The Puffer Forum

Have had a new figure 8 puffer in a brackish tank for about a month now. Within the past week he seems to be deteriorating in looks but not necessarily activity or hunger. His belly has greyed, and what started out looking like ich on his fins kind of transformed into larger flakes on his back. His fins have also begun to deteriorate and I'm feeling horrible. Thinking it was ich, I raised the heater from its normal 78 degree temp to ~84-86 tonight to see if it would help.

1) Do not have any testing kits at the moment (I know, shame on me), but every week I go into my LFS, I have them test it for my free, and as of about 5-6 days ago, all levels read normal. The SG of the tank is approximately 1.006
2) 10g tank, I know it's small, but he/she is still juvenile and will be getting an upgrade later in life. No more inhabitants other than the puffer. The tank does have about 6 pounds of assorted live rock purchased at a LFS. They informed me that the live rock would not be harmful for the tank.
3) Feeding is skipped every third day. He receives live ghost shrimp 1-2x per week and on other normal days he's given thawed blood worms and shrimp pellets. Also, snails when the LFS has them (but as of late they haven't had an outbreak).
4) Zero changes to the tank. Completed normal scheduled water change with added marine salt.
5) The aquarium has been set up for approximately 2 months. The water was cycled for 2 1/2 weeks before adding the puffer.

A few pics are attached

Live rock will DIE at SG that low. I wouldn't believe anything your LFS is telling you after that one...

I'd get yourself an API test kit from Amazon & have them send it to you overnight or try Walmart or another LFS. My guess is the bacteria from they dying rock has caused your parameters to go haywire, infecting the fish. Take that rock out & buy some FW décor for him. Do a 50% WC & another daily for a week. Use Melafix & Pimafix to heal this fungus on the fish.

Is the pimafix/melafix safe to use with these puffers? And should I treat and then replace the filter and carbon? What's the best type of natural decor for brackish? Not a big fan of the fake decor and plasticky type stuff

It's amazing that there is a fish shop on earth stupid enough to sell you live rock for a brackish tank! Get that rock out of there. Looking at that pic it doesn't look like a f8 to me. Take the carbon out while you treat

Thank you for the responses. Update: came home and still looking worse, he's now going up to the top for air. Since I jacked the temp up thinking it was ich it may be this or whatever infection he has. Per the advice, I pulled all of the live rock out and did about a 50% water change. I wasn't able to run to the store today but will tomorrow to get the Mila and primafix and start treating him, I will update in the coming days. Thanks guys!

Did you get test kits? I'd really like to know the results of that.
Do another WC. You're replacing the salt you've removed, right? Be sure to condition with Prime.
Just remove the carbon. Really not necessary, anyway. Get the temp back to normal.

Keep up the water changes and ich treatment and he should pull through, a bubble system might help for air because of temp increase.
@bertie, it is indeed a f8, not as coloful as some I've seen, but it has the telltale ocellus spots.

Bad news guys, he didn't pull through last night. Me and my fiancee are devastated. I did the water change last night , took the rock out, replacing the salt, and kept the water line lower so there was extra flow from the filter since the water was warmer. He was indeed a figure 8, I believe he was a little faded by whatever inflicted him. I took so much time and care with this fish, much more so than my larger freshwater which has always been healthy. I hope to sometime soon get another f8 or maybe switch to a different species.

He was purchased and shipped by doctors foster and smith from California. I'm not sure what peoples overall satisfaction is from fishes purchased there but he came in looking much healthier than those sold locally.

DFS was recently sold to Petco. My guess is you could do better.
GSP Freak, why'd you tell him to treat for ich? This is NOT ich, it's fungus.
Sorry for your loss... He was doomed, I'm afraid, as soon as you added that LR. Please don't give up. Wash everything with hot water & a light bleach solution & rinse the heck out of it & start over. Please be sure to cycle the tank before buying another fish. Maybe dwarf puffers would be better for that 10g.

That's disappointing to hear about DFS. I had no idea....i will likely be washing everything out and starting anew soon. What are your opinions about either dead base rock that's been completely treated, or driftwood/plant setups in brackish tanks? I've read mixed information about both of those setups

Pufferpunk wrote:DFS was recently sold to Petco. My guess is you could do better.
GSP Freak, why'd you tell him to treat for ich? This is NOT ich, it's fungus.
Sorry for your loss... He was doomed, I'm afraid, as soon as you added that LR. Please don't give up. Wash everything with hot water & a light bleach solution & rinse the heck out of it & start over. Please be sure to cycle the tank before buying another fish. Maybe dwarf puffers would be better for that 10g.

Ahh yes, my bad, I couldn't tell the diff from the pics,and must have passed over your post.
Sorry he didn't pull through op! I agree with PP, that puffer and you were dealt a bad hand and lead astray by your lfs.

As for decor, dead rock is good (make sure it's long dead), driftwood degrades badly in brackish water and may alter your ph, I personally have never had any luck with brackish plants, unless they're plastic.

We do have a lengthy thread about BW plants stickied in the BW forum.

if you are willing to pay shipping and get a bigger tank, I know someone who is trying to find a home for a turgidus puff... im also trying to find a good home for my pair.

Those are beautiful fish. I'd love to, but my fiancee would kill me for buying a larger tank and taking up more space, hah! Can anyone suggest any good reputable fish suppliers online besides DFS? All I have locally is petsupermarket (they have no idea what they're doing in their fish department), Petco, Petsmart.

I've never ordered fish online only cause it's too much for me to worry about... My lfs(s) usually have or can order something for me :/ good luck