Puffer acting weird, faded white spots, HELP!

kingjones59

Hey guys I hope you can help me. I just got a new Papuan Toby Puffer last friday. In the tank are a firefish, purple goby, sixline wrasse, and lemonpeel angel.. Water parameters are Ammonia: 0 (maybe a tad above, but not enough to register at the next level) Nitrite: 0 PH: 8.1 Nitrate: 20ppm Salinity 1.022.

Ever since I got him he has been hanging out in one corner of the tank, swimming up and down the sides and really never leaving about that quarter area of the tank (45 gallon), he is eating, but I do not know how much. He pokes and eats at some of the stuff in there but not a lot. Yesterday I noticed some faded white areas appear on his body (see pic), they are not dots, but kind of like patches and lines. The picture is not the best for seeing them but you can tell they are forming on the top of him. Anyone have any idea of what this could be? Any help or advice is appreciated!

It is a FOWLR tank

Attached Images

toby.jpg (62.6 KB, 26 views)

Reefing Madness

First, what are you feeding him? And, it looks as if he is bumping into his new surrounding a bit. From where that pic is taken, looks as if he's tryin to hide in some tight spots.

kingjones59

We have been feeding him half-clams and shrimp pellets. He has a little spot on his nose but Im not sure if that has always been there, I am starting to question myself on everything if it was like that before or not....Another pic where you can kind of see the nose thing....

Attached Images

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Reefing Madness

Half clams are a good thing. Try Mysis shrimp also instead of the pellets. The spot on his nose is from him digging at the clams. No worries there.He keeps eating, and time passess, he will get more comfortable with his surroundings and the fish in there, I think he'll be fine.

kingjones59

Thank you! the puffer was swimming all around and eating alot today so that is good! However, we still see some white lines and patches once and a while but they are not there all the time. I have read that puffers can change their appearance based on mood, do you think this is what this is?

Reefing Madness

Yea, thats pretty much true of a bunch of fish. They are able to darken or lighten their skin. So it may be that.

Pasfur

I will make a strong suggestion that can be a tremendous help for future additions to the tank. First, let me say that as I read this thread I find it impossible to eliminate or reduce the possible causes. As I brainstorm on the possible issues, I come up with a ton of things that "could" be a culprit. Initial capture, shipping, acclimation, health of fish at the LFS, pH swings, CALCIUM LEVELS, alkalinity, design of live rock structure, behavior of other fish (especially the Lemon Peel), diet at the LFS compared to current diet, etc etc.

There are just so many considerations that it is difficult to help quickly. My suggestion is this, and I realize that hind sight is 20/20. However, the use of a quarantine tank would eliminate many of these issues. A quarantine tank can be set up quickly and inexpensively, generally for less than the cost of 1 or 2 fish, especially if you have some used equipment lying around from your likely days as a freshwater hobbyist.

There is a nice article in our library on setting up quarantine tanks:
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/f...ne-tank-35693/