The Puffer Forum

My Mbu has a large mass growing on the roof of his mouth. It has been there for a little over a month. Is there anything I can do? We have taken him to two different vets, but unfortunately we live on an island and neither vet has much experience with the mighty Mbu. I cannot find the specifics of my water, but both vets said the water levels was normal. We currently have our 3 year old Puffy in a 55 gallon tank and he lives with some guppies and other feeder fish. His diet is mainly shrimp now because that's all he can eat. The mass is growing and will eventually make eating impossible. One vet though it to be a possible infection, but after almost 1 week of inject-able antibiotics there has been no improvement. The other vet suggested it might be cancer. We figured we would try antibiotics before doing anything drastic. We are very attached to our little buddy and would hate to have to euthanize him. Does anybody have any advice or suggestions?

My 1st thought is that possibly his teeth are overgrown. They do look quite long. Have you been feeding him crunchier foods in the past, like oysters/clams/mussels?

It's hard to tell from your photo but if it is a mass in there, surgery on a puffer/fish, shouldn't be much different than any other animal. Tell the vet he needs to be tranquilized with MS-222, in tank water & then once placed back into fresh unmedicated tank water, he will wake up. Then he'll have to be treated with antibiotics, to prevent infection. That's all you can do for him.

How long have you had him? What island are you on?

We used to feed live crayfish before the tumor made it gard fo him to swallow. We had originally asked the vet to trim his beak back, but she said it didn't look overgrown. She was concerned about loss of tissue because the beak shouldn't be able to come apart so easily. Is cancer common in Mbu? If it is cancer and they operate, will it continue growing back? We just don't want to put him through a bunch of stress and spend money on a temporary solution. It seems to be getting bigger by the day and although he is still eating and swimming, he seems depressed and lethargic.

You'd need a biopsy to see if it's cancer. No, tumors are not common in fish but do happen.

Mbupuff, you might be putting your fish through a lot of stress by taking no real action at all.

If the antibiotics aren't working, and IF the mass is still GROWING, IMHO you should either have the mass removed, or euthanize the fish. The catch 22 is that if he's going to need the surgery, I wouldn't wait until he's in too weakened a condition to have a good chance to recover. After his mouth has been worked on, he may not want to eat for a few days.

Will your post-op MBU have enough energy reserve to allow his mouth to heal after a
reduced caloric intake for a long time ? ( It's serious vitamin time. )

Please consider talking to the vet again and taking some positive action to help your finned friend.

( I'm well aware that budget factors into this hobby for almost everyone at some point. )

We'd all really like to see your MBU survive and thrive. Please keep us updated.

^^^^^^^^^^^
I agree 100%. Don't let your wet friend suffer.