The Puffer Forum

why are we still using medications for ICK when it can be cured with out them...

Easier, less chances to take, less time with ich, etc.

AND some of us don't have a heater powerful enough to keep the tem at like 87 degrees constant.

groovitudedude wrote:

chevrolet67impala wrote:Quick cure claims to heal your fish in 2 days...It doesn't. It also contains very harmful chemicals (formalin) which I've been told is short for formaldehyde, which not only is embalming fluid, but it gives people cancer risks (if not cancer) and will burn the skin of your poor fishy. Nowhere on the quick cure bottle, nor package does it say not to use on scaleless fish (which are very sensitive and temperamental to chemicals as is), it says it's safe for tropical fish in fresh or salt water conditions... but really it's not safe at all. Due to my lack of knowing most of this, my poor sweet puffer died. In a tank filled with chemically stinging water. I feel inconsolably sad, and responsible. I'm posting this in attempts to stop any more puffers from dying of the same terrible fate as my beloved puffy did, to try to get the smallest bit of good out of my heartbreaking situation, please don't make the same horrible mistake I did...DON'T USE QUICK CURE!

If you would like to help me get the quick cure company to list on their bottles/packages not to use there product on scaleless fish please try to find their official website to complain( I have not yet found their website, if their is one, if you can find it please post.) or post negative reviews on pet supply stores which carry or even recommend this misleading product. Thank you very much, I hope this helps the puffer/puffer owner community...

Of course, if didn't know not to treat a puffer with QuICK cure, then yes, it will hurt them. And yes, I have done this in the past stupidly, and, again, yes, I am an idiot. It is my fault that my Modestus is dead, AND I also put all my fish in an uncycled tank. Yay for me.

Anyway, QuICK cure works for all of my scaled fish perfectly, I don't know why you're having problems...

I'm sure it works well for scaled fish but, according to my newfound knowledge thanks to this site, a couple of the ingredients are harmful and can even burn scaleless fish's skin...and seeing as how puffers are scaleless that would explain my "problems" with using it.

Yeah, it's definately not good for puffers (I found out the hard way ). I do, however, suggest using it for goldfish and hardier fish only.

I personally just use aquarium salt and increase the temperature.

As do I...

Hey, there's more than one way to do things, right?

yes, but it seems more logical to kill it by salt and temp, rather than introducing a med with the ability to either kill your fish, make them sick, or not work at all. It does work fairly well when it actually works, but to keep it safe, I've never heard of any fish being hurt by increasing the temp and adding a bit of salt...

Like I said, we each do it different ways.

Since this thread seems to be going in the direction of using only salt to treat ich on all species, we'll share our experience. We've used salt, formalin and Quick Cure (malchite Green + formalin) to treat fish with ich. We prefer Quick Cure in species that are tolerant of the malchite green. Malchite green is not tolerated by some scaleless fish. Presumably this includes puffers so we've never used treatments with malchite green in dips or baths. We haven't tried Tetra's malchite green food and don't know if it is safe to use on scaleless fish. The reason we prefer treating ich using Quick Cure on scaled fish (not on puffers) is that it also treats a variety of secondary infections that salt alone may not cure. Salt is no longer the cure-all it used to be and we've seen Costia all too often as a secondary infection. Costia can cause heavy slime on fish or may be limited to patches (which can become infected sores) or to the gills (where it can kill a fish in 2-3 days):

"Flukes - 20% of cases are completely resistant to salt treatments at any level. Most cases are cleared at zero-point-nine-percent but less than thirty percent still clear off at the old zero-point- three-percent standby level."

Trichodina - 20% of Trichodina cases do not clear at even zero-point-six-percent. There are rare cases where trichodina does not clear even at zero-point-nine-percent which is also stressful to the fish. Formalin or potassium permanganate are recommended.

Chilodonella and Ich have never been recorded as being salt resistant in the least bit.

Costia has shown some resistance and it is part of the reason for this article.

Some outbreaks of Costia have been known to be salt resistant for at least two years. I saw my first case of salt resistant Costia in late 1996 on some Japanese imports straight from Los Angeles California. The Costia resisted zero-point-nine-percent stiff salt solutions and finally required Formalin for clearance, which works extremely well."
(quote - ref. fish veterinarian Doc Johnson "Costia" http://www.koivet.com/html/articles/art ... erm=costia)

For fresh water puffers, using salt as a first line treatment seems reasonable. We recommend caution when using salt, however. Regardless of what anyone tells you, it is possible to kill your biological filter bacteria when adding or removing salt from a tank with a fully cycled biological filter. Every time we've tried adding salt to a display tank it has precipitated ammonia and nitrite problems. We add 1tsp/gal aquarium salt each 12 hours for 3 treatments. What kills the filter bacteria is probably the rapid increase in salt that occurs at each treatment. To prevent problems with ammonia and nitrite you can treat in a QT. It is also possible that titrating the salt into the tank over 1-2 hours would prevent the osmotic shock that is most likely what kills the filter bacteria.

Reference - Treating Goldfish for ich with salt and malchite green food.
http://www.koivet.com/html/articles/art ... h_term=ich
Reference - How to treat Koi with salt in a pond (identical practice is useful in a tank with any salt-tolerant fish).
http://www.koivet.com/html/articles/art ... _term=salt

I can see using quick cure for goldfish because 86 degrees for weeks at a time might be worse for them than the meds, they being cold water fish.

The best treatment is to raise the temp and add salt, the high temperatures create an environment the parasite cannot thrive in. The best prevention is a QT tank.

I keep my tanks at 80-82 degrees at all times and I grow very large, healthy fish. If your tank is at a lower temp, raising it to the low to mid 80's will kill the ich.