Dogface Panda Puffer w/Cloudy Eyes

[Gordo]

We got a Puffer 3 weeks ago and placed him along with a Blue Throat Trigger in a 40gal quarantine tank as my 100 gal was still cycling. The fish has been fine up until about three days ago when I noticed his eyes looking a little cloudy. We tested the water and it had 1ppm of nitrites, .5ppm of ammonia, 0 nitrates, and 1.023 SG. In the meantime the 100gal finished cycling and we placed the two fish in today. It has a salinity of 1.023 and zero ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. He swam right to the bottom and curled up and stayed that way for about 6 hours with labored breathing. He then started swimming around like he couldn't see, bumping into the rocks and walls. The cloudy eyes looks like a fleshy film but it also covers the skin around the eyes and on other body areas. In areas it looks like it is sluffing off or flapping. Any thoughts or ideas? If it is a result of the water parameters in the quarantine tank? Could he recover now that he is in an environment with good water quality? He is still eating and the Trigger seems perfectly fine. Are there any treatment options that we can do to help? We have been administering garlic and Selcon with their feedings from the time of purchase three weeks ago to ward off ich.
Thanks

 

[Terry B]

I see this sort of thing often in puffers and I am sorry to say that most of them die without quick action. If your water parameters are very diffferent between your tanks then the fish may have gone into shock. cloudy eyes and slimy skin is a good indicator of brooklynella or some other parasite. Puffers also get Uronema more often than most fish. I suggest that you take a look at this article and consider having a consultation ASAP (see the consulation page) on my Website.

First take a look at this:
http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/formaldehyde_friend_or_foe.html

HTH,
Terry B

 

[Witfull]

could also be a secondary bacterial infection due to ammonia and nitrite burn...puffers are very usceptible to them,,,especially if caught with a net...their eyes are buldgy so they get the most abrasion.

i agree with transfer shock as well.

 

[Gordo]

Reogface Puffer w/cloudy Eyes

Update,

Well, this morning Zoro (the puffer) was stuck to the closed loop intake valve, gone. I am so sad. I acclimated them very slowly yesterday and thought they'd be okay once in a tank with better water quality. I guess I just should have done a water change in the quarantine tank and given them a few more days in there before transferring them. The trigger is not looking so good today either but he is swimming vigorously. His fins are ragged and he has spots that he didn't have yesterday and one eye is just starting to look cloudy in one area. Is the formaldehyde bath the only treatment option? What is your opinion about quarantine tanks? Is it better to take a risk and introduce new fish to the community rather than quarantine and then run the risk of losing them to transfer shock? The fish I want to keep are expensive and I don't want to go through this again.

 

[Terry B]

Witfull made a very nice contribution! There is no substitute for proper quarantine methods. Here is a link to look at. Please read both parts in my library.

http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/quarantine_methodology_1.html

HTH,
Terry Bartelme