A narrow lined puffer problem

[GDS-Entropy]

Hello,

I recently acquired a Narrow Lined Puffer, roughly 3" long. I got him online, and upon receipt I discovered the poor little guy was emaciated, he looked as if he had never been fed. He quickly wolfed down 3-4 krill. This is the first issue, I need to rapidly get him back to full steam, as his weakness brought about my second problem.

The little dude, upon introduction to the display after quarantine, was immediately assaulted by my harlequin sweetlips. Then a green spotted puffer. Then the dogface puffer. A few days later, he got absolutely NAILED by my 4" Arothron Mappa, who is normally quite sedate. Actually, everyone is normally really chill.

So, the poor guy has a nasty wound, which is not a massive hole or anything, but is penetrating and lies rougly 1/4" before his tail fin. There does not appear to be any internal injury, and he is eating like he just discovered food.

I have isolated him within a floating breeder contraption, as the water conditions in my FOWLR/macro algae display are 0 for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate at a PH of 8.2 and SG of 1.025, My hospital tank has a PH a bit higher than this, for some reason or another, and I really dont care why. Ill be rectifying this issue shortly however.

My question is, what should I be doing for him? Should I give him tetracycline or some other antibioitic? This wound looks like if it were to become infected, that it would end the life of this poor, already weak puffer.

I may just get another tank for him specifically. Poor guy.

Thanks in advance,
Ian McDonald

 

[GDS-Entropy]

Well, since no one had any ideas I thought I should share what I did, given the puffer in question is almost completely healed now, and properly fat and happy.

So if anyone else has a puffer take a chunk out of another, here is what worked for me, and the major conditional factors you would need to consider when determining the proper course of action.

Keep in mind that this information is not intended to be taken in any manner other than as an account of what happened in this particular case, and is only to be used in such capacity. This information is pure anecdote derived from personal observation, and has undergone absolutely no form of scientific rigor. Use at your own risk.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way...

1) Wound must not compromise vital organs, or the cavity in which they reside
2) Wound must not look as if a melon ball extractor was taken to the fish; most of the flesh
must be present, and connected to vascular tissue such that it remains alive
3) You must catch it pretty quickly after it occurs, so the other fish do not take advantage of
the puffers weakened state
4) No secondary infection may be present
5) You must be very sure the fish will live

The items above essentially tell you that, while large, the wound was relatively minor.
The puffer is roughly 3" long, and the wound is about 1.5cm long by 1cm high by perhaps
2mm deep, shaped like two crescents. Typical minor puffer bite.

Here is what I did:
1) Isolate the injured fish in the display tank (see item 5 above)
2) Feed as usual (I fed him Hikari Krill, dried, 3-4 times daily, as much as he would eat)
3) Keep a very close eye on the fish; I checked hourly on the first day, every 6 hours each day
following

If your puffer is wild caught (as far as I know, all are), and it is fresh from the wild, it probably contains TTX. Nasty stuff. From what I have read about puffers and TTX, it is primarily concentrated in the gonads and liver if I recall correctly. The info I found suggests TTX is a byproduct of some sort of bacteria, possibly food as well, and eventually greatly lowers in concentration in captivity.

That neurotoxin is important, along with item 5, because if your puffer has a lot of it, and he dies...very bad things can happen. So, if you have ANY suspicion that your puffer may die, pull him out of the main tank, and put him in your hospital tank....which you should have, and maintain at the same conditions as your display, in my opinion.

In summary, roughly a week on and my little dude is doing well and looks like a proper puffer, unlike the bag of bones he arrived as. His wound is reduced to a scar in external appearance, though I suspect it may not be healed internally to the degree outward appearances suggest. I am going to keep him isolated in the main display for how ever much time it takes for either me to have faith that he can defend himself against that massive Arothron Mappa, or I get him his own tank. Or option C, whatever that is.

I did not use any form of medication, because in my case it was not required.

I hope this information helps someone else in some capacity, at some point, with some problem or another.

Ian McDonald