Yellow Starry Puffer...strange Dark Area....

[vangoghfish]

I received a beautiful yellow starry puffer, last Thursday, just under a day of a week ago. It is 4" in size, and plump. Was eating great, had some frozen krill, then feed it some glass shrimp from the bay near my home. Then a couple days later feed it some very small crabs from the bay, and more live glass shrimp.
Late last night, and now this morning a dark area over one side of its head, and the one eye(eye is cloudy). Rest of the body has normal color, seems to be spreading slowly. I treated it today with melafix-marine version(new). Checked all water parameters, all are PERFECT. Along with temp and salinity...forgot to mention, it is alone in a 30 gal. QT, since arrival. Figuring some type of fungus, no idea how it got it.

Any help all this would be appreciated, below are links of photos tank lunch time today.
HELP! AS THIS IS A BEAUTY I DO NOT WANT TO LOSE!
LINKS BELOW:
http://www.theholtzmangroup.com/images/starrypuffer/starry1.jpg
http://www.theholtzmangroup.com/images/starrypuffer/starry2.jpg
http://www.theholtzmangroup.com/images/starrypuffer/starry3.jpg
http://www.theholtzmangroup.com/images/starrypuffer/starry4-good-side.jpg

 

[TerryB]

Sometimes brooklynella can look like that on a puffers head. It can kill them in a few days. I would use a series of 3 formalin dips (one every third day) and add some Nitrofurazone or Furanase to the QT. Do not put formalin in the QT. If you have some StressGuard then put some of it in the QT to serve as a temporary mucus layer over the lesion. I would also reduce the salinity to decrease the water loss across the wound. I prefer a salinity (NOT SG) of 14ppt, but you have to check the pH daily and use an accurate refractometer if you want to use hyposalinity correctly.

Terry B

 

[vangoghfish]

Terry, thanks for the input, but won't taking the puffer out of QT for the dips, stress him enough to put him over the edge. And what is Nitrofurazone or Furanase, are they sold by that name? And if it is brooklynella, how does it progress visually on the fish?

 

[TerryB]

Your fish has little chance to survive without treatment if it has brooklynella. No medication, including nitrofurazone or furanase should be used in a display aquarium. Nitrofurazone and Furanase are antibiotics that I suggested for the probability of a secondary bacterial infection due to the wounds caused by brooklynella. Formalin dips are the best treatment for the parasite itself.

Brooklynella usually causes an overproduction of mucus and literally eats the skin and gills of the fish. As it progresses the fish will have difficulty with respiration and weight loss due to dehydration ( they cannot maintain their internal salt-to water balance because so much of the mucus/scale/skin barrier is removed, not to mention the damage to the gills) and it will stop eating and be lethargic. If you wait until it is advanced it will probably be too late. I would be keeping the fish in a low salinity quarantine between dips with formalin and keeping one of the antibiotics in the quarantine water. Yes nitrofurazone and furanase are sold by the names.

Terry B

 

[vangoghfish]

Terry, the fish passed already, inflated to a huge size, almost 10", multiple times over a couple of hours, went back to normal size, and eventually stopped breathing, it was in a QT from arrival day until now, not DT, thank g-d, would you suggest a 100% water change, hit is with copper first, what is your imput on this, as mentioned this is my QT, totally bare bottom, etc. I do have a prefilter overflow, with oversize pro clear 150 wet/dry, with built in skimmer in wet/dry, over kill, but had an extra, so used it.

 

[TerryB]

I would add a little chlorine to the water for a few hours. Then remove the water and let the tank sit dry overnight. You will have to cycle the tank again. Keep a biowheel or sponge filter in your sump of your display tank to seed it with the bacteria you need to cycle the Qtank. If you have two sponge filters then you will always have a backup biofilter ready. Sorry for your loss.

Terry B