Got C. Irrubescos

[Liz]

I've been wanting irrubescos or lorteti for about a year now, I finally ordered a pair off aquariumfish.net. They were labeled as "true red-eye puffers" which I thought were lorteti, the more aggressive of the two species, but when i was checking out it called them red-tailed red-eye puffers, which would be Irrubesco. So I wasn't sure what to expect. But I got a male and a female irrubesco who are now very cautious and getting adjusted to their new planted 10 gallon. They're about 1.5", the tank isn't planted very heavily (yet). Here are some pics of the male:







and the female:


The male looks like he has lesions on him. Should I get mela-fix or can I use some Metronidazole I have? Would that deplete my N bacteria or hurt my plants?

[DarkEntity]

Melafix doesnt harm bacteria at all. not sure about the other you mentioned. They look a tad skinny, cute though. If they are anything like my Salivator once you start feeding some quality food they will soon plump up

[Pufferpunk]

Congrats! Use Melafix.

[manutius]

Nice pickups, very pretty puffers

[Corvus]

Metronidazole can be used as an antibiotic for anaerobic bacteria. Therefore, in theory it should not harm the filter bacteria, which use up oxygen to turn ammonia into nitrites and nitrites into nitrates. However, I would not use antibiotics in this case, especially not this one, because you do not know if there is a bacterial infection and even if there was, if it is a type of anaerobic bacteria. How antibiotics affect a system (or if they work properly at all) is unclear in most cases, therefore they should only be used in bare bottom hospital setups (edit: and baths, of course).

Pristine water quality and frequent feeding (possibly with vitamin enriched foods) hopefully will work here.

[Myaj]

Looks like bite marks on the male. Melafix and clean water should clear it up, but you might want to consider the metro later on for deworming. I'd let them settle in and see if it clears up.

Congrats on the find! I wonder if they have more, I've wanted this species for a while now. It would figure, they get more in right as I'm shuffling tanks around and losing my 33xl I've been keeping open for a pair. Maybe I should just buy another 75 instead of changing my existing one to saltwater eh? Hehe.