!HELP! Bumps / Pimples on fish belly ?!

[Laura Anne]

HELP!!!!!!

Hi All, I recently inherited a Green Spotted Puffer fish and very new to the aquarium world. Over the weekend she has developed pimple like bumps on her belly and I am very concerned.

She had frozen blood worms on Friday, could it be a parasite?

She also had a vacation feeder in her tank over the weekend, could it be large bites of food?

Thank you for all of your help!!!!

Laura
Additional info:
1~What type of fish is afflicted? Green spotted puffer fish
2~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)? salinity is at 9
3~ How large is the tank? How long has the tank been set up? Tank has been set up several years. I did a 25% water change about 2 weeks ago and a filter change 1 week ago.
4~What type of filtration are you using? Tetra Whisper 10i
5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes? 1 green spotted puffer fish.
6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? How often do you do this? How much water do you remove at a time? I'm guessing one year ago with previous owner.
7~How long have you had the fish? If the fish is new, how did you acclimate it/them? She is a few years old and I have been taking care of her for a few months.
8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.? Aquasafe added with water change.
9~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently? She is regularly fed dried blood worms and dried shrimp on a daily basis. She gets live shrimp and feeder fish every couple of weeks. Last Friday 1/8/16 she had frozen blood worms. She has had the frozen blood worms previously, but it has been at least a month or so.

 

[bigsea]

How big is he?

Id cut back the feedings he looks super bloated and change that water. A big water change. AT LEAST. Puffers need clean water. Id do 50% a week. 25% water change in 2 weeks not to mention the last gravel vac was a year ago??

Are the live foods fresh?? Those foods will die and spoil unless theyre cultured correctly. Feeding your fish spoiled food obviously wouldnt be a good idea.

Is he pooping regularly??

Salinity is very lowend but still acceptable if the previous owner kept him at that salinity. 15 is a recommended salinity for a juvi and 18 for an adult. Might wanna ask what the previous owner was keeping it at.
Did you acclimate him well? Puffers need to be acclimated super slow or theyll get sick.
I cant diagnose these bumps unfortunately but i know with 25% water changes every 2 weeks AND daily feedings AAAND that this puffer is well fed, your water quality cant be clean no offense. Puffers are super messy eaters


- St Charles Almendras Geraldizo

 

[Laura Anne]

Wow, thank you for the info. It is very different from what I was taught. I will start doing a 50% water change weekly. When I get live shrimp and fish they stay alive until she eats them. I think she is about 2.5-3 inches and she always looks fat like in the photos.

9 is the normal salinity, should I start to increase to 18?

I just have absolutely no idea what the bumps are... I didn't feed her for a day and they didn't go away. ;((((((

 

[bigsea]

I would increase it by 1 per week and leave a day in between to observe the behavior.

Not feeding him for a day or even close to a week wont kill him.

Whats more important is if hes pooping.

He could be dangerously constipated. A well fed puffer has a noticeably round belly and yours is abnormally potbellied. Honestly hes so round he looks puffed up from stress

How big is this tank?

Im sorry i cant identify the bumps hopefully someone can soon. Looks painful.

Id still cut those feedings off


- St Charles Almendras Geraldizo

 

[Crissytech1]

My puffer has the same thing! Did you ever figure out what it was? Any suggestions?