what the hell is wrong with my puffer?

[zemuron114]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/69628DSC00286__WinCE_.JPG


just recently... it is a white film on his left eye.. what is it?? please help

[Andrew]

Are you running a UV? Do his eyes apear cloudy?

[zemuron114]

no UV, and his eye is cloudy... My 7 inch volitan got sick about 2 weeks ago (looks fine just wont eat, now he is just plain sick with something... ) then my full grown snowflake died without warning... My Volitan was on the ground most of the time, so i dont know if the eel bumped into his spikes or what not...?? Im just so confused... I have 110 gallon with euroreef skimmer and fluvals for carbon....

I want to save him since i lost my favorite fish and am losing my lion.. :(

[zemuron114]

no one can help me?

[marine_lover_jamie]

I had the same problem with my puffer and i was advised to fresh water dip him and it started to get better but then came back again.

sorry that's not much help but that's all i know

[zemuron114]

thanks...

[SAT]

I see you have a number of posts on these events, but it's hard to follow because it's disjointed and there's not really enough history. Please start by giving a chronology of events, starting about a month before you first started having trouble. Did you add anything to the tank during that time? Make any major changes? What other fish do you have?

All of the symptoms you have listed are consistent with deteriorating water quality, so that's the first thing to check out. Pease list the major water parameters: salinity, temperature, ammonia, nitrates, pH, alkalinity. What is your water change schedule? How fresh is the activated carbon?

The next thing to look for is a protozoan parasite: Booklynella or marine velvet. Do you see signs of excess mucous production? Ragged fins? A light "dusty" coating on the skin? Difficulty in respiration? Don't assume that you can directly see either of these parasites. Here's an article covering both:
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/fishdiseases.html

A possible cause of cloudy eyes is a transparent flatworm called monogeneans, which like to sit on the fish's eye. A freshwater dip or formalin bath should knock it off. If you do a freshwater dip, do it in a clean container and see if anything falls off. Look, in particular, for some "dust" dropping off the fish, which could be a sign of marnine velvet. There are instructions for dips & baths in the above link: be careful; it's easy to do more harm that good.

[BethanyM]

When i am window shopping at reef stores i see the stuff on puffers eyes, and it seems to just affect the puffers. Tagging along to see what this is.

[km133688]

LFS also told me some puffers are prone to blindness. I saw one, looked like his eyes were covered with a white film. FWIW, sorry you are having troubles; I have a puffer too.

[zemuron114]

110 gallon set up since june 04. yellow tang 2 blue damsels full grown snowflake, V lion and porc puffer. I go to school so my dad takes care of them. first semester i only had 2 fluvals for filtation, they did fine.... second semester i added a euroreef protein skimmer... everyone is fine.... then end of feb. lion stopped eating. Its ok i thought, they can fast.. then a week went by, then 2. started to get worried.. told my dad to try live food to jump start it. nothing... then all of a sudden within one days time my snowflake just died... fine monday, white and dead on tuesday. mind you this is a 4 year old full grown snowflake.... then my puffer got the eye thing... This all happened within a week. Lion just passed away, and puffer is steadily declining...

water params

salinty-1.024
ph- 8.3
nitrates- .5 (about)
ammonia- almost 0
water changes- 2 times a month

The oddest thing of all is my yellow tang is still very very healthy... i thought he would have died first... :(

Needless to say, im very sad to loose my fish. Especially since i dono what is wrong.

He didn't add anything to the tank, and feed them cocktail shrimp. I believe it may have been a bad shrimp, or the bumped into the lions spines and got posioned...

i hope this shines some light? anything else???

[SAT]

I can see how you would be upset. :(

The "almost 0" ammonia is troubling because normally a mature tank will show nothing readable at all. That might imply something bad happened (e.g., something died in the live rock or the tank was overfed) and you're just seeing the tail end of it.

I always found that having someone else take care of my tank was never a happy circumstance. Other people just don't understand... so they don't see things that are wrong until it's too late.

A bad cocktail shrimp is certainly possible. Likewise, the eel could have been stung... a sick fish might have looked very tempting to it. Unfortunately there's no way to verify either one.

Since you didn't add anything in the last few months (right?), I'm not inclined to suspect the usual protozoan parasites. There's a chance the puffer has something like monogeneans on the eye, in which case a freshwater dip will probably knock them off, but my suspicion is it's a bacterial infection. A dip is worth a try, particularly if it looks like something might be sitting on the eye.

The usual immediate cause of a cloudy or popped eye is some sort of physical trauma: handling or just running into a sharp rock. It clouds up due to bacteria taking advantage of the wound. An otherwise healthy fish in a good environment will often fight off a mild infection on its own. But not always. Since the eye looks pretty bad, I think you should try an antibiotic. The bad news is you really need to move the fish to a quarantine tank to use one. There's nothing like a good antibiotic to screw up a display tank. Good choices of antibiotic include nitrofurazone (Furacyn) or a double dose of Maracyn-Two.
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/quarantinetanks.html

In any case, I suggest some extra water changes and some fresh activated carbon. That's the easiest way to make sure water quality isn't an ongoing problem.

[zemuron114]

thank you very much. Nothing was added to to the tank for 6 months except food and a protein skimmer. I dont think my eel would have tried to eat the lion (he has never tried to eat another fish ever) So he might have just bumped into him. My tank is set-up kind of noobish (i didn't know asmuch as i do now) with crushed coral and lava rock. This summer i'm riping it apart and doing a small amount of sand, and base and live rock.

I should have done it this winter break but i had no time :(

thanks again ill try a fresh dip and get him to a Qtank!

[SAT]

Good luck with him!

[gsxrchck]

i got a new powerhead and i came home to find my puffer fish being sucked up in it and he was blown up like a baseball will all his spikes out. (very sad) but he was still alive. He got all of teh water out of him except for a little bubble by his tale. That was 2 days ago now he is in my sick tank b/c he got ick from the stress and still has the bubble. Where it is it looks like he has lost his skin. not good and he is now just laying at the bottom better go check on him. Does anyone know what to do looks like hes dying
PLEASE HELP!!

Thanks

[gsxrchck]

Never mind he just died but thank you anyway

[SAT]

Originally posted by gsxrchck
Never mind he just died but thank you anyway
:( Probably nothing you could have done to save him.