Sick Puffer!!
Forum rules
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.
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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SavageEwok
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:58 pm
Sick Puffer!!
Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum, and I could really use some help! About a week ago, I bought a spiny boxfish, acclimated him, and added him to the main tank (the main tank is 75 gallons and there are two other inhabitants: a niger trigger and a goby). A day or two later, white spots started forming on his fins (the lfs said it was ich), so we put him in a 20 gallon quarantine tank and yesterday started to medicated it with copper. At this point he doesn't seem to be getting worse, but I am not sure what else to do for him. Is there anything else I can do to help him get better, and is there anything I can add to the tank to make him less stressed? Also, is there a chance that this could be something other than ich? I did not provide tank parameters because he is not in the main tank anymore, but if it helps, ammonia and nitrite lvls = 0, and nitrates are almost 0 - I had the lfs test our water, and they said the puffer shouldn't have any problems. I am doing everything I can, but I am not sure if it is enough and could really use help!
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Nick
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Re: Sick Puffer!!
You have to keep up massive water changes on the quarantine tank if you want to keep ammonia and nitrite under control. That's pretty much the main risk with the quarantine. However, the more pressing issue is getting rid of ALL the ich. If the puffer developed the spots while in the main tank, the main tank is carrying it, even if it's not obvious on the other fish. After he gets better, he may just get sick again when you put him back in the main tank.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Sick Puffer!!
Read the article on treating SW "ich" in our Library. Copper needs to be dosed very carefully & tested often or it can be deadly to your puffer. Copper treatment is only as a very last resort & shouldn't be necessary if you treat with hypo. ALL the fish need to go into hypo & the tank needs to be kept fallow for 8 weeks. You should have QTed the puffer.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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SavageEwok
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:58 pm
Re: Sick Puffer!!
Thanks for the input guys, I'll let you know how things are going....