Puffer White Patch

[rinconmike]

I have been treating my 150gallon Fish Only tank with Cupramine due to ich.

I am on day 19 and have the levels around .25 to .4. It is hard to tell with the seachem and Red Sea test kits so that is why I have a range.

A few days ago, I notices this whitish patch on the top of it. I am not sure how long it has been there. Here are some shots:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5728038/Puffer/1.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5728038/Puffer/1b.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5728038/Puffer/2.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5728038/Puffer/3.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5728038/Puffer/4.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5728038/Puffer/5.jpg

He is eating like a pig and active.

Also, the water is a tint cloudy or not crystal clear. I am assuming it is due to not running the carbon. My nitrite and ammonia are zero, the nitrate is around 40 (typical for my tank), PH is 8.2, Salinity I keep at 1.019 to 1.020.

I have not live rock, instead:

A sump that is around 25 gallons with 16 gallons of bioballs.
Octopus XP2000sss skimmer.
Inlandseas Nu-clear 533 canister Filter.


Other fish include:

Panther Grouper
Snowflake Eel
Hippo Tang
Heniochus Butterfly
Porcupine Puffer

I was going to keep the curpramine going for 28 days.

Picture of Tank and Sump:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5728038/Tank 2010-10-25.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5728038/fish 2/IMG00313-20100917-1626.jpg

I did do a 30 gallon water change today (usually do every 2 weeks) and added some cupramine to keep the level up.

thanks,

Mike

 

[Ninjapotamus]

My porc puffer had the exact same white blotches during an ich outbreak. Mine had it all over though, yours is very minor by comparison. Cured the ich, cured the spots.

 

[rinconmike]

Thanks. He showed no signs of ich before - just the other fish.

Was wondering if it was the cupramine causing the spots.

 

[rinconmike]

Did you treat with cupramine by any chance?

 

[Ninjapotamus]

Yes I did. He was in cupramine for a few weeks and honestly it didnt cure the spots or the Ich on the tangs I was also treating.

The way I got rid of both the ich and the puffer spots might not be practical for you. I had a few 30 gal tanks. Simply moved the fish from one tank to another. The unused tanks were scrubbed down with bleach and totally cleaned between moves. The trick is to keep the fish in each tank just long enough for the cysts to fall off but not long enough for them to hatch and reinfect the fish. If you lookup lifecycle info on Ich you can get a good idea for the timeframe.

If you cant do something like this, just keep in mind that you need to monitor your copper levels really closely. Live rock/sand can absorb the copper and screw up your treatment.

 

[rinconmike]

Thanks. I do have sand and two large coral skeletons. After 19 days I have put in a total of 9 caps. For my water volume if I had no sand 6 caps should give me .5.

I an hoping I am at least at .25 but also am concerned I am to high.

Test kits are hard to read.

 

[Pufferpunk]

It is very common to have copper burn the skin off the scaleless puffer.