Bloated Puffer

[kdriscoll]

Its very sad but my puffer died a few weeks ago. I had him for about 2 years. I'm hoping that someone on here can help me understand what happen. I have seen this twice before, so I assume its a problem with puffers.

I started to notice on day that the Porc Puffers fins were starting to look fin rotted. I started to soak krill in marcyn2 and started feeding. Almost the very next to two days later I notice that he looked very bloated. His top fin was about 1/8 of a inch thick. The back half of his body turned dark. He looked very very bloated. He stopped eating that day and was dead by morning.

Any information? I have seen a puffer in the pass start to get dark on a quarter of there bodys and over a week or so the dark gorws more and more until almost there whole boad and they just shut down. I dont have a picture. Sorry.

I know the first question is the tank. My tank is two years old and other fish are doing great. I'm hoping someone with puffer experience. Thanks, Kevin

[GSerg2]

Sorry to hear about your puffer. Sounds like a bacterial or fungal thing to me. The rotted fins, bloating and how fast it happened sounds like something only a bacterial infection could do.

I have heard of fish being 'needled' when they are caught in deep water to make it easier/faster to bring them up. I read somewhere that a fish that was needled can fight low levels of infection for years and then one day, boom. Could be what happened I guess.

[TerryB]

It does sound like a bacterial infection. The body growing dark on the tail half is an indicator of nerve damage that could be attributed to a serious bacterial infection. Poor water quality can lead to this if there is enough organic compounds in the water to support a large population of free-floating bacteria. This is one good reason not to overfeed. A powerful protein skimmer will help keep this in check. A good UV unit will also reduce the density of free-floating bacteria but it does not address the cause (to much in the way of a food source for the bacteria to grow on).

Another common cause of internal bacterial infection is improperly stored or tainted foods that harbor large populations of bacteria. Do you store all of your foods in the freezer including flake and freeze-dried? You should buy foods in portions that you will use up within two months. Old food loses nutritional value and can make the fish sick.

HTH,
Terry B

[kdriscoll]

Thank you for all of your input. Should I keep flake and freeze dried food in the freezer to ? I have been feeding Krill that has been frozen for several months. I will to make sure in the future to use up the food fast. Thank you all

[TerryB]

Yes, it would be wise to store your flake and freeze-dried foods in the freezer. The foods will keep thier nutritional value longer and the risk of using tainted foods is reduced. It is also a good idea to buy foods in portions that will be used up within a couple of months.

Cheers,
Terry B

[kdriscoll]

Ok. I am still having problems with this. I have dropped the level to 1.008 and I am still noticing white spots on her body. I know this is ICH. The spots keep droping off for one week. and then they come back a week later. Just a few spots at a time. So it must be killing some. But there is still some ICH in the tank. Any input would be great. I think I'm coming up on two months that these fish have been in hypo. PLEASE help!!! Any other ideas.

[GSerg2]

What device are you using to measure your specific gravity? Are you sure it is accurate?

[kdriscoll]

I'm using a ATC refractometer.. I have used distilled water and zeroed it. Is there any other way to caliberate it?

[GSerg2]

No, it sounds correct. I would not go lower than you are now. If you go lower you are risking the life of your fish. Are you sure that the salinity does not rise with evap, does it always stay at (or below) 1.009?

There is a very remote possibility that you have a strain of the parasite that is able to survive in lower salinities. I have heard there is such a thing.

It is also possible that what you are seeing is not ich. I am not trying to say you are stupid or anything so please don't take offense. But there are some other things that can look like ich. Is it possible that it is something else or are you 100% sure it is ich?

[kdriscoll]

How can you be 100 percent sure? I have seen ich many times. But your right its very hard to tell 100percent. any ideas that I can be sure ?

[GSerg2]

Well, I guess you caught me there. I don't think you can be 100% sure without viewing it under a microscope. Let me take another stab at it. Have you seen ich several times before? Is this the same thing?

Could it be Oodinium instead? I don't have any direct experience with it but from what I understand can be confused with ich. It appears as a light dusting of very fine white grains as opposed to the larger ich spots.

[kdriscoll]

Well I have never heard of that.. I'm going to research it a little bit. The spots I am seeing is the size of a very small salt grain. The spots I am seeing are coming and going about every week or so. They return at different spots on the fish. Some are by the mouth and sometimes it returns on the body. I have seen ich a few times and I would say it is. Maybe a little smaller lumps than the ICH I have seen in the past. Any idea? You have any ideas on calibrating my refractometer.

[GSerg2]

It sounds like you are calibrating it properly. I use distilled water and set it to 1.000.

Can't find much in the way of pics of Oodinium or Velvet. But here is one on freshwater fish.

http://aquaworld.netfirms.com/Disease/oodinium.htm

[kdriscoll]

Whats the best way to treat Oodinium? it actually could be this

[GSerg2]

Maybe someone else can jump on this because I don't know much about this one but I think copper is recommended for this.