The Puffer Forum

remember those sores Flutter (my A.modestus) had a while back? well, they keep coming back... They start out small, and gradually swell up, and then they "pop" and some kind of solid puss like stuff comes out the center.

melafix doesnt seem to help at all anymore. He has now started acting a little bit sluggish, and he is breathing harder. opens his mouth pretty wide every breath.

I fear it is some kind of internal infection....

water params are fairly good: nitrAte 20 ppm , nitrIte 0 ppm, hardness 120 ppm, alkalinity 80 ppm, and ph is 7.6.

what do you guys think? i'm not sure what to do. i'm about to do a big water change.z hopefully that will help him out a bit...

any comments and advice apreciated.

forgot to add that he coughed up a lot of his meal today.

I thought it might be a blockage, so I fed him some peas, which he has not coughed up.

did 13g worth of WCs today, and as Lisa suggested I: added fresh carbon, and I'm going to pick up some prime in case this is from heavy metals.

Are they sores ? it sounds from your description, like a pustule. it could be anything from parasites , to a virus , or a bacterial infection or a combination. I would get intouch with a fish vet. Lisa mentioned that she had a vet inspect her puffe(RIP) maybe they know fish and you can get in contact with them?

well, its more then one. it started as just one a few weeks ago, then it would swell up, "pop", squirt out the solid white stuff, and dissapear for a while. I originally thought that I had it taken care of, but apparently not...

currently there is only one, but the worst it was was 2 or 3 on each side of him. i'll take a pic and post it up soon.

I wonder if levamisole would take care of this if it is parasites?

wish me luck

I would seriously urge you not to just treat with whatever you have on hand.

Rusty wrote:I would seriously urge you not to just treat with whatever you have on hand.

I wasnt suggesting that. I dont have Levamisol on hand right now.

By Lisa's advice, I picked up a bottle of prime. She thinks it may be severe skin irritation from heavy metals, or pesticides.

Thanks to all that have helped.

any other ideas on what this may be?


(oh, I seriously doubt there are any fish vets in my area. all the vets that I know of, would probably laugh if I told them I wanted them to check out my pufferfish. i'll look though.)

sorry when you said wish me luck it sounded like someone who is about to do somthing on a whim. I should have thought better of you sorry

good one lisa that hadnt even crossed my mind, but what would be the cause of the pus like stuff?

feel better flutter

Rusty wrote:sorry when you said wish me luck it sounded like someone who is about to do somthing on a whim. I should have thought better of you sorry

oh, sorry, that probably did sound kinda weird lol. I just meant that I hope flutter makes it ok. no worries

I had kindof a strange theory: I dont realy know what he was fed as a staple diet before I got him, and I think its possible it was fish. maybe, he has so much oil in his system, that its coming out through these pustule/sores. the thing that leads me to beleive this is that, you know the "pore" like things on a modestus' sides? these are the things that are swelling up. kinda like a human zit.

probably wrong, but just a theory. doesnt explain his rapid breathing and sluggishness though.

No problem.


Hmmm im not feeling that Line of thought. just doesnt sound right, or more fish would probably have it.

I sent you a pm but its still in my outbox ?? has a name of someone you can speak with.

Rusty wrote:I sent you a pm but its still in my outbox ?? has a name of someone you can speak with.

Just got the PM. sorry I was away from the comp for a while.

i'll try contacting him.

The reason I suggest carbon/prime was for potential irritants/toxins such as pesticides in his well water or heavy metals.

Yeah its a great idea lisa, its passive and can really only help , and he just did a good sized water change.

checkout the original post about this, which has a picture of his first bump:

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... php?t=3890


and here is a pic of the current largest bumo with "puss" coming out of it:

ok, well, he is breathing less hard today. his mouth still moves a bit with every breath, but he is not opening wide like he did yesterday.

i'm not sure if he pooed out the peas, or coughed them up. becasue they are on the ground this morning.

I havent gotten a reply from the fish doctor guy yet.

PP suggested that the closest thing that this resembles is HITH, and she suggested treating with hex-a-mit. which I ordered last night. I ordered it from the hidden reef, although after I was done ordering, I saw on their main page something about their building burned down, so they wont be shipping for a while. i'm not sure if thats still in effect, so im going to call them today.

i'm about ready to get something from my LFS for HITH. although I think this may be paracidic.