
PH 7.0~7.5 (sorry my digital needs calibration)

April 17th
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 30~40
Phosphates 1.5 ~ 2.0
KH 6.5
GH 11
PH 7.5~8.0

Other than the number changes, my wife (in her infinite wisdom) decided to add a few small sea shells and a couple smaller bits of coral to the tank (today). These were previously in our 30 gal for nearly a year before I broke it down and took them out.

Weekly water changes on the Sunday or Monday of approx 10%

Tank mates in the immediate tank: 5 plecos (maybe, I can't find them), 3 Otto alge eaters and 2 Siamese alge eaters. Tank size (for that section is 210 gals)

Feeding ... they ate all my snails and shrimp (90%) in 1 week, so they have been on blood worms for 1 day and attempting other foods at the moment (raw shell on shrimp, frozen crab etc..)

Am I being overly paranoid?

I am planning to add Melafix to the tank with the next water change. Good idea?

I am supposed to be cleaning my house..but I want a break

I am looking through wetwebmedia to see if I can find anything to help you.

Are you saying the dimples have always been there and they are just now flaking? Or have the dimples recently appeared?

And is it possible the puffer has been bitten? I imagine if there is any sort of symmetry a bite could have occurred????????

Thanks

I believe the dimples have always been there, but that one side with the skin could be a bite. The skin under looks almost normal that is why I thought it looked like a popped blister.

One of the reasons I posted this wasn't just the skin.. the puffer is very active and feeding (thus the name fatty). It was more the behavior. It will attempt to not show that side while I am looking for it. It will always keep the opposite side to me. This alerted me to a possible problem (typical animal survival).

I am a little concerned for you..I read somewhere that there are things (don't know what-bacteria or whatever) that can be present in aquarium water..however, in pristine water those things (whatever they are) can't really hurt your fish...

But, you had a nitrate spike, not a horrible spike, but still a spike that could have given something the chance to do its thing..

Is that true?

it is possible... the nitrates did go up but this is not unusual prior to my water changes. They usually start at 15~20 and end up in the 20~30 range before the water change. This time it is a little high. The other numbers are usually stable also and this time they are a little higher.

The best way to describe it .. it looks like a patch of dry skin.

Found this..on the puffer forum in thread :viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16626&p=171536&hilit=+skin#p171536

One thing I will say though is examine his skin closely, my SAP had a sore on his back last week which started as 3 little holes and turned into a kind of cracked white sore. When he had this he would just hover in the corner at the same height. If he does have this problem treat the tank with Melifix and Primafix, it healed my SAP's sore in 5 days, now his back to his happy curious self

Crackled white sore stuck out to me

I have no idea, I never noticed or saw anything like that. The irrubesco males have things that sound pretty similar but they're bites.

No ideas, sorry.

I'm going to add to this a little.

What I thought I had as tank mates were 3 Ottos and 2 Siamese + 5 Plecos (hidden)

I have now come to believe that I have 5 Siamese algae eaters in the tank with the SAPs. I was watching a movie and was more interested in the fish when I saw the algae eaters gang up on the saps 3:1 or 4:1 and chasing the poor thing around.

What is the best way to catch these guys and transplant them (the algae eaters)? I tried netting them ... no chance at that!

DIY fish trap? Any walk troughs?

Those guys are nasty. From what I've heard they're labeled wrong all the time. Do you know how to do a bottle trap? I've also heard that catching them after dark when they're asleep works as well.

http://www.kwas.ca/forum/showthread.php ... ottle+trap

http://www.kwas.ca/forum/showthread.php ... ottle+trap

http://www.kwas.ca/forum/showthread.php ... ottle+trap

I wonder if that's why the puffers are staying in such a small area

Good luck!

thank you!! I do the exact thing for a wasp trap

I couldn't believe that the SAPs were being harassed by these guys. I was just sitting there and then this flurry of activity and say 4 algae eater schooled together (never before) then they wen after one of the SAPs ... all together. Very gang mentality. I mentioned it to my wife and she said "yea, I saw that before." OMG! How can someone ignore that?

Too bad the SAPs didn't take a bite out of the algae eaters

Yeah, if only they'd gang up back, they could do some serious damage with those teeth. Of course, the SAEs are just acting naturally, you can't fault them but still... It's not nice

As long as you get them all out... Fingers crossed. Those guys are so naturally stressed as is, I don't know how much extra stress they could handle

Well the SAEs will get transplanted.

I might not go with the bottle thing but drop in my cray trap and hope that works, if I can get the right bait.

cray trap is in with 4 algae chips. I hope it works!

update:
Just dosed the tank with Melafix (3rd day). The dry skin spot doesn't look any better nor any worse. I noticed a similar spot on the top of another SAPs head.

I have removed 3 of the 5 SAEs so they will not be able to gang up on them and also upgraded the filter... that one is a long story.

Would SAEs leave circular marks on a puffer's skin?

I got a close look at it just a moment ago, and it is a circle inside a circle; almost perfectly round. The puffers are reasonably colourful and active They are not pale like then they are scared.