The Puffer Forum

Hey guys, Thanks for the responses so far. We were driving by the pet store today where we got this little guy so we went back in. I asked the people what they feed their puffers and the guy said "krill...and sometimes small fish". so I'm guessing he may have the beginning of lockjaw or so...

Hi Everyone, I have an approximately 3in porcupine puffer in a 90G tank. Nitrates 20, Nitrites 0, ammonia 0. This is a new puffer for us, although we are not new to puffers (we had a large porcupine puffer for about 2 years) and keep a small valentini puffer at work. Now, I know you're not supposed ...

I've used Tranquil before to anesthetize my puffers for force feeding when they were sick. I definitely recommend it over clove oil, which I have also used. With clove oil, you add the oil, the fish is swimming, gets slower and then all of a sudden starts floating toward the top of the water and the...

I don't know if you are still considering using clove oil to anesthetize your puffer, but I wanted to suggest using Tranquil (available from Fish Pharmaceuticals...http://www.nationalfishpharm.com). I've used both clove oil and Tranquil II to put two of my large puffers to sleep for various procedur...

Hi PufferQueen, In terms of antibiotics we've tried a whole range of things: Kanamycin- administered as a 1hr bath @ 10x recommended dose Triple Sulfa- administered as a 1 hr bath @ 10x recommended dose Erythromycin- administered as a 1hr bath @ 10x recommended dose These were administered seperatel...

Hello, Our large porcupine puffer Tiki is currently having eye problems. He was previously very sick, had lumps on his nose, was breathing hard, and stopped eating for probably a month. After quarantining for several weeks, the bumps on his nose have, for the most part subsided and he has been eatin...

Sorry to hear about your puffer. You do need to put your fish in quarantine and you can to that by placing them in another tank or bucket or whatever you have available (I've used at 33 gallon plastic garbage can before-brand new) with water at the proper salinity and temperature. You should also fi...

Hi again, This is probably going to be more for Puffer Queen or anyone else with some medical knowledge, but feel free to let me know what you think. Well Tiki is still sick but hanging in there. We were able to take him to a vet who had SOME experience with fish (mostly Koi) who biopsied the bumps ...

Hi again, Another Tiki update...so we have been treating him with Cupramine since my last post. The white spots on his gills have definitely diminished in numbers but there are still a few visable when we look in (maybe 3 or 4 per cm^2 of gill as opposed to 10-12 per cm^2). He is definitely breathin...

Ok now I have a question about quarantining and copper treatment. Now Tiki is in his 30 gallon bucket and being treated with Cupramine. We treated him for the first time last night with the Curpamine after we did an 80% water change (new distilled RO unit water) and got the copper ion concentration ...

Ok. So I rush ordered Cupramine and its corresponding Seachem copper Test kit. Should I continue with his copper treatments until it's received (probably not until tomorrow)? Or should I wait, do a couple water changes and then begin treating with cupramine when it comes? Can ich become copper-resis...

The bottle says its a 0.12% copper ion solution. The test kit I found says its the Fresh and Saltwater Copper Test kit from Marine Enterprises International.

Is it bad to have a protein skimmer on the QT tank while giving him copper treatments?

We've moved Tiki into a 30 gallon quarantine tank now permanently while we continue his treatment and we'll let the display tank run fallow for probably 8-10 weeks to ensure the parasites are eliminated. We tried using a 26 gauge needle to pull fluid from his nose I picked up Copper Tru (Kordon) at ...

I just re-read puffer queen's last post. Is methylene blue less effective than copper as a treatment? I was just wary of copper since some people say it's not good to use on puffers, even though I'm aware others have used it with success.

Hi again I wanted to post an update on Tiki. Water paramaters now are ammonia: 0, nitrites: 0, nitrates: 15 (and we're doing water changes every day to get them lower), pH: ~8.3. We have been treating him with freshwater dips of 20-25 min to try and reduce these white spots we have seen on his gills...