The Puffer Forum

Ammonia is at 0
Nitrite is at 0
Nitrates are at about 5ppm
PH is 7.6
SG is at 1.003 (working on slowly raising it)

Treated the tank with General cure last week as the instructions on the box specified.

Last night I noticed something white hanging off my figure 8 puffer under its mouth. I’m concerned it may be an anchor worm.
Doesn’t seem to be any irritation in the area and he’s full of energy.
Wouldn’t the general cure have killed it if that’s what it is? Should I re-dose general cure? Will the salinity kill it off? Not sure what to do at this point.

What wisdom can you guys give me?

Can you net him & pull it off with tweezers, keeping him submerged?

It could possibly be a bit of skin that he partially scratched off too?

Possibly. I don’t want to make him puff up or stress him out too bad. Is that what you would recommend?

So I trapped him against the glass with a net to get a better look. I’m thinking either skin or fungus at this point. It’s thin and kind of floats around with the water like hair algae or something like that would. If its a piece of skin I don’t want to rip it off with tweezers or I’m afraid I may hurt him. Thoughts?

I went ahead and netted him and grabbed the thing with tweezers. Kept him under water of course. He put up with me and didn’t freak out. He gladly accepted a piece of krill as a treat after I finished with him.
Me grabbing it shortened it and there was no resistance or anything. I wasn’t even sure if I got it until I let him go and it was shorter. I’m 99.9% sure it’s not an anchor worm at this point. A little bit of loose skin makes the most sense to me.

Good job, glad it's not a worm. Good puffer!