My puffer was attacked, he puffed, and got a wound!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Minipuff
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 71
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2015 2:19 pm
Gender: Female
My Puffers: 5 dwarf puffers
Location (country): Norway

My puffer was attacked, he puffed, and got a wound!

Post by Minipuff »

Wow. I haven't heard many accounts of dwarf puffers puffing, but today it happened to one of mine. I threw in some snails for them all to eat, and my oh my! They got excited! So excited that the biggest lady, who has been so calm and sweet before, dove down on the other big one, and bit him in the head. He puffed while she was still holding him, but in a matter of very short time he was back to normal. I can see that he has a small wound on his head now. Which medisines are recommended if he develops some kind of infection? Poor guy!!
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Welch4
Fahaka Puffer
Posts: 698
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:22 pm
Gender: Male
My Puffers: 1 GSP
Location (country): USA
Location: Abington,MA

Re: My puffer was attacked, he puffed, and got a wound!

Post by Welch4 »

My dwarfs are the only ones ive seen puff. Mine definitely showed a wound afterwards as well. I didnt treat with anything and hes still kicking. I can still see the bite mark today. Sure someone else here has recommendations for bite/wound meds.
Forget other advice about puffers you don't hear here - Pufferpunk
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eieio
Mbu Puffer
Posts: 1033
Joined: Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:34 am
My Puffers: *
The Congo Puffer:
"olivia"
and.......
The DP:
"cream puff"
RIP cream puff :-(
Location (country): U.S.A.
Location: Prescott, Arizona

Re: My puffer was attacked, he puffed, and got a wound!

Post by eieio »

Minipuff wrote:Wow. I haven't heard many accounts of dwarf puffers puffing, but today it happened to one of mine. I threw in some snails for them all to eat, and my oh my! They got excited! So excited that the biggest lady, who has been so calm and sweet before, dove down on the other big one, and bit him in the head. He puffed while she was still holding him, but in a matter of very short time he was back to normal. I can see that he has a small wound on his head now. Which medisines are recommended if he develops some kind of infection? Poor guy!!
Melafix for infection, Pimafix for fungus, remove any charcoal if you use it, lots of water changes
"I plan ahead. That way, I don't have to do anything right now!"
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