The Puffer Forum

I recently acquired this cute little Spotted Congo Puffer and was told he has been treated for parasites(prazi); however, I’ve noticed this gray skin on top of his head. It doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
What could this be? Slime disease?

-He eats when he wants to and is definitely eating regularly (stable snail population in tank)
-He either is lazy or lethargic half of the time (lays in a few specific spots on the substrate) but gets up to swim around the tank often.
-After he gets up from ‘resting’ he will jerk around a little bit, but then he doesn’t do it again until he’s getting up from resting again.

He is thin right now but that’s how I received him. I imagine in a week or two he’ll thicken up a little.

Any help figuring out what this is would be great.

Please answer ALL the questions above, in red, so we can help diagnose your issue.

It did not happen in my tank. He arrived this way.

1)____________________
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrates - unknown
Filter: AquaTop CF-500UV (rated at 525 GPH)

2)____________________
55 gallon Freshwater:
11 Harlequin Rasbora (1 year + in tank)
5 Guppies (Some born in tank some almost 1 year in)
3 Peppered Corydora (1 yr + in tank)
1 Electric Blue Dwarf Ram (1 yr + in tank)
1 Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami (1 yr + in tank)
1 Spotted Congo Puffer (3 Days in tank)

Heavily Planted (no tech, just light, fish and water):
Heavy Rotala
(New) Amazon Sword
Annubias
Java Fern
(New) S. Repens
Red Ludwigia
Bacopa

3)_____________________
Feeding: Every 2 to 3 days, flakes. once/2 weeks I feed a frozen krill cube for fun
Products: Topfin Water conditioner for water changes. Melafix for any blemishes (rarely used. maybe once or twice).
General cure for parasites.
25-40% water changes every weekend
Clean filter 1 time per month.

4) Currently dosing General Cure as the Puffer is new. Was told he'd already been treated with Prazi but I figured one more round on my end would be a safer bet than just trusting the importer took care of it completely. I also was recommended to do this from several other forums.

5) Aquarium has been active and healthy for over a year.

forgot to mention aquarium temp is steadily 79 year round.

Will be interested to see what others think. I once had an issue that appeared like this on some new fish in my cory tank that I suspected was Columnaris. I was able to successfully treat with methylene blue.

Does this look like it could be the issue? http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html

Hello all!
Jimmy Puff Puff has recovered, gained some weight and is thriving since my post.
I am not sure what it was but I suspect it was fungal growth due to bad water conditions at the place he came from.
I treated for parasites with general cure and noticed a week after treatment this white stuff started to disappear from his eye (he developed a cloudy eye after I made the original post). The skin began to heal up and two weeks after the dosing and generous water changes he healed completely!!
Addition: The problem never presented any open sores.

YAY!

Awesome! Thanks for the update!