Puffer with Swollen area on underside, please help
 

My almost 8 year old porcupine puffer has a swollen discolored area on his underside. Does anyone know what this is and what I should do? He is still eating well but is really swollen. Sorry about the picture quality but he freaks when the flash goes off and I don't want to stress him too much.



TIA,
V

[IMG]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/1069spike_swollen2.bmp[/IMG]

I forgot to add that the spike's in the area look a little swollen also.

Did he get tagged by a urchin or has he sucked in any air?

Or do you have a lionfish in there with him?

No lionfish but I do have a tuxedo urchin and I was thinking that too. I am going to put some antibiotic in his food for now and do more research. His appetite isn't as good today and that has me worried.

He did puff last Thursday but didn't have any swelling then and was fully submersed in water so I don't think he pulled in any air. He's not having trouble staying on the bottom of the aquarium.

If anyone has any other suggestions on how to treat this, I'd appreciate any help.

V

Bump...

Anybody know what this is? The swelling is getting worse and now the side of his face where the swelling is on the underside is also swelling and the skin looks wrinkled and depigmented.

Any help would be greatly appreciated on treatment. I have no idea what this is. The only thing I can find is an old post from Fenner's site where the situation sounds similar to mine but all it says is that it's probably something internal and most of the time these things work themselves out. I don't think mine is working itself out. It's getting worse and he's not eating, I'm going to try to get him to eat some crab with ampicillin in it.

TIA,
V

It probably invovles some sort of bacterial infection. It could be caused by impaction. I would try a good antibiotic like furanase or nitrofurazone first. If the fish was eating then I would add some beta glucan to the food and use an antibiotic. I hope its not too late.

Terry B