porcupine puffer keeps getting ich!!

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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Re: porcupine puffer keeps getting ich!!

Post by Puffer Queen »

What is the medication or ingredients in the LifeGuard??

If you treated before with this product and it has come back......did it really work the first time or was it just the natural progression/life cycle of the parasite and perhaps a limited immunity.

I do NOT recommend adding any medication to a tank with any porous materials (rock, substrate, etc). These will absorb chemicals and medications thus preventing a therapeutic dosing and there is risk that these can be released later and possibly react with other products.

I strongly suggest following the advice given as these are proven methods of eradicating ich.
Kelly
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Re: porcupine puffer keeps getting ich!!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Is it possible that if using meds & not given the full recommended course of meds, a parasite can become immune to that med?
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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Re: porcupine puffer keeps getting ich!!

Post by crazedpuffer »

Probablly, thats apparently what happens with geltek when added to the water. The parasites build up an immunity to it so it no longer kills them.
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Re: porcupine puffer keeps getting ich!!

Post by Troender »

Pufferpunk wrote:Is it possible that if using meds & not given the full recommended course of meds, a parasite can become immune to that med?
Definitely yes!
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Re: porcupine puffer keeps getting ich!!

Post by chevrolet67impala »

What is hypo?
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Re: porcupine puffer keeps getting ich!!

Post by Pufferpunk »

See the SW ich article in our Library.
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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