The Puffer Forum

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers. PH 8.3, Am -0 Nite-0, Nate - 15 (API test kit), sg - 1.026

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
40B with a 20 gal fuge sump. 2 tom clowns, one diamond goby, and my little gsp (3.25 in)

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
feed - Tank gets krill, mysis, brine, emerald entre, and clams on a random rotating schedule. Puffer gets some of the freeze dried krill snacks as a random feeding. Flake food, spirulina, and the green nori sheets are fed semi regularly also. Most flake or pellet food is used to replace one of the other items if they are gone. Occasionally rods food also.

Products in tank- Started dosing vit c., trace elements occasionally (every other week 5 ml.), reef crystals salt, prime to treat top off water. Water changes done via RO from store.


4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
Started dosing Vit C last week. Installed the overflow to the larger sump last week, prior it was a hob cpr fuge. Puffer did decide to take the overflow for a ride the day it was installed. I didn't notice any damage the day of, but was gone for a full day this weekend. (Left friday evening, returned sunday mid-day) Noticed the blister when I returned.

I noticed today one of the tom clowns is defending an area pretty strongly, could be a bite?

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
Setup in this location for 9 months, setup has been running with a pair of relocations for just over three years if my math is right.






It looks a little different in person, there is a whiter spot in the center of this. It looks like an abrasion of some sort that got infected, more so than a b;ister. He/she is eating very well, though I see it laying in new spots, but that is not soo unusual.

Hi. Probably not much help, but it looks similar to a horrible bitewound that my GSP had when I got him. It gradually healed over - white in colour, then he started to get his spots back on the scar tissue. I didn't treat with anything, other than super clean water. But you can add melafix to aid the recovery of skin wounds.

I read and also heard from a marine biology major (student) that GSP don't do too well in salinity above 1.022, something in regards to the way their organs handle the salinity or something to that effect. I don't know how true this is, but I keep my salinity at that level just in case.

Pimafix and melafix work great together, I know one is more aimed at gram negative bacterial infections, one at gram positive, (I don't remember which), and I believe Pimafix covers fungal infections as well, so this should cover all, or most bases in helping the wound heal.

Clownfish mated pairs can be very vicious, perhaps not the best tank mates if they are biting your poor little puffer guy

I'm not sure they don't make SW Pimafix but definitely use the SW Melafix for this. My guess is a possible heater burn. Do you see him sitting by it? You don't mention live rock. Is this a tank without this in there?

Are you keeping corals?

+1 to Pufferpunk's comments...

Or, he has scraped some of his color off. I am not sure what you mean by "take the overflow for a ride" but, that sounds like the perfect opportunity to scrape of color, although the spot is rather round????

One of my puffs became to fat for his favorite piece of decor and he got stuck coming out of it once..he scraped of scratches of color..

Could be a bite, it appears that he has a notch out of one of his fin from the pic. That may have already been there when purchased though.

Take the overflow for a ride was actually a tube siphon to make sure the return I was installing was working. I had a 1.25in id tube drawing water to the sump. It waited till I turned to check the water level in the sump, and whoomp... out he popped in the bottom.

I haven't seen him ion the heater.

The clowns are odd.. they dont seem to be a pair like the my gf's percs. The tolerate each other.

Also, typically he is the bully of the tank.

PP. Yes. there is xenia in the tank, as well as a couple mushrooms and a few zoanthids, and a trumpet coral.