Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

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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SmrtyPnts
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Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by SmrtyPnts »

image.jpg
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate).
This morning's numbers :

Ammonia: 0.25 (had a starfish in my sump die)
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 10ppm
Salinity: 1.025 (using refractometer)
Temperature: 75.2 F

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. 60 gallon (I know ... ) + 10gallon sump
- porcupine puffer 3"?
- yellow tang 1-2"
- fire fish
- skunk cleaner shrimp
- blue spot Jawfish
- basic CUC of snails & hermits


3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank:

Feeding frozen mysis, bloodworms, brine, etc
Have been soaking food in Zoe, Marine C, garlic and Selcon (for months) recently added metronidazole and focus since the first sign of ICH.

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. 20 gallon water change 2 days ago. I've been treating the tank with Polyp Labs Medic. Spot feeding corals. Adding Seachem Stress Guard.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it?
It's been up since February 14, 2014 seeded from a smaller tank and added live rock.




about 2 weeks ago my porcupine puffer started exhibiting signs of ich - a couple of spots on his tail fin and the labored breathing.

He had ich about 2 months ago that I treated with hypo and he was so sad and stressed that I prematurely returned him to the DT after about 3 weeks with the idea that I would feed him fortified food and build his immune system.

He was "ok" for a while, I guess, but now he's worse than before :-(

He is not swimming, basically not eating, and breathing pretty heavily. He is also scratching again EVERYTHING and every once in a while will "shiver".

I took him out 2 days ago and did a 30 minute bath in Hikari's Ich x SW and he seemed "perkier" but of course once I returned him to the DT he was shivering within the hour.

I just want to make him as comfortable as possible while treating whatever this is.
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purplecandle
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Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by purplecandle »

Have you read this? About saltwater ick.

library/hospital/swich/
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SmrtyPnts
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Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2014 1:43 am
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My Puffers: Young 2" porcupine puffer named "Squishy"
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Location: Newark NJ

Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by SmrtyPnts »

I have! And just read it again in case there was a quiz ;-)

After having him out last time and the excessive stress it caused him, I decided that this time I would just treat the DT.

Reading that article again, I DID move/change the rocks around in the past 2 weeks. I also had high nitrites during that time and did multiple water changes to bring them down.

The "Medic" that I've been dosing claims to kill the ich when it's in the free swimming stage. The reviews I've read have been mostly favorable - so I figured "why not?"

The issue is that he's just not improving :-( and is in obvious distress.

I want to help him - with the least amount of stress possible.


My "regular" water change schedule is 20-25 gallons every weekend (usually Sunday after the water has mixed for 24+ hours)
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purplecandle
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Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by purplecandle »

I'm I freshwater girl, so I just know so little about saltwater. But, several people here do know about this exact thing. If you can just keep checking back. He sounds like he is in trouble! I wish I could help! If this were fw ick, I'd have you fixed up already!
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Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by Pufferpunk »

I have erradicated SW ich using this method. Raise to 100ppm. Your corals will like it too!
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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SmrtyPnts
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Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by SmrtyPnts »

Wait! Raise WHAT to 100ppm?

The guy at the LFS told me to do 2-3 freshwater dips a day to help.
But I did one the other day and the fish flipped the hell out! I'm afraid to stress him even more :-(


Thank you gals soo much!
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Pufferpunk
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Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
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Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Oops, forgot the link!
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30163ps, added the link, sorry...
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
User avatar
SmrtyPnts
Puffer Fry
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2014 1:43 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Young 2" porcupine puffer named "Squishy"
Location (country): Newark, NJ, USA
Location: Newark NJ

Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by SmrtyPnts »

Pufferpunk wrote:Oops, forgot the link!
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30163ps, added the link, sorry...

LoL. Thank you. I read your post like 8 times SURE that I had missed it.

Thank you.
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SmrtyPnts
Puffer Fry
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2014 1:43 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Young 2" porcupine puffer named "Squishy"
Location (country): Newark, NJ, USA
Location: Newark NJ

Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by SmrtyPnts »

The link to iherb is dead :-(

Is it vitamin c liquid or powder?
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Pufferpunk
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Posts: 32776
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by Pufferpunk »

You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
User avatar
SmrtyPnts
Puffer Fry
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2014 1:43 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Young 2" porcupine puffer named "Squishy"
Location (country): Newark, NJ, USA
Location: Newark NJ

Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by SmrtyPnts »

Awesome!

So ANY of these?

Sure thing on the coupon code! ;-)
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SmrtyPnts
Puffer Fry
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2014 1:43 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Young 2" porcupine puffer named "Squishy"
Location (country): Newark, NJ, USA
Location: Newark NJ

Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by SmrtyPnts »

Just an update:

I received my bottle of Sodium Ascorbate (by NutriBiotic) today and since my tank is 60gallons with a 10gallon sump - I did the calculation based on 50gallons of total water volume (I figure the rocks, sand, power heads, fish, etc take up about 15-20 gallons and if not, at least it's a lesser dose. The bottle shows 1/4tsp = 1112mg.

Just to make sure my calculations are correct lol - in order to get 100ppm (18,924mg) I used 4.25 teaspoons or 21ml.

I put the powder into a shotglass sized measuring cup and marked it for future use so I don't have to do the math again :)

Let's hope this works. My puffer hasn't eaten in days :(


An update to my parameters:

Salinity: 1.024 (refractometer)
Temperature: 74.8 (steady between 74.4 and 75.6)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 2.5ppm
Phosphates: 0.25ppm
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32776
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: Not sure if my puffer has ich or what?!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Start low & raise slowly. If brown gunk starts developing on the surfaces of your tank, cut back by 1/2. Your skimmer's gonna go nuts, so skim drier. Leave the product in the r\fridge, not open to air & light. 4.5 tsp is 1 1/2 tbsp, easier to measure. ;)
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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