Does my dwarf puffer have ick?

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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ilike2sp
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Does my dwarf puffer have ick?

Post by ilike2sp »

Hi everyone, I got 2 dwarf puffers a month ago and my little one didnt have these white spots on its tail before i believe, but i could use a second opinion. I introduced 2 otos from petco about 2 weeks ago, if it does have ick i feel thats the cause. The water parameters are 0,0,25. and that is all of the fish in a heavily planted fluval spec V. I water change once a week and feed a blackworm to each puffer every day. I only dose the appropriate flourish excel amount every day. I'm getting nervous :/ thanks everyone!
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Does my dwarf puffer have ick?

Post by Pufferpunk »

I don't see anything, even when I blow up the pic. Are you aware your tank is grossly overstocked?
Nitrate should be <20. What % water are you changing out weekly?
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Myaj
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Re: Does my dwarf puffer have ick?

Post by Myaj »

I don't see anything on the picture either.. can you get a better one that shows the tail or what you are talking about? I do agree 5 gallons is too small for that many fish (bioload wise) and while your nitrates aren't outrageously high, the fish are all just babies and are going to get bigger (and more bulky, body wise) and produce more waste. If the numbers are climbing already, you'll only have more issues later.

But try to get a better pic of what you are seeing.. there's nothing in that picture that looks worrysome that I notice, other than the fact that overall his colors look a little dull and the belly isn't a nice bright white like you'd like to see.
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FishFan
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Re: Does my dwarf puffer have ick?

Post by FishFan »

I don't see spots either. If the spots move hour to hour or come and go they may be bubbles. Is the fish seeming distressed? If not it may be nothing. Major Ich symptom is flashing to scratch where the parasites cause irritation.
What filtration do you have?
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