puffer ammonia poisoning?

[SamS]

Yesterday, my northern puffer started acting funny (not swimming well, sideways, unable to right himself) so I removed him from the main tank for quarantine. I noticed he had a red tinge to his fins and was displaying some other signs of ammonia poisoning so I tested the water.....and nothing. Ammonia level was 0ppm, 0ppm for nitrite and 20ppm for nitrates. I still did a 50% water change just in case. The other fish in the tank are completely fine and showing no signs of ammonia poisoning or any other issues.

This morning, I did notice he has a bump about the size of a large marble on his side in front of his pectoral fin.

I'm stumped as to what could be going on and could use any advice!

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Can you post a pic? How long have you had him and has anything new been added to the tank?

 

[edinphilly]

Do you have an anemone? Twice my green spotted puffer has looked completely out of it, and color faded significantly and seems to be with an injury. Both times completely recovered and nothing else in the tank was "off" so my best guess is he has tangled with an anemone and gotten stung.

 

[SamS]

No anemones. Nothing new added to the tank. I inherited him about 7months ago. He'd been around for about a year and half before that and was full grown when he was bought.

I went to go check on him about an hour ago and he had died

So maybe it was just old age? (not sure how old he was when the person before me got him, only that he was full grown). My only other guess was that at some point two nights ago he puffed for some reason and ended up damaging himself (which caused the buoyancy/swimming issues). He was such a cool little (or not so little) fish

 

[SamS]

In cleaning his tank I just noticed that his poo was perfectly round balls of goo? Don't know if that is normal or if it could be a sign as to why he died.

If it isn't normal, should I keep an eye on my other fish in case they start to display similar behavior?

 

[edinphilly]

That sucks. I agree very cool fish. I have no idea about your question but if you don't get an answer here there is a puffer forum.