Puffers and Ich... Truth behind the retail please!
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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Myaj
- Tech Team
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Re: Puffers and Ich... Truth behind the retail please!
Hmm, she's never had them and I got her when she was only a couple inches...
Re: Puffers and Ich... Truth behind the retail please!
I understand the concerns for keeping a porc in a 75g tank, though I plan on buying the thing at 2" or less if I can manage, so i figure I can get a few good years out of the 75 before I need to upgrade, I would really like to do a 120 or so sometimes anyways and that would just be motivation, but I wouldn't want to bother yet if I cant keep the things alive.
I really like the burrfish, but I just like the porc better, they amuse me more. And the mention of short life doesnt exactly attract me.
I can definitely do a longer aclimation period, though do you have any ideas other than prime? I am not a big fan of using chemicals in my tanks...
I really like the burrfish, but I just like the porc better, they amuse me more. And the mention of short life doesnt exactly attract me.
I can definitely do a longer aclimation period, though do you have any ideas other than prime? I am not a big fan of using chemicals in my tanks...
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Myaj
- Tech Team
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- Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:27 pm
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- My Puffers: Bubba, turgidus
Paris, lined burrfish - Location: SE Wisconsin
- Contact:
Re: Puffers and Ich... Truth behind the retail please!
Well, Prime is actually mainly a decholrinator.. with a little bit of added stuff to help detoxify ammonia and nitrites. So if you're going to need a dechlorinator anyways, Prime is a good one to buy.
I use it because its one of the few dechlorinators around that I know won't hurt my fish (doesn't add a ton of gunk to the water). Amquel works very much the same, but you can't get regular Amquel anymore unfortunately.
Most of us don't use chemicals either.. this is one of the few products we do think has a place in fishkeeping though
I use it because its one of the few dechlorinators around that I know won't hurt my fish (doesn't add a ton of gunk to the water). Amquel works very much the same, but you can't get regular Amquel anymore unfortunately.
Most of us don't use chemicals either.. this is one of the few products we do think has a place in fishkeeping though
Re: Puffers and Ich... Truth behind the retail please!
Dont need a dechlorinator, I have a RODI unit 
The only way to roll in salt water.
The only way to roll in salt water.-
Myaj
- Tech Team
- Posts: 4587
- Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:27 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Bubba, turgidus
Paris, lined burrfish - Location: SE Wisconsin
- Contact:
Re: Puffers and Ich... Truth behind the retail please!
It is, if you have the time to wait for it to make you water! I really loved using it, but we don't have the setup to run a RODI unit for hours just to get a 5 gallon bucket of water.
Re: Puffers and Ich... Truth behind the retail please!
True! storage drums with shutoff valves and such are nice for large amounts of water. It will take me quite a while to initially fill the 75 though... maybe I will do the initial water with tap that I can dechlorinate and then just slowly get rid of the tap water by using the RODI for water changes...
What is the max length of a porc that you would keep in a 75g? I am kind of thinking up to 9" so that he has 2x his length to turn around front to back...
What is the max length of a porc that you would keep in a 75g? I am kind of thinking up to 9" so that he has 2x his length to turn around front to back...
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Agnate
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Re: Puffers and Ich... Truth behind the retail please!
Yeah, if I had to guess, it would be somewhere between 7" and 9", presuming there isn't a lot of decor/rockwork in the top-half of the tank. That's just my guess, though, as I'm no expert.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Puffers and Ich... Truth behind the retail please!
Since you are keeping it FO, I wouldn't worry about using tap for the initial fillup & then do WC with the RO.
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!"