The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone I am new to having a GSP. we purchased two puffers from our LFS about 3 months ago, we have no idea what happened but two weeks in one of them died. Now we just have the one puffer in a 40 gallon tank we recently added 4 ghost shrimp hoping he would eat them but has shown no interest!! He still eats bloodworm and snails and clams, Recently he has had this bump about the middle of his back well it has moved to right behind his eye and now down under his gills on the belly, he still eats good and doesnt bottom sit only when he sleeps in his cove. We do biweekly 30% water changes and the salinity in the tank was just increased to 1.015 we are very slowly converting the tank to full marine. Our Ph is at between 8-8.5, the temp is currently 77-79. the puffer is about 3 to 3.5 inches long and is still a very vibrant and seemingly happpy fish I would just like to know if any one else has experienced anything like this all other research I have done says its a parasite but I never see these worm like things in the gills. Very concerned and would like to keep our puffer happy and healthy!!

Almost all puffers are wild caught, so the chances are high that internal and/or external parasites may come in with the fish. Lumps under the skin which move periodically can be a symptom of somatic parasites (perhaps nematodes, but different from those which infect the gills or gut or external skim. The somatic parasites are unfortunately generally un-treatable. There are medications which can be injected to kill them, but then the dead mass of the parasite itself can be toxic or fatal to the host fish. That can makes it a lose-lose situation. My T. mbu had at least one, and I have had at least one, maybe two GSPs with the same symptoms. If the infection is by a small number of these worms, the fish may live an essentially normal life. Those worms have a complex life cycle and do not multiply within the fish, which is only an intermediate host to these parasites.

Such parasites are not always visible under the skin. They may remain in place for months to years or may vanish and reappear later some where else on the body. The parasite does live on the fish's internal fluids, but small numbers are not debilitating (i.e., not significantly harmful).

There are other similar internal parasites which are responsible for "Black Spot Disease" in fish, which is also similarly not harmful to fish hosting only small numbers of those particular parasites.

HTH

Look up Nematode worm. That's probably whet he's got. You could try a risky surgery or keep him quarantined (no tank mates) & hope he lives a happy life with the worm.

Thank you for replying I will look up that worm! Looks like I wont be adding another puffer but that is ok!!

They actually can live quite some time with these worms.

Those particular somatic parasites do not multiply in their fish hosts, so the do not generally present any infection risk to tankmates unless the host fish dies and is eaten by tankmates.