The Puffer Forum

You might want to read her article on this, in our Library.

I'll check it out. I read an article on saltwater ich.
Also I checked today(was at my mom's house) and it has this purple stuff on it. Parasites? Looks kinda like algae but that wouldn't make any sense becuase their is none like that growing personaly and I don't think algae can grow on something moving??????????????????????????????????
This is very confusing stuff, just hope I can help my puffer pull through this.

This Rich Ich, Rid Ich or whatever you're using is unlikely to work very well. The only proven effective treatments for SW ich are copper and hypo-salinity (down to 1.009).

You could do a short (around 5 minutes) fresh-water dip and see if the spots start to fall off. Make sure to match the pH and temperature of the QT tank that the fish is in. If the breathing becomes labored then return the fish to SW immediately. With hypo-salinity you would slowly reduce the salinity in the QT tank over a period of a few days. You need an accurate means of measuring the salinity (refractometer), because you need to take it down to exactly 1.009.

Puffers are extremely sensitive to copper so if you want to use it I would recommend using a non-chelated version because it can be used at much lower concentrations and still be effective. Seachem makes a product called Cupramine that is non-chelated, this is the only non-chelated copper medication on the market that I know of. I also recommend buying a copper test kit so you know exactly what the levels of copper you are treating with. Copper is also the only known treatment for marine velvet, which by looking at your pictures it’s hard to tell what it could be. Velvet is more of a fine dusting where Ich is spotty.

Well lucky for me I haven't been at my dad's for a while so I haven't added any rid ich for a while. I will go get some of the stuff recommended tomorrow. I'm pretty sure it's dusting and positive it's not ich. The "purple" stuff on its skin looks more of a skin decay type deal opposed to something growing on it. Is the skin irrated from the parasites?

Could be velvet which can kill within 24 hours, I believe.

Pufferpunk wrote:Could be velvet which can kill within 24 hours, I believe.

The dusting or the purple stuff? He's had that dusting for a week now. Umm I don't have any ride or anything to treat it so if that is true, I'm screwed.

I think the skin is starting to rot off. I'd get it into hypo, ASAP.

Pufferpunk wrote:I think the skin is starting to rot off. I'd get it into hypo, ASAP.

I got 1/2 gallon DI water laying around. Should I add that?
Is there some photos somewhere so I can compare it too?

Ok well I thought it was DI but it is some drinking water. Anyways, my dad is in town right now, I'll see if he can pick up 5g DI water and I'll immediately do a water change.

"sounds ike you have velvet disease, it is caused by one of several species of a tiny parasite known as Oödinium.

here are the common symptoms:
Scratchs against hard objects

Fish is lethargic

Loss of appetite and weight loss

Rapid, labored breathing

Fins clamped against body

Fine yellow or rusty colored film on skin and eyes

In advanced stages skin peels off

Treatment :
Raise water temperature

Dim lights for several days

Add aquarium salt

Treat with copper sulphate for ten days

Discontinue carbon filtration during treatment

Because Oödinium is dependant on light, dimming the aquarium lights aids in eliminating the infestation. Increasing the water temperature to 82°F will speed the process, and adding salt to the water will ease the labored breathing caused by destruction of gill tissue. As with any treatment, activated carbon should be removed from the filter, as it will remove the drugs from the water."

googled puffer fish velvet and got that

I don't have any puffer expierence but the whole 24 hours to live sounds a little fish. I'm going to try this method, because if it is sick,a 25% water change needed to go into hypo only sounds like it'd hurt the fish. I will do a small water change tomorrow, but I'm going to see what this will do.

Also did another google search and found this:http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/ichpar ... dinium.htm

I does suggest Hypo, copper, and increase temperature and decrease light. So tonight I'm going to add 1g DI water, and slowly add throughout tomorrow. I'm also going to look for that copper treatment recommended for sensitive fish like puffers. I'm going to leave my lights off and get a heater in there to raise it some.

I'm not sure if puffers die in 24 hours, but there is something wrong and I'm going to do my best to treat it.

Unfortunately once a puffer starts showing symptoms of velvet it's usually too late. It's very difficult to treat once it gets into the gills and such. If it is velvet, I hope your fish is able to recover. Good luck.

I could have been wrong about being dead within 24 hours, that's why I always use the words, "I believe", when I'm not sure. Might be more like what Mike was saying, that once it's showing signs of it, it will start dying within 24 hours.

Yeah when my porc had vibrio, I couldn't get medicine the first 2 days since it was a snow storm and the stores were closed and we didn't want to drive far. The medicine did slow it down considerably though but she wasn't saved.
Hopefully you have better luck then I did.

Well obviously the puffer isn't doing too good right now. I added a heater and hopefuly that'll push it up 80 or 82 degrees. I'm also going to get some medicine probably around noonish and come back and add some. I'll also do a 10% water change with DI water today.