Sick Congo Puffer - Help!

[joloco]

hey guys

quite concerned - noticed this morning that my congo puffer has a strange patch of greyish white on him.
its quite small and to the front of the gills.

looks like some kind of algae growing on him - white ish and a bit feathery, its not dense, more kind of floaty.

tried to photograph it but my cameras not good enough to focus on it.

he's fine in himself and is eating.


what do you think it might be and what can i do?

 

[joloco]

in a bid to feel useful i've just done an 80 per cent water change and rinsed one of my filter pads

noticed some of the white stuff has gone - i guess it was rubbed off when puff was burying himself in the sand.

should i see if extremely gentle rubbing on my part might dislodge a bit more?
the skin isn't broken - its just on top.

 

[*Fishkies*]

It sounds like it may be columnaris. One of my pleocs caught this once. Take a look at the site below and see if you find your symptoms of your fish.

Fish Symptoms

and another site (has pictures)!!

Disease Diagnosis (with pics)

 

[WILDER]

Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite,nitrate, and ph.
You can ge t columnaris on the gills can look greyish white stringy or fluffy.

 

[joloco]

20 gallons uk - well established tank
one congo puffer
27 degrees
ph 8

others i need new test gear for

but this morning - the white stuff has gone, leaving only a very small greyish patch on him that looks flat and like skin colouration. is it possible that he grazed himself on his log and the white stuff was dead skin?
i think puffers have skin not scales but i may well be wrong on that one.

the patch is smaller than it was and looks more like skin - in that it has patches where it is exactly the same colour as the rest of him

also its not on his gills but one cm or one and a half in front of his gills.

i'm quite reluctant to treat the water/him as i know puffers react very badly to most fish medications.... but i guess i may have to and hope for the best

 

[WILDER]

Ok.
Good luck.