Tetraodon sabahensis

[anouk]

Haha oh my god, that must have looked funny and scary at the same time. How is your fish doing after his trip to the wonderful world outside his aquarium. And how is your finger feeling ( i bet you're not going to stick your hand in there any time soon )?

It is strange that you have two different fish, in different aquariums that have gill disease. Do you use the same buckets (or other stuff) when you change your water? Maybe it is spreading because of that. I have no idea if it is an infection that is contagios or not though.

But for the time being i would dip the crayfish too. Are they not showing any symptoms of some sort ??

[darb]

I haven't noticed any Sera products here in Canada, but I see that they have distribution in the US.

Yes the suvattii is back to his normal behaviour and none the worse for his little trip. It was only a distance of about 2 feet , 50 cm or so and onto a hardwood floor. But I did decide to get more aggressive with his feeding and have had success with brushing the freeze dried shrimp around his mouth and then he strikes either out of instinct or annoyance.

He didn't break the skin on my finger, just left a red mark that went away, but he now seems to have a definite interest in fingers ...

The two cases of gill disease were about two months apart and I sterilized the tank everything associated with the first case with bleach when it happened. Cross contamination is naturally always a concern and I am far from diligent on that front.

From what I can tell all of the crayfish seem healthy and have never observed any die off in the tanks, but my maintenance regime is lax in that department and if anything harmful was going to grow in my systems, that would be the place. I think that the Potassium permanganate dips should kill everything external.

[Lode]

Maybe via internet, Ebay or something?

Haha, "the finger thing" sounds familiar. My puffer does the same, ones they taste fingers... lol

[darb]

I actually found a source for Sera in town now, but had already started my most recent treatment.

I am having trouble curing the gill issue with the Saba. Have now run: Maracyn, Maracyn 2, Furan 2 (antibiotics) and Seachem Paraguard and PazilPro for parasites and still seeing flashing; more forceful now concentrated on the gill plate area. Plus the behaviour is off and I am rarely seeing white belly whereas before, just the opposite was true.

I am going to clean all of the meds out of the water and maybe give it some time, hopefully it is just irritated/damaged tissue at this point.

My next course of action will either be, or a combination of increasing the salinity to at least 1.12 and/or using Panacur. After running three different courses of antibiotics, it almost has to be a parasite issue ... hopefully.

[Lode]

PraziPro can be compared with Sera Tremazol (both Prazicantel as active ingredient).

Increasing the saltinity level is probably the best option now, I agree. A brackish puffer will have no problem with high saltinity levels, even when small, if the period is only a few weeks. The freshwater parasites will probably die after a few weeks, and vice versa. So probably a good idea to raise the salitity even higher then you suggest for several weeks. If problems persist, you can dramaticaly lower the saltity for several weeks also. I have no experience with this, so keep in mind it's just a thought

[Nanda]

I totally agree with Lode.

I personaly would bring the salinity level up to 1.018 til 1.020.
Good luck and keep us posted!

[darb]

I completed all the medications last evening, did a 50% water change and added charcoal.

It has been 26 hours and so far I haven't noticed any further flashing, the belly is back to being white as a sheet and behaviour is back to normal. So I am guessing that it was the meds that were irritating the gill and causing the change in behaviour and black belly.

But the gill plate on one side is still enlarged and he is only breathing through the same side also. This may have been a pre-existing condition, I perhaps should have payed closer attention. But I have heard of fahaka's only breathing through one gill also ...

If I notice anything further, I am going to increase the salinity to full marine, but am planning on going to 1.10 ish anyways, after I gradually introduce some base rocks and work out the val plants.

[Lode]

Good to hear it's getting better

What I've noticed when using anti-parasite medicine is that the first day(s) the fish seem to react even worse, probably because of the dieing parasites that shortly irritate the fish even more.

The gill should be ok though. Sometimes in very bad cases, I've heard, that gills can stay disfuctional, because they where damaged to much. Hopefully this is not the case.

Is it possible to show a close up picture of the gill?

[Nanda]

How's he doing Darb?

[darb]

I went away for a couple of days over the weekend and came back Monday and noticed him flashing several times. SG was at 1.11 and I now have it up to 1.17 and will go to 1.20 tomorrow and then 1.23 for Thursday. Once there I will hold it for 5 days and monitor it.

Getting a photo could be difficult, he doesn't stay in one spot too long, but will try tomorrow. He is actually now using both gills I just noticed ... hhmm

I should also say that he is also a bit of a retard and may very well just be doing all of this to get attention. Once I noticed him swimming around with one pectoral fin clamped to his body and I freaked out. I couldn't see anything wrong with him and was about to post a "help me" on a forum when I noticed that he was swimming perfectly fine. So from time to time when he decides to do this, for whatever reason, I just ignore it.

Apart from the flashing though, he seems perfectly normal though and seems to love the salinity increases and actually seems more vibrant. I also put a powerhead in the tank today and he seems to enjoy having the current to play in.