I have a porcupine fish that is 7-8yrs old.  For the last two days he has been laying inthe bottom of the tank in his "sleeping area".  He is tilted with his right side up and a bulge behind his right gill slit causing the spines to lift from the skin a little. 

He has had a darker appearance to his pattern and his eyes are a little darker, but his breathing has been fine.  He still moves his eyes to watch me, and the few attempts he has made to swim has been off balanced medially but not laterally. 

He is about 8" long and is in a 55g tank.  This tank has been his home for over two years. His main diet is thawed out shrimp, mostly shells off.  His tooth is in good condition as far as I know, and the last time he ate was Monday.  I do try to put selcon or zoe on it from time to time.

The nitrates were high at 20, but everything else was okay in the tank.  I had some water made so I did a 20% water change last night.  The only tankmate he had was a lunare wrasse of about the same age.  It dies about 6 weeks ago, but it was missing some scales on the side, and had a visible wound.  The porc. has no outward signs of disease.  I have done two major water changes(40% per) in that time, once when I found the wrasse to be sick and after I had QT'd him to try and treat him.

I am guessing it is an air bubble but I do not know of a time when he swallowed any.  He has had two other air bubbles in his life span.  Once he took about 24 hours to expel, and once he coughed back up after about 15 min.  It seems like this has been too long for that, but I do not know.  Please help me try to save a beloved member of our family.

Thanks for your time,

David  

I know this does not look really traumatic, but here is the spot, taken from the front of the tank, so you can see how he is swimming.

David

Sorry to hear about your puffer.

This is not "good" - the top four causes of this could be vitamin/mineral deficiency, bacterial infection, mycobacterium or worm infestation of the liver.

This tank is really too small for an adult puffer.  Small tanks lead to chronic stress which weakens immune systems and ability to cope with new stressors - pathogens, water fluctuations, etc.

Diet is too limited.  Needs more meaty sources and daily vitamin/mineral supplements.  Nutritonal deficiencies can take months to develop and when the symptoms become apparent, the damage has been done and often irreversible.  Definitely add vitamins to the food, if the puffer will not eat - add to the tank water.  Also try beta glucan to help boost the puffer's immune system.

In light of this fact - I would treat the puffer with an antibiotic - Mardel's maracyn-2, kanamycin or nitrofurazone.  I would treat in a separate tank - no porous materials - rock or substrate......or my preference is to administer antibiotics via a hour bath daily for at least 7 days.

This could be an infection of the swim bladder.  It could also be a mycobacterium infection or worm infestation of the liver.  The liver is on the puffer's right side of the body.

Air bubbles usually have buoyancy problems - usually they do not lay on the bottom but "bob" at the surface.

Again welcome and please keep us updated.

Best of luck.

Will do.

David

David

With the baths, add the dose recommended for 10 gallons just to 1 gallon of bath water.  Aerate well.

Please keep us informed.

Best of luck.

I managed to get him into a gallon pitcher and then set it down into the Eclipse 5 I am using for a QT.  I have a 20g whisper to filter, with no carbon of course!  I made sure that about half of the spill was going into the pitcher to give enough circulation, but not too much turbulence.

I dosed as you said and he will be in for 1 hour.  I plan to put the pitcher back in his tank, laying on its side.  Hopefully he will stay in or near it so that he will not be scared by it.  I will allow it good circulation also.  I dosed as you reccomended.

I will repeat the process tomorrow evening, and will let you know how things go in the meantime.

Thanks,

David

David

Do you still have the puffer?  Any chance you or someone you know could do a necropsy?