my sick puffer

[roggy23]

ok ive had my puffer in my QT under hypo for almots 4 weeks now.
I thought he had ich so i treated him. Now im thinking its somnething else.
3 spots still remain on his fin, not necessarily white inb color.
What could it be??? should i use antibiotics now and if so which ones???

 

[leopard_babe]

Can you be a little more specific? My puffer used to get "white spots", which I thought was ick. These were actually more like "stress spots". My nitrates were to high for his liking, and he used to get 3-5 white spots on his tail. When the nitrates would go down, the spots would disappear. Can you tell me the levels in the qt? What color are the spots, if they are not necessarily white? Mine were almost yellowish, like the color of his tail. It looked like.. an air bubble in his tail. I thought it was ick, but after several days I realized that it was definately not ick. I treated it with greenex, and hypo. That helped me. I also lowered my nitrates. When you say that he has been in the qt for 4 weeks, has he ever been in the main tank? How big is this puffer? And how big is your qt? My qt was to small for my puffer, and that stressed him out. Has he been eating? Does he act normal? Is he running into walls? Which "fin" are these white spots on, front ones, back one? I might be able to better help you if you can answer some of these questions.
I'll be back
Leopard

 

[roggy23]

i think you are right on track.
the water levels havent been the greatest in my QT. the tank is 20gal
and he is around 5 inches. he was in my main tank first 75 gal. he swims around a lot and still has a great appetite, does run into the glass a lot.
if it's not ich, do you recommend i treat him with antibiotics before raising my hypo levels to normal. The spots are on his right front fin about 3 of them close to each other. looks more distint than ich.
i know its stress spotsnow that you mention it. water levels havent been the greatest. will he recover? should i stop hypo???
I think you can help me, my nitrates are a lil high as well. the spots are almost yellowish also. he does act normal by the way.
thank for your help

 

[leopard_babe]

do his spikes look bigger then normal? Does his stomach look bloated? A 20 gallon tank for a qt can stress a fish out. Especially if it is 5 inches. I used greenex in my tank, and the spots were less noticable. You could try that. Do you have anything in your qt? If you want you could try that. I used it in my display tank once, and it is invert safe. It will turn EVERYTHING green. It is up to you if you want to try that, but you don't have to. I did it as a preventative measure, just in case it was something besides stress. If his stomach is puffier then normal, then it could be a bacterial infection. It does not sound like that. If you do not keep anything in your qt, then when you added the larger puffer, your tank might have had a mini cycle, due to the HUGE amount of waste puffers make. IMO, if he has not gotten worse, or better, and he is eating and swimming, then I would NOT treat with antibiotics, and add him back to the main tank. What are the levels in the main tank? Puffers are messy, they make a huge amount of waste. You should try to keep nitrates below 10 for a puffer. Also (something to think about), do you feed your puffer until it gets fat??? Puffers can develop fatty liver disease. This is caused by the overfeeding of the "always hungry" fish. I had a 5 inch puffer, and i fed him 6 krill 2 times a day. Once I started to feed less, my levels in my tank improved alot. Let me know how it goes. If you have any other questions just give a shout!!!
HTH
Leopard