new puffer somthing is not right

[alisonjohn]

Just got a puffer and he seemed fine at first but it has not really eaten anything. We have a few differant frozen foods that have been tried and it shows no intrest. The local fish store only has freshwater feeder fish and I read somewhere that you should not feed freshwater to saltwater.
To go along with this it really just stays in the upper corner of the tank not too much swimming and its coloring seems to be getting lighter. Last night after a water change and vacuuming some alge up we noticed it had white specks on it. We thought it was just some sand sticking to it
Today I notice it is more of a stringy white substace especially around its eyes. Is this ich? We got some garlic stuff to soak the food in but if its not eating I don't think that will help.

 

[kingsmith]

Sounds like it definatly has a parasite of some sort, which one I cannot specifically identify. What I can tell you is that puffers are generally predisposed to getting parasites. When I first got my spiney box fish he did not eat well at first. Then I noticed he definaltly had ich and as it progressed he got stopped eating all together. I had to treat all my fish in a QT for 8 weeks and I fed the puffer a piece a day of vitamin soaked krill till he began to get his appetite back and has made an excellent recovery. I would try to get a picture up so you can get the issue identified for sure then you can begin treatment goodluck