Now I am worried because I had planned to move other animals into this tank next week. I don't know if the fish was diseased and it is now in that water or if poisons excreted from the dead fish could not be in the water.  I plan to do a water change, but don't know if I have enough water to do a massive water change.  The only inhabitant currently in the 75g tank is a snowflake eel. 

I know not much can be said about it having a disease or not, but are typical Pocrupine Puffers known for putting out a lot of poisons or toxins when they die.  I know most smaller box fish and some other puffers are. 

I tried to PM pufferqueen, but her PM box was full. 

Jon

Posting of other links on sites can be helpful if one is not selling or promoting a product or company....unfortunately not many like to jump around when trying to read/learn.  Could you cut/paste/copy/post your original post/thread that describes the problem so it will be in one area?

Do you quarantine everything that is wet?

How long has the tank been set up?

How long have you had the puffer? eel?

What are you feeding?

What type of filtration do you have on this tank?

What are your current water parameters - specifics?

A water change is in order.  How often do you do water changes & how much?

The toxin in puffers is contained internally in an organ.  Poisoning occurs when the organ is ingested or if the organ in punctured/cut and the toxin contaminates other parts - i.e. sushi preparation.

I prefer to answer questions on this forum as I receive over 100 emails/pm a day and attempt to moderate at least 3 sites, work a full time job, take care of 7 special needs/medically fragile furry dependents as well as 3100 gallons of salt water.....oh in between I attempt to write articles, finish my book, do presentations, volunteer 8 hours a week at a rural animal shelter.....and I do have the normal activities of a house owner....so what I am trying to stress is I try to make the most of my time and by answering questions on the forum all can benefit from the exchange of knowledge.

I have OCD, wash everything a million times.  QTed cure premium LR for about 6 months with out seeing anything to be scared of I decided it was to risky and bleached the rock to use it as base rock.  This animal was in qt for about a month. 

The 75g the puffer was being moved into has been set up for about 5 months, but 100% of the water, equipment and LR came from an established system at that time.  All water changes since then have also come from the established system.  (established being ~5 years)

Puffer ~1 month.  Eel ~2 months. 

Puffer - Krill(mostly), silver sides(4-5 times), squid(2-3 times), brineshrimp(once), Formula One Frozen(once)

Eel - Silver sides(Mostly), squid(mostly), Krill(twice)

Currently nothing...  the tank is 75g with nothing in it, but a snowflake eel.  I have not finished plumbing it to my sump and the rest of the 200g+ system.  I do water changes on this tank(~5g) about every 4-5 days.   

 See above

NH3/NH4+ ~0ppm

NO2- ~0ppm

NO3- ~0ppm

Salinity 39ppt (I know this is high)

Temp 77*F

I understand busy.  I wasn't complaining at all that your PM box is, full mine usually is, just wanted to get a hold of you because I was told I should.   Thanks for taking the time to respond. 

I didn't copy and paste every word from the other forums because when you post a message over 3 paragraphs long 99% of people in the forums won't read any of it or respond.  Here is the link that contains most of it:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1092338

Thanks again for taking the time to help. 

Jon

Marine Velvet - amyloodinum ocellatum has a longer life cycle than ich - cryptocaryon irritans.  I recommend at least 6 - 8 weeks in quarantine.  There is a thread in my forum of my own personal experience with marine velvet while approaching the one month QT mark.

Make sure not to share equipment, nets, etc between QT and display tanks also.

Was everything from the system where the water and rock taken from quarantined?

Need to limit the krill intake.  Diets consisting mostly of krill lead to nutritional deficiencies which take weeks to months to show signs.....lock jaw is the most common symptom - many threads on krill/lockjaw on this forum as well.

Live rock?  Skimmer?

Here is the initial thread referenced above:

This sounds like classic parasite infection of the gills.  The spine in question could have been a secondary bacterial infection.  Parasites will attack the gills first as this is the area where the most water passes.  Lethargy, increased respiration and anorexia are common signs of infestation in a puffer.

The tank that the puffer was in should be "deemed" infected with parasites.  All that was in the tank - eel, rock, etc.  I would recommend treating the eel in a separate bare bottom tank and leaving the tank (s) fallow - fishless for 8 weeks.  Do not add anything new to these tank (s) - rock, inverts, etc. during this fallow period.

Thanks for sharing/posting.

Everything from the system where the water and rock were taken from was quarantined. 

I am hoping to place an order for some feeder shrimp soon.(some sort of marine shrimp)  Just wish I could find some good info on a breeding set up, so I could have a sustainable food source.  Any ideas? 

Thanks again for your help.  I am hoping by this weekend to set up some place for my eel to be housed during that fishless period.  This comes at a bad time as my French angle really needed to be moved into that tank, but I want the animal to be safe. 

Jon

I also plan on fixing an old leaky HOB filter that has a UV sterilizer built into it and adding that. 

Jon

QT systems do not have to be elaborate - cycled air driven sponge filter with plastic caves for hiding - no substrate, no live rock

Seawater express is an excellent source for shrimp - George sells all sizes of top notch feeding shrimp.

Here is his contact email: shrimp@pahrump.com

Website:  http://www.seawaterexpress.com

My suggestion for a quarantine tank would be not to plumb into another system as if the fish that is new and being quarantined has any pathogen, then the other system would be exposed.

Also - quarantine tanks should really be bare bottom (no substrate) as substrates and rock can absorb medications.  Relying solely on live rock as the biological filtration can be problematic if treatment is needed - hyposalinity and medications will kill off the microfauna of the rock and cause water instability.  Also rock will absorb medications thus achieving a therapeutic level would be very difficult.....copper can be absorbed and released causing toxic levels.