The Puffer Forum

I didn't know whether to put this in the hospital forum or not because I'm not sure if this means my puffer is sick? It can be moved if so!

Anyway, I previously posted about my smaller F8 Ting. I was worried about her being skinnier and not gaining so much size as my other one. Last week I decided to medicate the tank with flubenol just in case of IP. I was actually just feeding them and I was going to post that she is looking a lot healthier and bigger, when she swam up to the glass and I noticed some weird markings on her belly.

Just near her butt (I don't know the technical fishy term ) She has 2 very fine perfect circles. Its hard to describe. Imagine a very tiny vein on a puffer less than 1" long. A tiny thin bit of thread. Perfect circles about 1mm- 2mm diameter. Close together underneath the part of her belly which grows round when fed.

Is this some sort of parasite? Is it normal? Is it common? Or is my baby a freak

This puffer will be the death of me....if not her

Oh and I tried to take a pic but its impossible. She is too tiny and moves soooo fast. Its hard to even get a good look with my eyes.

Thanks for any help!

Generally dark rings on a belly can be a sign of stress. Have you checked your water parameters just to make sure there's nothing untoward going off. Also have you re-arranged any tank decor lately as My Abei used to get some black rings on his belly when he wasn't happy with his surroundings are i'd moved the decor around.

I did a water change yesterday and checked the water before, and a couple of hours later. Amm, 0, Nitrite, 0, Nitrate, 5. I can't remember the PH but it was fine.

No change in decor, just a water change. She's feeding well and looks a lot healthier than last week when I was worried about her growth. Really active and playful.

I dont think you can do much more than just keep an eye on it for the moment, water parameters are all good and if she's active and eating she sounds happy enough. Hopefully they'll just disappear on their own.

Ya know...I may just make my ambition of being a national geographic photographer yet lol!

Here is my teeny tiny puffer with one of the rings showing. It looks thicker than it actually is, probably because she looks a hundred times bigger to!

It looks somewhat like bite mark scars.. watch for aggression between them.

Thanks Myaj, I'm not sure if I agree though. Like I said, the marks are a perfect circle. Looks like an under the "skin" vein. I will keep my eyes open for aggression but I watch them a lot and even when they swim close together and show interest, they never nip or bite. I hope I don't sound naive about my puffers temperament...I just have a hunch that its not bites!

Perfect circles are usually what bite marks look like.

Let me see if I can find some examples for you...

Myaj is right, bite marks on puffers look like perfect little circles, it's another possibility. Keep a close eye on them especially in the morning as strange things happen in puffer tanks overnight.

Most of the pics I'm finding are on the colored parts of the body, I can't find any belly bite shots..

That's what it looks like to me though.

I will keep a very close eye on them in that case!

I have a friend moving city in a few days who is donating her 30g tank to me so if this continues I can always rehome one of them.

I'm sure I wasn't this worried when I had human babies!

Okay, I was pretty sure Boxermom's new Fahaka had some nasty scars on his belly when she got him.

They are almost healed and pretty faded in this photo but you can still see them:



I can't find the photos from when she first, first got him, he was covered in scars. They healed really fast though.

Oh you're right! It does look very like that!

Do you think she'll be o.k in there until I can get the new tank cycled? It took just over 2 weeks to do my last fishless cycle.

I thought out of the two, Ting would be more likely to be the biter. Xiang is a scaredy cat and backs off quick if Ting shows interest. Maybe she got backed into a corner and went on the offensive.