The Puffer Forum

I've got two F8s in a larger tank. One is probably less than an inch in length, so I know it is very young. The other is nearing full-size, but I am quite sure it is under three years of age (based on what the previous owner told me - most likely closer to two years). Its colouration is vivid, but fairly light.

I just picked up a third F8 tonight. It looks to be full-size, but it is much darker, and its skin is bumpy. The LFS just got a batch of F8s in today, though most of them look very sickly. This one was by far the healthiest looking of the lot. It is alone in a smaller tank.

Could the bumps be an illness, or are they perhaps a sign of age? I almost grabbed two F8s tonight, but on closer inspection, the second one had a large red bump on its stomach. The rest in the batch had patchy skin, and I wasn't sure if this was due to stress, handling, or perhaps illness as well.

This third puffer definitely loks older than my other two, but I'd like to know if there is any way to tell.

I moved both my larger puffers to the smaller tank (20 gallons). I had planned to put my first puffer in there as a quarantine tank, because it has a bump on its side.

After seeing the condition of the F8s at the LFS, the new F8 went in there, instead, but then I decided to keep the two big ones together. They both look in need of medication, and I'd prefer them not to get my small puffer and bumblebee gobies sick in my 45 gallon tank.

Can you describe the bumps? Or post a link to a picture?

There is no way to judge a puffer's age.

I can't get a decent photo...

The bumps definitely don't look like ich - they are much smaller. They are spread out uniformly across the top of the puffer, over the black and yellow portions of its markings, but not on the tail. They aren't on the white underside of the fish, either. They are white or light orange at the very tips, though the bumps themselves are slightly larger.

The bumps kind of look like goose bumps, and they give the puffer a bit of a fruit-like texture.

As with some of the other puffers in the tank at the LFS, this one has light patches on its side, too. On top of its head and just behind its fin on the right side looks worn out in spots. Its fins are also nipped up quite a bit, but I don't think this is a huge problem.

Both puffers are active and eating well.

Does that help?

Tiny puffer spines?

One of mine has very obvious spike-bumps, which are just like you describe, and the other fish's spikes are barely visible. They're both F8s, same size, they just vary a lot, and maybe your other two don't have such obvious ones.
I'm voting for spikes.
Pami.

Spikes, eh? I can live with that.

Go to Woland's pictures:

http://www.thepufferforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=54

Is that the dots/bumps? If so, it is the fish's spines. Full normal.

I want Woland's camera...that thing takes great pictures!

It's pretty easy to tell ich if your puffer has it, especially when you see an ich spot next to a spine spot. If you're not sure and have seen ich before, it's likely spines.

Eric

Until ich starts setting up formation infection teams so the cysts are regularly spaced....if the bumps are regularly spaced, they'll be the fish's spikes.
Pami.

The bumps look like the spines on "Izabella" the GSP.

Thanks for the help, everyone.