The Puffer Forum

I have a new palembangengis with strange markings on him. I have had him for two weeks now and notice straight away that he had some strange 'film' on him. I have used mela and primafix for 10 days fearing it was some kind of fungus.This hasn't changed.The best way I can think of at the moment to describe it is as if he has several patches of 'vasoline' on him.The patches don't seem to have any 'depth' to them - more like a thin 'film'. Any ideas?

The irregularity of the patches is unusual for columnaris, but that is my best guess. Do you see any tiny white flakey bits, dots, or pimples?

Be cautioned that it may be very contagious; wash hands thoroughly after maintenance and use a different gravel vac / water change bucket to keep it isolated from your other tanks.

Have you any info on this?

bred - did I read on the old forum that you had a problem with this?
I have done a search for this desease and I am none the wiser. Typically one articles relates to these condititions, another doesn't. Alot recommend 'non puffer' friendly meds.One suggests a salt bath. What do you think?

Could it be a disruption in his slime coat? Say, like if someone at the lfs handled him roughly, or with a dodgy chem on his/her hands.
Pami.

Rocker wrote:bred - did I read on the old forum that you had a problem with this?
I have done a search for this desease and I am none the wiser. Typically one articles relates to these condititions, another doesn't. Alot recommend 'non puffer' friendly meds.One suggests a salt bath. What do you think?

Rocker, I'm still at it... Columnaris is a gram-negative bacteria and comes in a variety of strains, some more med-resistant than others. Check around the mouth, particularly below the bottom lip, for small white or brown "flakes"... when heavily infected, these can resemble little fishie goatees.

I've had reasonable success with the anti-bacterial Furan-2 by aquarium pharmaceuticals. It does not kill the bacteria but rather stalls its growth, allowing the fish's immune system time to act against the bacteria. This did not "cure" the fish for me, however. You may have greater success. If you go this route, buy the 100 tablet bottle, you'll need them. My treatment duration was 12 days. Remove plants prior to medicating and aerate the tank very well. Nitrifying bacteria will be somewhat depressed but will not die off completely.

I'm trialing tetracycline-soaked foods. It's too early to know the results though.

Erythromycin was useless for me.

I've been logging my progress here: http://www.thepufferforum.org/viewtopic ... mnaris#962

I haven't tried the salt bath yet because I haven't had the time to really dedicate myself to 3 baths a day.

Doh! thanks for the link! I'm a good advert for this site - Not!
Looked everywhere but on here.

How long has your fish been affected?

My Fahaka may or may not have had the disease latent when I got him over a year ago. When I brought home 3 SAPs (separate tank, shared equipment) which turned out to have the disease, the symptoms became plainly obvious / concerning for the Fahaka. That was ~4 months ago. The disease is progressing very slowly and I don't fully understand it.

Everthing I read suggest it is very short term before you lose the fish. ie a week to 10 days.Mine is 2 weeks now

Exactly... Which keeps me wondering whether I've misdiagnosed. But in every other way the observed symptoms make a perfect match to the literature.

I bought the last remaining pack of Spectrogram at my LFS and, while it was working, I didn't have enough for a 9+ day dosage. Kanamycin (Kanacyn) is one of two ingredients contained in Spectrogram by Aquatronics. The other is nitrofuranizadole (Furan-2), which is discussed above.

Kanamycin sulfate is still available as an antibiotic. I'd be interested to see someone try it out.

Though aquatronics is out of commission, their raw ingredients are still available, though it is considerably less convenient.

I have been treating with just primafix, dropping the melafix for two days.Some slight improvement.Looks like one or two patches have gone.Hard to tell with the light and colour changes of the puffer.Still very active, alert and feeding well.