pufferfish

Question
Ive had a porcupine pufferfish for 5 years 3 days ago its eye went cloudy so i did a 15percent waterchange and added marin oomed but the eye only seems to be getting worse i recently lost my U.V filter due to salt  creep.its a 45 gallon tall tank with only one fish the temperature is 78

Answer
Hi Ralph. This is an extremely common occurrence with these particular fish and the fact that you have had it this long with no problems is great. These puffers are very prone to eye infections and most of the time it is caused by an injury or poor water quality. Have you check all your levels and are they good? These fish do not tolerate levels of nitrate exceeding 20ppm very well and there should be no ammonia or nitrite in your water at all. I know you have had this fish for a long time however I am a little concerned with the size of the tank(also with it being a tall tank) you are keeping it in. These fish should really not be kept in any tank under 100 gallons as they get very large. It has been from my experience that any fish that is kept in an aquarium that it can outgrow will not lead as long of a life as it should and will often come down with some infections in the process. You may want to try treating the fish with a broad spectrum antibiotic. I am not sure what the ingredients are in the tetra marin oomed or weather the antibacterial properties it contains are actually an antibiotic or more of a preventative type medication. The best antibiotic to treat any kind of infection is kanamycin. You can use this as a food soak and feed it directly to your fish rather than using it in your tank where it will destroy all your good bacteria. The fact that the oomed says it won't destroy your good bacteria leads me to believe it doesn't contain a true antibiotic. To mix up a food soak you will want to use 250 mg of the antibiotic to 1 oz. of food. Feed two times a day for two weeks even if the eye seems better. Correct any water quality problems first. I highly doubt that the UV filter not working has anything to do with this. Your water has been filtered through it and you haven't added any new fish that could have possibly brought in a new bacteria. Puffers with this condition will often recover however if immediate action is not taken to improve water quality and treat the infection the fish often may become blind in that eye. If both eyes are effected this can lead to total blindness which will disable the fish to eat and death would be inevitable.