The Puffer Forum

I have not had much luck with GSPs lately. My second little green friend succumbed to his illness yesterday. He was no doubt already weak from his trip to the LFS, where the tank already had cottony fungus that appeared on him the day after I brought him home, which I successfully rid him of. Unfortunately something else was wrong with him and within a week or so he stopped eating. I treated him with general cure and an additional dose of metro to no avail.

I cannot tell anything from the autopsy but I hoped someone more experienced may notice something amiss. (autopsy images below)

I know I should not buy fish of questionable health but these are so rare around here I have to take the a chance when they do pop up.

Thank you

Often, once a fish is off food & emaciated like that, it is quite difficult to get them to eat again.

But do the organs look normal? I have no experience with diseased fish in that way. I was told that some causes of death will be obvious, i.e. parasites will be visible in the intestines.

Someone just said it looks like TB/wasting disease. I notice that one of the symptoms is the bent spine. hmm...

Nah... I see that bent body all the time on emaciated puffers. I'm not an ichthyologist though, so don't know much about their innards. I did a necropsy once though & found fatty liver disease (hard, dark liver) because it had been fed feeder fish most of its life.