The Puffer Forum

Fish is a Striped Burrfish
Water
0 ppm ammonia
0 ppm nitrite
5 ppm nitrate
SG 1.010 steady last 9 days
pH steady 8.1
72 degrees
No powerhead to get stuck on this time, and no tankmates

This fish seems to have developed these symptoms since noon today (7 hours ago):
Head is covered with white slime coat that is sloughing and head appears swollen
Began hovering at bottom of tank, but still actively swimming around
Began swimming with mouth open
Currently in hypo saline for treatment of crypt (which has not been visible on the fish for 7 of the past 9 days)
Administered Metronidazole in soaked carnivore pellets last 3 days
Last ate at noon today

We've never seen anything like this - photos below. We have begun treatment with marine Melafix (the only medication we have on hand). Any other medication would have to be overnighted.
Anne and Robert

I would suggest ending the hypo for now, crypt is likely the least of your worries. Wait for someone more in the know to confirm but I would drop acclimate back up and keep with the melafix personally

My fear is the dreaded Vibro. Do a search.

It could be vibrio, but we're inclined to diagnose this as Brooklynella ( Clown fish disease) because of the very heavy sloughing slime coat and lack of red lesions. It now covers about half of his body and is spreading rapidly. We've dosed the tank with Melafix in the hope that it may slow things down. It's what we have.

Some sources say metronidazole treats Brooklynella, while others say it won't and only formalin will work. There is one fish store about 45 min drive from here that might have a formalin formulation or antibiotics antibiotics such as Maricyn 2 or a furizolodone/nitrofuran based medication that would work on vibrio.

We are reluctant to raise salinity because of the reduced oxygen in the water and additional energy he would need for osmoregulation, these could be problematic. The added stress/energy or the change could kill him. He has been doing very well in the hypo and eating like a champ and was last fed yesterday. Interestingly he us still up and swimming around. Obviously he's not as happy or energetic as he was, but if there were not the slime and discoloration we might not recognize that he was sick. Regardless I think we need to treat him ASAP with formalin dips, antibiotics, or maybe even both.

Unless someone has a better suggestion. Tonight I will take a sample of his slime and look at it with my scope, but historically mine isn't strong enough to diagnose bacterial. I may be able to see a protozoan infection like brooklynella.

Poor fella.. He sure is in the best of hands though!

Pufferpunk wrote:Poor fella.. He sure is in the best of hands though!

We both feel pretty helpless. We gave him a formalin dip with 2ml 37% solution in 2 gallons for an hour. He didn't seem bothered by it at all. His eyes clouded and he turned dark on the infected areas. The store in Portland didn't have the antibiotics so we may need to drive up to Augusta to get some tomorrow, there is a PetSmart there.

I'm really sorry. That must be scary. I really hope he pulls through for you guys. Good luck!

He didn't make it. Died about 36 hours after discovery. It progressed rapidly to cover about 80% of his body in that time. Posting a photo from last night.

We started disinfecting by putting 30 lbs of salt in the operating tank to run for a day or two. Later we'll bleach and scrub everything and let it completely air dry...maybe for a year or two.

Very discouraged.

Time to go play kill the crab with Oblio.

A&R

Compare to the above photos, this photo is from 24 hours after initial observation (sorry for the bad quality phone photo):

Sorry to hear that mate. They are beautiful puffers

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Completely sucks man so sorry for your loss

:'( Definitely looks like the killer, Vibro.

Pufferpunk wrote::'( Definitely looks like the killer, Vibro.

The disease progressed just as fast down his body last night after formalin. The onset occurred during oral treatment for IPs with metronidazole. Melafix did not slow the progress at all though we had hoped to gain some time. Either our formalin dip was ineffective (maybe old formalin) or it wasn't Brooklynella and you may be right.

Neither of us had heard of Vibriosis prior to reading your comments. Since it can infect people it makes sense to put a Vibriosis-effective antibiotic in the tank for a few days before breaking down the setup.
-R

Vibro treatment:
"Try a combined therapy of Maracyn and Maracyn II in a hospital setup or as 10-20 times overdosed half hour baths.

The problem with this Vibrio sp. infection is that almost never real antibiotics are used in the early stage (which would be day 1).

A large UV sterilizer with a slow flow and feeding high vitamin food as well as high oxygen (esp. by surface current, 30 times tank volume per hour, no skimming while treating) can support the treatment.

There are many different Vibrio spp. with very variable symptoms, the most commonly known affecting humans is cholera. I *guess* Cholera meds may have an influence on the fish Vibrio species, too. Anyway, don't grab into the aquarium with wounds and clean your hands thoroughly after contact with the fish or its water.

Another important Vibrio species (obviously not the one of this infection) is thought by some scientists to live in symbiosis with puffers and to produce their tetrodotoxin poison."

Nasty disease. Both the C. schoepfii we've kept continuously swam very energetically and liked strong currents. We found that this fish almost completely stopped glass surfing when given a power head and strong currents. A couple reports on wwm that sound similar to this fish's death also note starting near/at the mouth. I'm wondering if the fish injured its skin on its mouth glass surfing sufficiently to create a wound for the bacteria normally present to become a pathogen.Speculative, but worth noting.

Interesting recent study:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi ... ne.0039971

Nobody we've shown the photos or video to has seen anything like this. I hope I never see it again.