Puffer nipping tang?

-XENOMORPH- · Jul 31, 2017

Hey anybody ever have a small puffer, nip, bite, tankmates? I got him into qt tank by himself. I recently, added a small tang, and I've noticed bites , or nips to his back fin. This happened before , with another fish and I thought it was a 1 time issue, I got that fish out and a friend has him. But the new yang now has nips... they don't look like rock scratches. The other fish couldn't do it. Benghai cardinals, yellow goby, firefish, 1 clown.
So it has to be the puffer. I'm wondering if anyone has seen this behavior? Thnx.

-XENOMORPH- · Jul 31, 2017

-XENOMORPH- · Jul 31, 2017

Help?!?!! My tangs tail has what looks like bites??? I think it was the mini puffer..? Nobody else could do it? Any ideas?

4FordFamily · Jul 31, 2017

Have you seen your puffer attacking it? What other tankmates do you have?

Sometimes flukes can eat at fins.. but that's pretty tattered as if it's been beat up..

melypr1985 · Jul 31, 2017

That doesn't look like bite marks to me. I wouldn't be surprised if a puffer nipped at another fish's fins, but that looks more like a bacterial infection eating away at his fins.

-XENOMORPH- · Jul 31, 2017

melypr1985 said:
That doesn't look like bite marks to me. I wouldn't be surprised if a puffer nipped at another fish's fins, but that looks more like a bacterial infection eating away at his fins.

If its bacterial ...I have no experience with bacterial infections.. What do I do???? None of the other fish are displaying it? A side note... i habe viewed the mini puffer and small clown attack and kill another small clown... It's weird... I also had an issue with a coral beauty having that tail issue and puffer was in tank. I assumed it was him... advice plz?? I don't know what to do. Thankyou

4FordFamily · Jul 31, 2017

ckgriffin2000 said:
If its bacterial ...I have no experience with bacterial infections.. What do I do???? None of the other fish are displaying it? A side note... i habe viewed the mini puffer and small clown attack and kill another small clown... It's weird... I also had an issue with a coral beauty having that tail issue and puffer was in tank. I assumed it was him... advice plz?? I don't know what to do. Thankyou

Sounds like it could well be an infection affecting everyone.

My go to for infections (The "trifecta") is Kanaplex, Furan 2, and Metroplex added together over a course of 24 hours.

You'll want to act fast if it's an infection, it can take 10 days to show any improvement. Treatment should continue for 14 days or so.

-XENOMORPH- · Jul 31, 2017

4FordFamily said:
Have you seen your puffer attacking it? What other tankmates do you have?

Sometimes flukes can eat at fine.. but that's pretty tattered as if it's been beat up..

If its bacterial ...I have no experience with bacterial infections.. What do I do???? None of the other fish are displaying it? A side note... i have viewed the mini puffer and small clown attack and kill another small clown... It's weird... I also had an issue with a coral beauty having that tail issue and puffer was in tank. I assumed it was him... advice plz?? I don't know what to do. Thankyou .
Tank has. 1 mini clown. 1 yellow goby. 1 crab. 2 snails. 2 benghai cards, the puff, 1 firefish. That's it. Nothing aggressive????

4FordFamily · Jul 31, 2017

ckgriffin2000 said:
If its bacterial ...I have no experience with bacterial infections.. What do I do???? None of the other fish are displaying it? A side note... i have viewed the mini puffer and small clown attack and kill another small clown... It's weird... I also had an issue with a coral beauty having that tail issue and puffer was in tank. I assumed it was him... advice plz?? I don't know what to do. Thankyou .
Tank has. 1 mini clown. 1 yellow goby. 1 crab. 2 snails. 2 benghai cards, the puff, 1 firefish. That's it. Nothing aggressive????

Your tankmates lend me to think it's bacterial in nature as well - nothing in there capable of that kind of damage... to a tang, no less.

melypr1985 · Jul 31, 2017

ckgriffin2000 said:
If its bacterial ...I have no experience with bacterial infections.. What do I do???? None of the other fish are displaying it? A side note... i habe viewed the mini puffer and small clown attack and kill another small clown... It's weird... I also had an issue with a coral beauty having that tail issue and puffer was in tank. I assumed it was him... advice plz?? I don't know what to do. Thankyou

You can add vitamins to his food (Examples are: Selcon or Vitachem) which will help boost his immune system and hopefully let him heal on his own. Otherwise you could separate him to a QT and dose the qt with an antibiotic like kanaplex. Kanaplex would be dosed every other day after a 20% water change for 10 days straight.

4FordFamily · Jul 31, 2017

melypr1985 said:
You can add vitamins to his food (Examples are: Selcon or Vitachem) which will help boost his immune system and hopefully let him heal on his own. Otherwise you could separate him to a QT and dose the qt with an antibiotic like kanaplex. Kanaplex would be dosed every other day after a 20% water change for 10 days straight.

I'd trust her words over mine when it comes to infections, for what it is worth. I tend to be overly cautious.

Mfreddy · Jul 31, 2017

My dogface puffer has never gone after anyone, she pretty docile. I learned the hard way to keep checking your water parameters because tangs can be sensitive

-XENOMORPH- · Aug 1, 2017

Had To go with Furan2. No kanaplex avail. Tang is in qt. With 1st dose. Fingers crossed. Thanku

BluewaterLa · Aug 3, 2017

I would agree with others that this looks to be a bacterial issue with the fins on that tang.
I've kept a few different puffers in a reef tank with several species of tangs and have had some brief aggression from the puffer and the tangs usually over food choice at feeding time as the tangs are opportunistic PIGS that have no issues taking what foods they want even if another fish can inflict massive damage onto them.
Puffers from my experience will usually bite another fish in the face or go for the Gut area of other fish.
I had a small porcupine puffer under 2'' once that took a nice bite on the belly of a Blochii tang almost a foot long.
Good thing the larger tang had a bruised area with some skin scuffed from the incident, any larger of a puffer would have caused more damage.

Those fins on that tang are in real bad shape and the tank makes will need to be treated as well.

-XENOMORPH- · Aug 7, 2017

Well, tangs been in qt for A week, furan 2 and water changes . All seems well so far.

BluewaterLa · Aug 7, 2017

ckgriffin2000 said:
Well, tangs been in qt for A week, furan 2 and water changes . All seems well so far.

This is good news for sure.
Is the tang eating well still ?
Hows the fins looking, are they showing signs of improvement ?
Your other fish are all looking healthy still, no signs of infection or tattered fins on other fish ?

-XENOMORPH- · Aug 9, 2017

Crap. Day 8 tang deceased. Thanks for trying 2 help.

Mfreddy · Aug 9, 2017

Sorry to hear that.

tj w · Aug 9, 2017

Sorry

BluewaterLa · Aug 12, 2017

Sorry to hear this. Try not to beat yourself up and know that you did the best you could.
The good in this is that you have gained experience for next time and will be better prepared for the situation and will have better QT skills.
Good luck and happy reefing
BluewaterLa / Mike