Need help identifying and treating illness for pea puffer!
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2022 5:31 pm
One of my pea puffers has a single white spot on its back, and is lying on the bottom of the tank (alternating between lying on his side and lying on his belly) looking like it's struggling to breathe. I've tried googling and I see the most common cause is ich but from what I've seen it doesn't resemble this? However I am new to the hobby so am a novice. It noticed it didn't come out of its "cave" last night to eat which was strange but only just noticed the spot this morning because it was lying outside of the cave where it was easier to see. My other puffer seems perfectly fine at the moment and still swims up to the glass to say hi to me.
1) Water parameters (just tested within the last hour) - pH, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates 0-5 ppm (hard to tell exactly using liquid test kit). Temperature is consistently between 25-26 degrees celsius and has live plants.
2) Tank size 30L and only two pea puffers - no other inhabitants.
3) My pea puffers have only been eating bloodworms. I know this is not ideal but I have tried to feed them brine shrimp and another frozen food called "tropical tucker" and they just don't eat it. I try to only give them a few worms each from the frozen block but I find they gorge themselves so they are super full and I don't feed them every day because of this. I do approx. 50% water change every week. Treat the new water with seachem prime before adding to the tank. I also add flourish excel and flourish from time to time for the plants but this is not on a regular basis.
4) last water change was 1 week ago (7 days). This was also the first time I "cleaned" the filter and filter media (in the tank water). I was scared to do this earlier because I didn't want to kill all my beneficial bacteria. However tank seems to still be cycled so looks like I haven't disrupted this. I did go away for 2 nights (Friday and Saturday night) but my partner was here looking after the fish.
5) Set up the tank at the very end of May and did a fish less cycle by adding a piece of frozen fish into the tank and dosing with stability daily. Pea puffers were added 19 June once tank was fully cycled and water parameters have remained stable since.
1) Water parameters (just tested within the last hour) - pH, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates 0-5 ppm (hard to tell exactly using liquid test kit). Temperature is consistently between 25-26 degrees celsius and has live plants.
2) Tank size 30L and only two pea puffers - no other inhabitants.
3) My pea puffers have only been eating bloodworms. I know this is not ideal but I have tried to feed them brine shrimp and another frozen food called "tropical tucker" and they just don't eat it. I try to only give them a few worms each from the frozen block but I find they gorge themselves so they are super full and I don't feed them every day because of this. I do approx. 50% water change every week. Treat the new water with seachem prime before adding to the tank. I also add flourish excel and flourish from time to time for the plants but this is not on a regular basis.
4) last water change was 1 week ago (7 days). This was also the first time I "cleaned" the filter and filter media (in the tank water). I was scared to do this earlier because I didn't want to kill all my beneficial bacteria. However tank seems to still be cycled so looks like I haven't disrupted this. I did go away for 2 nights (Friday and Saturday night) but my partner was here looking after the fish.
5) Set up the tank at the very end of May and did a fish less cycle by adding a piece of frozen fish into the tank and dosing with stability daily. Pea puffers were added 19 June once tank was fully cycled and water parameters have remained stable since.
this is what it ended up looking like in the end. Does anyone have any idea what could have caused this? 