Mappa Puffer Prolapsing?

[MartinM]

Not sure what’s going on here, I’m thinking intestinal prolapse?

- New mappa puffer but has been in captivity for a few months and was QTed by a LFS
- Has been eating well (raw shrimp and scallops) soaked in Selcon
- Swimming and active, seems normal except for the prolapse
- Other fish are fine
- There are no aggressive tankmates
- Everything that could possibly cause injury is well covered/protected (because of the anemones)

Never seen this before, any advice/help is appreciated!

 

[MartinM]

Japan does have vets that specialize in fish surgery so I’m also trying to contact one

 

[ChaosAquaculture]

Do you have a QT you can move him to to watch if he’s pooping and what it looks like - kali

 

[MartinM]

I do, I just wasn’t sure whether to move him and stress him, or not. I’m going to see what the vet says in the morning. I also ordered some epsom salt for the QT just in case it helps…

 

[MartinM]

Update: the vet applied a topical anti-inflammatory several times and the prolapse has reduced in size, but still there. He couldn’t continue because the fish got too stressed and puffed up. So now waiting for some aesthetic to arrive. In the meantime I’ll keep it in a quarantine tank with epsom salt

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Update: the vet applied a topical anti-inflammatory several times and the prolapse has reduced in size, but still there. He couldn’t continue because the fish got too stressed and puffed up. So now waiting for some aesthetic to arrive. In the meantime I’ll keep it in a quarantine tank with epsom salt

I've seen these prolapses from time to time. Sometimes they go away on their own, sometimes our veterinarians have fixed them with surgery (pushing the tissue back in and adding a couple of stiches) and sometimes the fish dies from secondary infection. If the blood flow gets cut off to the extruded tissue, that is fatal. Sharks are rays are the most common to get them. I don't recall ever seeing this on a puffer.

The topical inflammatory makes sense, but the constant handling is the trouble, as you discovered.

Skip the Epsom salts, that won't help. Epsom salts are a freshwater fish tonic. Magnesium sulfate is the fourth most common salt in seawater mixes already, so adding a bit more won't do anything but raise the salinity a bit and skew the ionic composition.

Jay

 

[MartinM]

Ok thanks Jay. Yes handling is never good, I didn’t want the Procedure performed without anesthetic but the vet did not have anything on hand. I’ll skip the magnesium sulfate, thanks. In God’s hands for now!

 

[Chrisfish]

Good luck, hope everything works out, I have a valentini puffer that I absolutely love , would hate for something to happen to him.

 

[MartinM]

Good news! Puffers prolapse has completely self corrected, I’m keeping it in isolation for the next few days but it’s back to the usual healthy yellow color and behaving normally! I also probably won’t need it for a few days and possibly will treat for internal parasites. Any thoughts?

 

[Vested]

Glad to hear the good news! I had an experience with a puffer acting really strange/bloated after eating a very large shrimp. No prolapse to that size but curious if you fed anything large before it? Maybe hard shell could be a factor im not sure.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Do not feed shrimp or scallops for now until it is fully recovered. Selcon good. Go with pieces of fish meat, mussel, squid. . . . soft stuff. @Jay Hemdal called it on retraction.

 

[MartinM]

Hey all, thanks for the help. Everything was soft (no shell on anything) but I think I fed it too much. On the reef fish are always so fat, so I feed small amounts frequently (3-6 times per day), but it was probably too much, too soon.

As a side note, I’ve seen Mappa puffers so fat they were almost round off the coast of Australia! So cute.

I’m going not feed for 24-48 hours and keep an eye on ‘Fugu-Chan’!