The Puffer Forum

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She's so helpful!

Of course.

Hey, by the way, about your puffer swimming with his tail curled - maybe someone already mentioned it and I missed it, but just in case, I'll tell you - this is normal. That's how they steer.

I read the emergencycycle article, and will go get a used healthy sponge asap. (the products are not avaiable where I live)

On the Ich problem... My puffer doesn't seem to have the symptoms listed... and I can't see any white spots on him or my other one...

Quiwi seemed to have spots on him in the picture, and you mentioned him darting and rubbing himself against objects. Those are ich symptoms.

Those are his spines, silly girl!

yeah, those are just (what i'm guessing) where his spines will pop out if he puffs up. They aren't like the symptoms of Ich. But I'll keep an eye out, just in case. What happends when they get Ich?

When a puffer gets ich (or whitespot), you will notice that the puffer looks as if it's got salt all over it's body, tiny little white spots appear on the puffer (that's where the parasite has attached itself to the puffers body). Sometimes you will see your puffer "itching" or "rubbing" his body against things. Obviously the quicker you start treatment the better for your puffer. Make it a habit of taking a good look at your puffer daily, so you can thwart any problems that may come along. Prevention is the key here.

Check out the articles here:
library/category/hospital/

For cycling, I did the fishless cycle at first. I must have jumped the gun to quickly, and when I put my GSP in the tank, the nitrite spiked. I immediatly went to the fish store and picked up some Tetra SafeStart. I double-dosed. I also asked for some gravel from a cycled tank, which I put in to a nylon and hung it in my tank. Within 2 days, my tank was completly cycled.

The stuff worked for me, but it seems for every one time it works, there are two times that it doesnt.

First things first, I would get that tank cycled. I wouldnt worry about PH or salinity until then. And for feeding, make sure you keep it to once a day, and a limited amount while the tank is cycling or your ammonia levels will never go down.

And I know when I go to Petsmart to get my water tested, they give me a packet with all the current levels filled out. Its pretty handy because it also explains what everything is. It is much easier when you are cycling though just to pick up test kits for ammonia and nitrite. When both ammonia and nitrite are at 0ppm, you know that your tank has cycled.

Good luck!

Please don't take offense rengnath, but how do you know the Tetra SafeStart worked if you also put gravel from a cycled tank in also?
I've never had any good luck with using the Tetra stuff, that's why I defer to the JBL products that we have over here. But if it does work for you, it would make me wonder if the product is different in the US.

pufferpuggirl wrote:Please don't take offense rengnath, but how do you know the Tetra SafeStart worked if you also put gravel from a cycled tank in also?
I've never had any good luck with using the Tetra stuff, that's why I defer to the JBL products that we have over here. But if it does work for you, it would make me wonder if the product is different in the US.

No offense taken. In all honesty, I cant be sure if the Tetra SafeStart had any affect. IMO, my tank sure did cycle extremly fast for only having gravel in there. So it couldve been the gravel, the SafeStart couldve helped, I dont know. If my tank needed to be cycled fast in the same situation again, I would spend the $$$ on Tetra SafeStart, as they stock it at my LFS so I wouldnt have to order it. One interesting thing with the TSS at my LFS is it does have an experation date which makes me feel better about buying it over all the other products I have seen. The experation date is about a year out. I did some research, and it seems possible for bacteria to be dormant for that period of time. Once that cap is opened though, the bacteria become active. One thing I noticed about the bottles is they have no seals, so you dont know if your bottle has been opened before. Also, if there were any extreme temps that the bottle was in, my guess would be the bacteria would be destroyed. So its all a gamble. It may work, or it may be a "get-rich-quick" scheme from Tetra. I would feel 100% better buying Bio-Spira as that one has many success stories. But, its only available for marine tanks now, and SafeStart is the old Bio-Spira for freshwater in a new bottle and it doesnt require refrigeration.

IMO, when you need a tank cycled fast because fish are at risk, I would spend the $14 on a bottle of SafeStart.

A small amount of gravel would only seed the cycle not complete it so quickly. Safestart seems to be hit or mis but is supposed to be the Dr Tim's recipe but since Dr Tim quit Marrineland they changed it up a bit & made it so it doesn't need refrigerating (not sure how that works though). I'm not saying your British stuff doesn't work (seems to) but we won't find it around here.

In my case, I was also already half way through my cycle. I only had nitrite, no ammonia so that couldve had a huge affect too. I did hear good things about Dr. Tims, but I wouldve had to order it online. I needed mine quick so SafeStart looked like the only option for me.

Well, it seems the combo you used, worked!

I haven't written anything in quite sometime.

My levels of Ammonia were high, so i got some product to fix it, and it did! everything else that i needed to check was great. My fish are happy and healthy. Thank you to everyone for your help.