Bacterial infection??

bdayon36 · Jul 7, 2022

Hello all, my juvenile porcupine puffer has been in my display tank for about 3 weeks. i had a scopas tang i recently bought as well and it was bulling and nipping at the puffer. eventually he stopped eating and would curl up every time the tang came around. just yesterday i noticed in the morning he was laying on the ground with labored breathing. rushed to the store to get kanaplex but by the time i came back he was already gone. when i took him out i noticed in a matter of hours his tissue was almost eroded off of his body. this scares me but i am hoping that this only happened because of a bite he had from the tang. let me know what you guys think. also the tang is out of the tank i brought him back to my lfs but it was already too late for my puffer.

P-Dub · Jul 7, 2022

Welcome, under unfortunate circumstances. So sorry for your loss. It is incredibly difficult to tell what exactly is going on.
Perhaps our resident fish Guru can chime in.
@Jay Hemdal

bdayon36 · Jul 7, 2022

P-Dub said:
Welcome, under unfortunate circumstances. So sorry for your loss. It is incredibly difficult to tell what exactly is going on.
Perhaps our resident fish Guru can chime in.
@Jay Hemdal

thank you, i hope so too.

vetteguy53081 · Jul 7, 2022

More than likely yes as they often succumb to such.
Sorry to see the end result

CoralB · Jul 7, 2022

Welcome !!!

Sorry for your loss !!!

vetteguy53081 · Jul 7, 2022

bdayon36 · Jul 7, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
More than likely yes as they often succumb to such.
Sorry to see the end result

thank you, it is unfortunate but at least my research and knowledge was correct

Jay Hemdal · Jul 7, 2022

bdayon36 said:
Hello all, my juvenile porcupine puffer has been in my display tank for about 3 weeks. i had a scopas tang i recently bought as well and it was bulling and nipping at the puffer. eventually he stopped eating and would curl up every time the tang came around. just yesterday i noticed in the morning he was laying on the ground with labored breathing. rushed to the store to get kanaplex but by the time i came back he was already gone. when i took him out i noticed in a matter of hours his tissue was almost eroded off of his body. this scares me but i am hoping that this only happened because of a bite he had from the tang. let me know what you guys think. also the tang is out of the tank i brought him back to my lfs but it was already too late for my puffer.

So this is a classic chicken and egg question. Did the scopas picking on the puffer cause the issue or did the issue make the puffer more an easy target of the tang?

Porcupines are really prone to disease, so you’ll want to keep a close eye on the scopas to watch it for issues. I would not rush out to buy other fish - I always wait a month if I’ve had a fish die from unknown issues.

Jay