brown spots on fish - Aquarium Advice

andre · 04-13-2009, 02:49 PM

i have a hawaiian blue spot puffer who has started acting weird lately. ive had him for probably 2 months now and hes been doing great up until about a week ago. he started rubbing himself against rocks quite often which i wasnt sure why but didnt worry about it at first. now hes got brown splotches all over him and he sits under a rock all day and his colors fade out but as soon as i open the hood he comes to the top wanting food like normal and his colors will come back and he eats like normal but if theres nothing for him to do he will just sit under his rock. i have done a water change since he first started acting like this but nothing has changed all my other fish are doing fine too. im not sure what disease this is if any and should i do a copper treatment or a freshwater bath or what to treat him?

thanks,
andre

**roka64** · 04-13-2009, 03:50 PM

What are your specific water numbers?
He may not be happy in that small of a tank, they need around 50Gallons.
I believe puffers are scaleless fish and copper should not be used nor should a FW dip, it causes more stress to an already stressed fish.
What are you feeding him?

andre · 04-13-2009, 04:25 PM

salinity is 1.022 ph 8 nitrates 30ppm nitrites are .1 or lower and i feed him a piece of krill in the mornings and then brine shrimp at night and yea i do realize that the tank is under the recommended size for him but he is pretty much as small as they come and hes been very happy for 2 months up until now ill be getting a bigger aquarium very soon but im not sure what the brown spots are from is this a disease? at first i thought they were scratch marks from him rubbing against the rocks but now they are all over his body

**roka64** · 04-13-2009, 09:34 PM

Can you get a pic?
They also need hard shells to grind down their teeth. You may want to add a fresh clam from your local grocery store for him to nibble on....

Innovator · 04-14-2009, 08:04 AM

Get us a pic. Technically Cupramine (copper) can be used on all puffer species, but there is no point in treating if you do not know what you are treating. What else is in your tank, any anemone's or aiptasia? What other fish do you have (aggression?)?

eja206 · 04-14-2009, 08:39 AM

i have read that puffers are very intelligent fish and need an intersting aquarium (plants, lots of different hidey-holes, etc) otherwise they get bored and listless...
sorry i know that doesn't really answer the question about brown spots, but may explain his behaviour, and why he is only healthy looking during feeding (where he is certainly not bored!)

**roka64** · 04-14-2009, 02:32 PM

Thanks for the info James, I couldn't quite remember.

andre · 04-14-2009, 02:33 PM

ok i have the worst camera in the world but you can see the largest area of the brown stuff near his tail its on both sides too i asked my local aquarium store and they had never heard of it. as for what i feed him i had been using the krill to keep his beak down as thats what the store i got him from suggested and i actually have 3 blue legged hermit crabs in the tank that he tries to take a bite at but cant do anything to so i doubt he could get through a clam shell but recently i got an octopus cartilage piece that i let him nibble on alittle bit every now and then and thats been working great he doesnt eat any of it either and the fish i have are all listed on the "my tank" section and the only aggression is the blue-yellow tail damsel is really territorial but the puffer acts like he isnt there when he tries to chase him off. and i have noticed that he may be bored he occasionally messes around near the powerhead and filter and fights against the current then lets himself get blown away by it