Porcupine puffer help

epaulette2

epaulette2

New member
My porcupine has been acting funny lately. I noticed last night that it has a large gray patch on its side and this afternoon i noticed it has a big gray patch on its belly as well any ideas on what it is? I have quite a few fish in there with him but he is the only one that has it. I think it must be specific to puffers. I just want to know what it is. I'll take a picture if I can.
 
Is there a lionfish in there? Pretty common for puffers to get spiked when lions are present.
 
Not sure exactly what this is. I too had a puffer a while back that developed the same greyish patch. Only info I found when I searched was a disease called Vibrio. Mine didn't make it too long either. I would qt and treat with some sort of antibiotic. Hopefully Pufferpunk will see the post and chime in. Good luck.
 
Maybe pufferpunk will stop by. She is one of the best resources for puffer questions.

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Yeah from what I'm reading it isn't sounding good. Looks like every puffer that gets it dies soon after. It's depressing he's my oldest fish. At 3 years. Sad to see him so sick.
 
when I bought my new puffer it transmitted to my tank on all I had two puffers a large tang and small damsels that got it I went against my original plans of not dosing medicine at all and did coper it's all cleared up now I also drenched good in garlic over night in fridge and all fish made it after reading and finding what I thought it was it was well worth it to run it good luck
 
Ted I just realized something. I dont have a lion fish, but I do have a big fox face. I think the fox face may have stung my puffer. It's the only thing I can see happening to it.
 
Vibro is very likely. It is a bacteria that effects the fish like a flesh-eating disease & kills very quickly. It seems to be very characteristic to porcupine puffers. Please post about this on my forum, as there are several experts there that may be able to further assist you with treatment.
 
epaulette2 said:
Ted I just realized something. I dont have a lion fish, but I do have a big fox face. I think the fox face may have stung my puffer. It's the only thing I can see happening to it.
Click to expand...

It's extremly possible and likely. Puffers go after the spines of lions and other spiny fish quite often.
 
OK, found this on my forum:

Try a combined therapy of Maracyn and Maracyn II in a hospital setup or as 10-20times overdosed half hour baths.

The problem with this Vibrio sp. infection is that almost never real antibiotics are used in the early stage (which would be day 1).

A large UV sterilizer with a slow flow and feeding high vitamin food as well as high oxygen (esp. by surface current, 30 times tank volume per hour, no skimming while treating) can support the treatment.

There are many diffeent Vibrio spp. with very variable symptoms, the most commonly known affecting humans is cholera. I *guess* Cholera meds may have an influence on the fish Vibrio species, too. Anyway, don't grab into the aquarum with wounds and clean your hands thoroughly after contact with the fish or its water.

Another imporant Vibrio species (obviously not the one of this infection) is thought by some scientists to live in symbiosis with puffers and to produce their tetrodotoxin poison.
 
If you really want to treat for vibrio use Furan 2. It treats gram+ and gram- bacteria and is what most of the seahorse breeders use and recommend (Peka locally). Vibrio is very common in seahorses that are kept above ~74 degrees. Just follow the instructions on the box.

Make sure to treat in a dedicated quarantine tank though since it will kill all good and bad bacteria.

I would also be extremely leery about utilizing any medication or dosing instructions with the words "I guess" in them.
 
It's vibrio I tried treating with MII but I have seen no improvements. I havent seen it stop spreading either. Poor guy. I hate seeing him so ill I will keep dipping and dosing and see if it turns around here.
 
Sadly I lost him. It wouldn't stop spreading throughout his body. It was so sad to see him go. I hoped I could bring him back from it but it just didn't happen. I'm thinking about getting another little porcupine puffer in a couple of weeks and growing him big like I did with my old one. He was my oldest fish. So when he died it was hard.
 
Sorry for your loss... :( Can't say I'm surprised at all. This flesh-eating disease is almost impossible to cure once it starts spreading like that. Kills very quickly.

I would wait. This is extremely communicable to other puffers. I'd be very careful where you purchase your next one from & make sure you QT it for at least a month.
 
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