[AquaAurora]

When feeding the dwarf puffer today I noticed his markings seemed off. Upon closer inspection I noticed physical bumps all over his body! He still have an appetite and ate veraciously... he's in a 12g long with cherry shrimp and otos, tanks has been set up with fish and planted (running) for over a year and a half. Water parameters have not fluxed (pH 7.5, gh 40, kh 80, tds 210-ish temp 76F), 0ppm across the board (ammonia/nitrite/nitrate). I do not see flashing or other sighs of illness in the puffer, otos and cherry shrimp appear un-effected.
ADDED: I will note I dose liquid seachem ferts in his tank and he tends to hover right by where I inject the liquid in (hoping I'm going to feed him instead) ferts include: flourish(0.2ml), iron(0.4ml), phossphourus(0.6ml), pottasium(0.2ml), and excel (3ml)-this is a 12g tank. Is it possible he's reacting to the ferts dosed pretty much in his face withe extra slime coat protection?
Any clue what is up with him? Slime coat on overdrive? Fungal infection? Velvet (I hope not)?

Sorry I cannot get an better photos, he is horrified of the camera =.=
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[leemacnyc]

Sorry he's got an infection. I just got a DP last week after years of being DPless.

There used to be a website/forum dedicated to them, but i can't find it now. I remember that some treatments can't be used on them as they are scale-less. Good luck. They are little badasses!

 

[WaterLife]

Is it possible to get any pics from the side of the fish/tank?

Any unusual behavior? Flashing? Gasping?

EDIT: Oh, I see that you mentioned no flashing.
Well, usually flashing is witnessed before any visible external skin/slime coat symptoms. And velvet usually has a golden sheen to it and the spots are smaller in size than ich cysts.

Did all this sudden loss of color and slime coat/lumps happen within 24 hours?
I am thinking it was just irritated/partially poisoned by the dosing the ferts right next to it, as they are somewhat sensitive fish, especially to copper which is in flourish comp.

Not sure what you could do to help it any. I don't know if dosing Melafix or Prime will help at all with the slime coat. Don't know if salt baths or making the water brackish will help it overcome this slight intoxication. Maybe Indian Almond Leaves or Alder Cones or similar will help him.

 

[AquaAurora]

Is it possible to get any pics from the side of the fish/tank?

Any unusual behavior? Flashing? Gasping?

EDIT: Oh, I see that you mentioned no flashing.
Well, usually flashing is witnessed before any visible external skin/slime coat symptoms. And velvet usually has a golden sheen to it and the spots are smaller in size than ich cysts.

Did all this sudden loss of color and slime coat/lumps happen within 24 hours?
I am thinking it was just irritated/partially poisoned by the dosing the ferts right next to it, as they are somewhat sensitive fish, especially to copper which is in flourish comp.

Not sure what you could do to help it any. I don't know if dosing Melafix or Prime will help at all with the slime coat. Don't know if salt baths or making the water brackish will help it overcome this slight intoxication. Maybe Indian Almond Leaves or Alder Cones or similar will help him.

No, no other sighs of stress/unusual behavior or disease aside for this.. stuff on him. He's not lost any color but the unidentified stuff on top of him makes his markings looking fainter/duller (only seems to be on the top/sides near top of the body. Belly and lower sides are unaffected and still a vibrant yellow-orange and black-brown (stripe/spot) that a male puffer should have). No shine from the stuff on him, its dull. I'm not entirely sure if it was 24 hours or longer to appear. He was fasted (not fed) for roughly 48 hours since he got supper fat after last feeding + hunting some snails in tank and I wanted to avoid constipation issues so I wasn't looking at him for about 2 days. I noticed when feeding yesterday, and took photos to post the thread immediately.

Cherry shrimp and otos still show no signs today of any issues (but the tank is on a minimum 4 week lock down and observation.. which sucks as I was just planning to get new plants and rescape it ugh!).

I moved the dwarf puffer to a 10g qt tank to monitor/get away from ferts (if that's a possible cause) and treat if I ever figure out what he has needs treatment. Since he's hide based not scale I'll have to look carefully at medication options to ensure I don't use something that may harm him.
Its near impossible to observe him, he's extremely skittish of me after catching and moving him last night so I can't really tell the state his skin is in right now >.<

 

[shrimpNewbie]

Start treating with pimafix should clear up if it's a fungus and won't harm anything to use it

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

 

[wildroseofky]

Here is a link to a forum dedicated to Puffers. Lots of great info and really helpful members. You could add charcoal to the filter if you think the fertilizer might be the problem. I have squirted fertilizer right on fish, not trying to they just swam into the stream, and never had one show a problem. Check with the people over at the puffer sight to see if you can use salt just in case it is an infection or a parasite.