The Puffer Forum

I have a 3 year old gsp in a 80g tank by himself.
Salinity 1.007
No ammonia present
Ph 8.0
Temp 79
Nitrate below 20
Nitrite 0
I alternate and mix between krill and bloodworms. 3 times a week
I try to get pond snails 3/4 times a month
With some Apple snails sometimes also

I do 40% water changes 2 or 3 times a month

About a week ago i notice a good sized white spot on his back. After a closer look it looks like something had bit him. Looks like theres fuzz in the wound. I did a 50 % Water change lastnight. Used amquel and novaqua during change. This morning he was acting a little better but i noticed another spot forming near first one. Im really worried about my buddy.
Any advice on food would be great. If im not duing enough in that area.

I must say that about 2 months ago i was in a situation were i could not do a water change for a month. Amquel and novaqua were used . I not sure what to do next. Im thinking it might be parasites but its just a guess. If i treat for parasites and that isnt the problem will the treatment hurt him? Should i get some medicine to help skin heal? Advice on brands of medicine to buy? Thanks in advance for any help

I have pictures but dont know how to post them here.

You really need to attach an image to help us to correctly diagnose. A 3 year old gsp should be in a much higher sg than 1.007, more like 1.017-1.025. Krill is best kept as a treat, diversity in their diet is key to a healthy immune system. Without a pic it's hard to say, there is an upload attachment option at the bottom so long as you don't quick reply

Does he possibly sleep near the heater?

Why use Amquel if there's NO ammonia? Treat with Melafix & yes, get that SG up to SW levels: 1.020. You may want to convert to a marine tank.

Do you ever soak his food in vitamins? I also have a 3 yr old GSP who lives by himself . I feed him bloodworms, mysis shrimp, small clams, squid, shrimp, scallop, and fresh snails. Everything except the fresh snails comes frozen first. I soak all frozen food in a vitamin blend called VitaChem, which can be helpful in making sure that he's getting nutrients. It comes as a liquid, and you can buy it online if your local store doesn't carry it. I buy mysis shrimp in the same frozen section in the pet store as the blood worms (they're more nutritious than krill), and you can get a bag of variety frozen (make sure it's raw) seafood at a grocery store (Trader Joe's has a good blend). I also sometimes get a fresh crab leg from whole foods or some such and cut it into pieces and freeze it. I won't lie, it's hard to cut in pieces. It's fun to watch him pick the meat out though, and my experience has been for him to gnaw on the shell of it as well. Those are just some thoughts if you're looking to amplify his food selection.

In addition to using Melafix, one thing you may want to try is slightly smaller, more frequent water changes. I don't have any data to know whether (for example) 20% changes weekly would be preferable to a 40% change 2-3 times per month, but it might not hurt to up the frequency of the changes, at least until he gets better.

Thanks for all the replys.
I was using amquel to get rid of chlorine after water chhanges.

I have my heater far enough of bottom so he cant touch it while on the bottom.

No im not soaking food in vtitamins. Im going to
Lps tonight to get vitamins, snails, frozen bloodworms, and mysis shrimp. Do u defrost food in vitamin liquid? If not what is the best way to defrost before feeding?
Ive tried to feed him raw baby shrimp before but it would just sit on the bottom and he wouldn't touch it so i had to take it out so it wouldn't dirty water. Hopfuly hes a little older now and wont ignore that kind of stuff now. He dose love pond and mystery snails though.

Next water change i will start raising salinity. Since its so low should i raise salinity a little faster than normal ?

I know its hard to diagnose without pics, but have u ever heard of something like this being parasites? Everything ive read about parasites said they showed up as a bunch of very small dots not one or two large ones.
Still trying to post pics, having problems find host to post them from

Don't raise the SG more than.002/week.

Yes, defrost the foods in room temp vitamin water & then drain thru a brine shrimp net.

Use Prime for dechlor.

Sounds nothing like parasites to me.

Is it something like this? My largest puffer had something similar to what you describe and it went away after a couple months and I did nothing to treat it. He is still alive and well today. I never figured out what it was.

Does the spot look like an ulcer? And does this 'fuzz' look like cotton? If so, then it could be a bacterial skin infection. No way to know for sure until we see it - post those pics!

Is it getting worse? What are you treating it with now?

Seams to have slowed to a crawl or stopped Altogether, little hard to tell. I went out and got some fresh shrimp, and some snails for him. I just bought some pimafix, gunna start treating tonight. Any advice on treating with pimafix? Should i cut amount
Of dose down because he has no scales. Also not able to put him in a qt tank , hope that wont be a problem

Pimafix is for fungal infections. Is it cottony/fuzzy? I'd treat with Melafix, full dose.

Yes, very fuzz/cottony, thats why i got pirmafix. Will pimafix hurt him if i use it and the problem isnt fungal? U think i should go get melafix too? can treat using both at same time ?

jread002 wrote:Yes, very fuzz/cottony, thats why i got pirmafix. Will pimafix hurt him if i use it and the problem isnt fungal? U think i should go get melafix too? can treat using both at same time ?

It won't hurt to use it just in case, but yes get melafix too. Dosing both together should not be a problem.

I would treat with both. Be sure your SG is high enough, too.