poorly fish?

[ryan_kearney]

Hi..

Im a bit concerned about my puffer fish.. what it is is, just the other night i fed him before i went to sleep and checked him over, he looked fine and dandy, next morning i woke up, had another look at him and his fins all over were not looking very vibrant, they were merky and dull, like it had a coating of brown algae on, i have checked him all over for any other signs but nothing seems wrong, he was simming around as usual aswell..

what is this? there merky stuff has reduced over the last day or two, but the fins are still not up to scratch..

he is swimming around fine as usual, except for at night I have noticed he is swimming into things all the time constantly, this does not happen in the day, is this normal?? i dont think so..

tank 4 months old
AM 0
NI 0
NA 20
PH 8.6

there is quite a bit of brown alge in the tank at the moment.
any advice would be greatly appreciated

[kreblak]

I'm not terribly experienced with puffers, but what you have described concerning the fish's fins sounds an awful lot like fin rot. Does the fish swim without direction, like it's disoriented? You stated that he bumbs into things. Look for a lightening on the edge of the fin membrane, followed by an unraveled appearance. Advanced fin rot will look like the edges of a frayed carpet. Not pretty, but treatable if caught in time.

PD

[MonoSebaelover]

I can try and help out here since I have a 5" Arothron manilensis puffer (Striped Dogface) and a 3" Arothron immaculata puffer. The manilensis is very lazy sometimes and will lay on the bottom and stuff will stick to his body and his fins. Sometimes I look at him and it looks like he rolled around in the gravel because he has sediment all over his body. It is highly possible he is just getting Brown Algae stuck to him. I don't think it sounds at all like fin rot. What kind of puffer is it? Generally puffers have good enough locomotion not to bump into things, my manilensis goes up and down the glass (showing his teeth) all day long but at night he sleeps on the bottom. Hope this helps in some way.