Porc. Puffer is wounded on eye and surrounding...

[gksipps]

Need special attention with this one y'all... My puffer is new to the tank since the 4th. Hubby came home a few days ago and found puffy wedged between the powerhead and tank glass. Hubby freed him gently, but his eye is damaged (severely) and the entire area surrounding his eye is damaged - porcupines are pointed in the WRONG direction, (and have since turned CLEAR in the immediate area), skin is somewhat damaged, but I believe it will heal.
Okay, here's the "other shoe" - Our clown was sick and we do not yet have a QT (we are still new to the hobby, so no scolding, please, lfs store did not inform us it is recommended, and we did not find this site until after tank was up)... we put some medicine in the tank the night before this happened for the clown. LFS said we should not mix antibiotic with eye healer, but puffer is not looking so well. He is not his happy self, lays down at the bottom of the tank, and will not even show me his bad eye.
a) his eye looks now a little fuzzy - this is 2 days after initial incident, and after the antibiotic application. Is he going blind?
b) the skin surrounding his eye looks like it is starting to molt, like a snake sheds it's skin... is his eye going to fall off?
c) I am going to town tomorrow... is it too late to try and save his eye, QT him and give him all the eye medicine he can handle, or should I leave him in the regular tank with the clown and tang and keep him on the antibiotics with them?
d) should I take him to the lfs and see if they can fix him?
e)hubby suggested taking him to the vet, but they mostly deal in cattle, horses and domestic critters, I don't think they know much about fish, but I may be wrong...
What do y'all think? I love puffy, we have bonded in a really short time, and we were hand feeding him and getting him to do tricks, and now he won't even come off the bottom of the tank... Whatever I can do I will, please give suggestions.
Thank you!
clown
P.S. There is only 2.5 lbs LR in the tank, otherwise, it is only 3 fish (tang is the third), 90 gallons.

 

[beth]

What antibiotics are you using? Don't add any more meds to your main tank at this point.
I'm going to see if TerryB will address this with you as he is the resident sick fish expert. Don't add any more antibiotics. If you plan to set up a QT, then do it. While waiting for Terry, read the FAQ section stickied to the top of this forum.

 

[gksipps]

I gave them neosulfex, manufactured by aquatronics, which treats a broad spectrum of "stuff". Again, it was originally for the clown's disease, the puffer had his accident the following day, but we did not add any medicine for him because lfs said don't mix any meds! I've read the Stickie - if I buy puffy a QT tank, can I transfer over the medicated water (since it is cycled), allow it to cycle through the carbon filter to remove the meds, add the fish and his new eye medicine (if that's what is suggested), remove the carbon filter so it does not filter the new meds? I ask because of puffy's condition, if I want to save his eye, I think timing is of the essence, and I don't have the weeks necessary to cycle a new tank.
And with no additional medication, wont the clown's health begin to deteriorate again?
P.S. - Thanks for trying to help/suggest. I sincerely appreciate any help you can give!
Karen

 

[gksipps]

Yes, Terry, one of the active ingredients is Neomycin - it was at the advice of lfs (never again, but don't make me go down that path, I am already very disgruntled!). I have put the carbon filters back into the tank. This morning, I will set up a HT, and from what I gather in the post, put the Clown AND Puffer in the HT. Is this correct? I will also do a large water change (I am thinking at 90 gallons, I should do at least 30-50%?). Also, I imagine I will have to remove the LR, rinse him off, as there is a small chunk of meicine that never did dissolve in the tank and has laid claim to the top of the LR - should be easy to remove, I think - just a quick rinse in water??
You also have me worried about the water quality after having put the medicine in there. I always test at bare inimum on Saturday and chart my results, so I will be able to tell right away if the water quality has deteriorated since last test, but if it has been extremely upset, what do I do then?
The answer your question abou the clown... he has what looks like a sore at the point where the top of the body meets the dorsal fin. He is about 2 inches long, and the sore is about 1/4" in width (tail to head), and 3/16" in length at longest spot, top to bottom. To best describe it, it looks like a chunk is missing, but it does not look red surrounding the area, and there is no scab. The color in the sore area only is much more muted than the rest of the fish's body. It has a grey hue, but you can still tell that it should be an orangy-red if it were normal. It is on both sides of the body in the same spot. Fins look fine, he is very hungry, and swims normally otherwise. lfs said it was probably a fungal infection and should be treated with the medicine they recommended.

 

[beth]

Water quality can be maintained but you really need to be diligent about it. If you end up going with MaracynTwo antibiotic, then, just before each redose, do a large waterchange. If the water in your main tank is good, you can use the water from there to change out the QT water. If you can add carbon filtration for 2 hrs before the redose, all the better. Add 2 cups of sand from your main tank in to your QT. You won't be able to seed filter media before placing the fish in the QT but you can put some filter media [whatever you use] in your main tank for future use [in a wk or so] for when you need it in the QT. Be sure to clean up the bottom of the tank of any left over food/detritus as soon as you see it.
Optimize food for the puffer. I'd suggest that you use fresh seafoods from the grocery store, food process it, add a good vit supplement like zoe or zoecon.