Unknown disease on Dog Face Puffer

[Pufferlover95]

I just noticed some mysterious bumps appear the other day on my Puffer who’s currently in a QT running copper power.

I don’t believe it’s ich considering I’m running copper, plus it does not look the same.

These bumps are only on this one spot an no other fish in the QT has it. It looks fungal to me. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just noticed some mysterious bumps appear the other day on my Puffer who’s currently in a QT running copper power.

I don’t believe it’s ich considering I’m running copper, plus it does not look the same.

These bumps are only on this one spot an no other fish in the QT has it. It looks fungal to me. Does anyone have any ideas?

Looks like a skin irritation in which mucus cones have formed and likely mixed in with ich. I assume this is a quarantine tank and you can treat with coppersafe at 2.25 or go hyposalinity at 1.009 for 30 days with either treatment

 

[AydenLincoln]

Hewbie and me hope he gets better soon!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I just noticed some mysterious bumps appear the other day on my Puffer who’s currently in a QT running copper power.

I don’t believe it’s ich considering I’m running copper, plus it does not look the same.

These bumps are only on this one spot an no other fish in the QT has it. It looks fungal to me. Does anyone have any ideas?

I’ve not seen this before. I can’t tell you what it is, but I can help rule out some things. It isn’t ich. It isn’t mucus plugs. Fungal diseases are VERY rare in marine fish. The issue seems to be arising from under the skin, so you can rule out other ectoparasites. The localized symptoms also helps rule out general parasitic infections that would develop a more random pattern.
Any other fish in with it?
Is it still eating and acting normally?
Any chance this is an injury?

 

[Pufferlover95]

I’ve not seen this before. I can’t tell you what it is, but I can help rule out some things. It isn’t ich. It isn’t mucus plugs. Fungal diseases are VERY rare in marine fish. The issue seems to be arising from under the skin, so you can rule out other ectoparasites. The localized symptoms also helps rule out general parasitic infections that would develop a more random pattern.
Any other fish in with it?
Is it still eating and acting normally?
Any chance this is an injury?

There are a few other fish with him: a Picasso trigger, an Emperor angelfish, and a porcupine puffer. The dog face is pretty much acting the same, maybe slightly less appetite. I don’t see any physical injuries on the dog face. I was getting ready to take everybody out of this copper tank and transfer them to observation and now I see this.

Something that actually started happening yesterday was now my porcupine is doing a bit of heavy breathing and I’m not sure why.

I think tomorrow I’m gonna do a massive water change and just restart the copper clock and maybe add some additional medication as well. It seems like whenever i’m about ready to stop medicating, something new happens

 

[JayM]

There are a few other fish with him: a Picasso trigger, an Emperor angelfish, and a porcupine puffer. The dog face is pretty much acting the same, maybe slightly less appetite. I don’t see any physical injuries on the dog face. I was getting ready to take everybody out of this copper tank and transfer them to observation and now I see this.

Something that actually started happening yesterday was now my porcupine is doing a bit of heavy breathing and I’m not sure why.

I think tomorrow I’m gonna do a massive water change and just restart the copper clock and maybe add some additional medication as well. It seems like whenever i’m about ready to stop medicating, something new happens

I’m not sure that indiscriminately adding additional medication without having a good idea of what you’re dealing with is a great idea.

 

[Pufferlover95]

I’m not sure that indiscriminately adding additional medication without having a good idea of what you’re dealing with is a great idea.

Well, I was thinking Prazi to rule out flukes in the gills, which might explain why the other puffer is heavy breathing. Figured it wouldn’t hurt anyone else.

Idk what the dog face has but if this is not ich the copper won’t touch it. Between the main tank, quarantine, and observation, I’m running out of tanks to treat individual fish.

The dog face only has these symptoms and nobody else shares them, but now the other puffer is acting odd so I feel like my Qt failed and now I need to cover all my bases again.

What do you think the next steps should be @Jay Hemdal ?

 

[Pufferlover95]

Update: the dog face puffer remains unchanged, but the porcupine puffer that started acting odd passed tonight.

Guess I will just stick with the original plan of doing a water change and restarting copper and leaving it at that.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Update: the dog face puffer remains unchanged, but the porcupine puffer that started acting odd passed tonight.

Guess I will just stick with the original plan of doing a water change and restarting copper and leaving it at that.

Sorry - I just woke up. The porcupine dying puts a whole other spin on this - the skin lesions on the puffer seem superficial and may not be related to the porcupine dying, but any fish loss is always a cause of major concern.

How long have the fish been in copper power? If more than 3 weeks, you can try cutting that short.

If the QT water tests out good, then I would move right into praziquantel for flukes. Either General Cure or Prazipro, dosed 8 days apart with GOOD aeration.

 

[Pufferlover95]

Sorry - I just woke up. The porcupine dying puts a whole other spin on this - the skin lesions on the puffer seem superficial and may not be related to the porcupine dying, but any fish loss is always a cause of major concern.

How long have the fish been in copper power? If more than 3 weeks, you can try cutting that short.

If the QT water tests out good, then I would move right into praziquantel for flukes. Either General Cure or Prazipro, dosed 8 days apart with GOOD aeration.

The QT has been set up with therapeutic copper for more than 30 days, but I was not ready to transfer them to the observation tank yet, so I did water changes and removed the majority of the copper. For good measure, I even did two weeks of Formalin dosing into the tank.

Recently, the porcupine puffers started doing the heavy breathing, and I was concerned there was leftover disease in the tank, so I started to revamp the copper slowly. That’s when I noticed the dog face had the spots. The porcupine started acting weird over the past few days and finally passed yesterday. Meanwhile, the three remaining fish in the tank, including the dog face all are acting normal and don’t show any signs of disease besides the dog face.