Dwarf Puffer Saga

[Ritt]

Few months back I finally got two dwarf puffers after a lot of research and searching. They were both very healthy and got along extremely well no nipping or anything. One was really fat and the other smaller. So After about two months I got another dwarf puffer for my tank. I was worried about this puffer because it was half the size of the other two and thought that if might get eaten. That wasn’t the case the new little one tormented the skinny one and left the fat one alone for the most part. A few weeks went by with a lot of nipping and stuff going on. In the mean time I tried changing the landscape bought a few plants and some other places for them to hide out none of this helped. The fat puffer soon died. I am guessing that it had to do with the fact that it was so fat. Well this new little puffer grew really fast and continued to torment the other puffer till it finally killed it. This was a few weeks ago. You may ask why I didn’t get rid of the other puffer or put it in a new tank Well I moved to a small town with no close lfs.

So in the past few days this mean little puffer has developed a sizable scab looking thing on the side of its belly. The puffer doesn’t seem to be acting out of the ordinary either. Then this morning my Otto died for no apparent reason either. Fine yesterday dead this morning. From what I could tell the Otto had no bite marks or similar looking scabs on it either.

What could this scab be? Is it ick? What should I do to treat it?

 

[Lithril]

Gotta ask first, whats your water parameters like as in ammonia, nitrites etc

 

[Ritt]

Nitrate = 10 ppm
Nitrite = 0
PH = 6.8

 

[Lithril]

Ich normally develops as lots of white dots like grains of fine salt on the skin. Is there anything sharp (rocks etc) that the puffer may have damaged itself on. Maybe worth putting some melafix into the tank, this will help the healing process. Thats about all I can think of although I've very little experience with diagnosing disease etc.

There is definately enough oxygen in the tank isn't there, none of the fish that died looked like they were gasping at all or swimming more at the top of the tank?

 

[Pufferpack]

Sorry to hear you lost your 2 puffers Ritt , sounds like the last one has a bit of an attitude problem and is destined to the life of a loner. I wouldn't be overly concerned by the loss of the Otto (although it is sad to lose him) as long as your water tests out fine, it may have just been his time.
As Lithril says, I doubt if it is Ick. Does he have a tendency to sleep near the heater? They are pretty sound sleepers and he may have burned himself. I would try the Melafix and keep a close eye on him.

 

[Ritt]

My fish died tonight. He had been looking bad most of the day. Pufferpack now that you mention it the scab on the side of it looked like a burn the heater may have been what did it.

Thanks for the advice. I think this weekend I am going to clean out my tank and figure out what I am going to do with it since all my fish are dead.

I really liked those puffer fish. Are there any other small breeds of puffers that I might want to consider?

 

[Lithril]

I've got some Colomesus Puffers (South American) they're less aggressive than the dwarfs (although I'm probably getting some dwarfs to go with them), they fairly cute lil things.

 

[Pufferpack]

Sorry to hear you lost the last one Ritt , sounds like it may have been a secondary infection caused by a heater burn. As Lithril mentions the South American (Colomesus asellus) puffers are generally milder in temperment than the Dwarfs and only grow to about 3 or 4 inches in the aquarium.