Dogface Puffer, black ich, skin issue?

[Webbler]

New puffer, been in observation for a week maybe a touch more. Eating fine (though prefers finely chopped to typical chunks - appears to not have it’s bottom teeth) Acclimated for 3 1/2 hours after pickup from LFS, flashed a bit upon release but haven’t seen since first evening.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
I’ve not owned DFPs prior so I’m not sure what I’m looking at.
Has several very small black specks over body, fins had a few white specks that have since disappeared. Skins seems rough today/pimply you can say (maybe he puffed up at some point and since deflated without my knowledge?) I’ve no standard to compare this fish to. Is the base color supposed to be solid aside from the ‘freckles’? Is he supposed to be relatively smooth skinned? Why the courser skin? Pictures don’t give clear view of what I see (black specks are more defined than what appears, but is there anything obvious? Black ich?

 

[JumboShrimp]

Beautiful looking fish. I don't know anything about them in particular, but I'm 100% certain someone here will give you good advice before long... ;Happy

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

You say the fish is under "observation", have you dosed it with anything yet? Puffers can arrive with a variety of parasites and they are fairly prone to ich, so I wouldn't keep it too long without some preventative treatments.
In this case, I might change up my normal order of treatments - you could dose it with Prazipro first, 2x over a week, and then start coppersafe for 14 to 30 days.

Jay

 

[Webbler]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

You say the fish is under "observation", have you dosed it with anything yet? Puffers can arrive with a variety of parasites and they are fairly prone to ich, so I wouldn't keep it too long without some preventative treatments.
In this case, I might change up my normal order of treatments - you could dose it with Prazipro first, 2x over a week, and then start coppersafe for 14 to 30 days.

Jay

Yes, I’ve dosed Prazi and working down toward 1.009 to maintain for 30 days. I was under the impression puffers shouldn’t be treated with copper? Observation tank gets new sand and dry rock every new arrival - fish spends 30 days in after 30 day qt treatments. Thought it’d be less stress to hypo and observe in the same tank and it’d be fine since there’s no algae and critters to die off during hypo.
Is it optimal to abandon course and move back to Hospital tank for copper?

as said, completely new species for me, and am always open to the advice of those with relevant personal experience.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes, I’ve dosed Prazi and working down toward 1.009 to maintain for 30 days. I was under the impression puffers shouldn’t be treated with copper? Observation tank gets new sand and dry rock every new arrival - fish spends 30 days in after 30 day qt treatments. Thought it’d be less stress to hypo and observe in the same tank and it’d be fine since there’s no algae and critters to die off during hypo.
Is it optimal to abandon course and move back to Hospital tank for copper?

as said, completely new species for me, and am always open to the advice of those with relevant personal experience.

No - hypo is fine. You can use Coppersafe on puffers with no issue, but in this case, since you've done prazi and are going to hypo, that will take care of most issues as well as copper and prazi would have.

Jay