The Puffer Forum

How was the refractometer calibrated? You mean 1.001?

Yes, sorry, thats what I ment. I used distilled water to calibrate it to 1.000 and my first reading was 1.001

For a BW fish, I guess distilled is good enough for calibration. Not for a reef tank though.

I don't think his appetite is quite right. Honestly, I don't know exactly how much he should be eating at once? I'm dangling food twice a day right now and I just let him eat his few bites till he losses interest. He won't eat anything off the floor of his tank except snails. I had to really dangle the worm in front of him the other day, but he ate that quite well and had a nice round belly. This morning I tried another piece of night crawler and he only took two bites, I dropped it in the tank for 20 minutes, but he never ate it so I took it out. He only takes of few bites of the krill and the raw shrimp. I tried soaking it in garlic juice which seemed to help a little. But, he will only eat the food if I dangle it. I mean its cool to hand feed him, I think it would help socialize him, but he never eats more then three bites and there is no buldge in his belly. I think he might have internal parasites and I think I see ick, but I'm not sure. There are three tiny sand like dots on his side, but I can't tell if it is sand or not. I saw them one day, then not for two days and I think I saw them again tonite. He came from Walmart and I have seen ick in there tanks a few months back so I wouldn't be shocked if it is. I treated him with paragaurd while he was in his hospital tank. I have a few other parasite treatments on hand, but I've researched myself into a hole. With all the info that is out there I'm not sure where to start and what would be the best treatment for a young GSP. Should I treat him for ip first or ick? I remember reading that it can take multiple courses of meds to clear up ip, but I am afraid of overdoing it.
Also, I was ordering vitamins but I'm not sure if I should go with the fw version or salt? Is the Kent zoe Marine and the marine selcon right? Any thing else recommended?

The directions were specific to use distilled, should I have used RO water or something? I'll keep that in mind for if (or when) I start a reef tank, there pretty.

Here is info on treating for ick. Use the heat method don't add meds.

library/hospital/fwich/

Here is info on treating for ips. Remember to treat the food, not the tank.

library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/

I see no reason why you can't treat for both.

Also here is info on feeding problems

library/feeding/problems-feeding-your-puffer/

Also: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28113

Thanks, you guys are great.

I'm confused about the heating method. You say not to use meds, which I like the idea of, but the article mentions using them while the temps raised. And I just want to be clear, do I treat him with meds during those three warm days? It mentions melafix and pimaflix for secondary infections but it doesn't mention what to use for the chemical treatment during the warm period. I have metronidazole and the tetra parasite treatment tabs that contain praziquantel, difluben-zuron, metronidazole, acriflavine. I can pick up other medicine if necessary. And over what period of time should I heat up the tank? a degree an hour, two hours? how much treatment will food absorb and what do you guys use. He won't show interest in the frozen blood worms or brine shrimp. My options with this picky eater are snails, earthworms, raw shrimp and freeze dried krill. I have not tried clam or muscle meat, those are on my grocery list. The f-d krill seems like it would soak up the best, but I'm trying to it limit that. Oh and he doesn't care for crushed snails, he seems to ignore them, likes em when they're moving. So what do you guys use to soak up meds.

Lastly, do I need to move him into the hospital tank. I was thinking not since I'm not treating the whole tank with meds, only him and I need to kill the cycle of ick in his tank. What if I'm wrong about the ick. I don't think I am, his behavior seems to fit the description of ick. he "hip checked" the air tube (I though he was tying to knock of snails at first) He keeps his tail fin closed way more than open, lack of personality and "puffer" appetite, and the little sand like spots that where there gone and back again. I'm thinking that fits that ick description. Will the meds treat both at the same time ( it seems that I can use the same medicine for both problems especially the metronidazole.

Last question, freshwater ick can't survive in saltwater, right? At what salinity is killed at. I'm going from 1.001 to 1.002 today and next week I'll raise it to 1.003. I read it can't live at 1.002, but some people treat it by raising there salinity to 1.005. Is this an option as well?

I just read the last article about treating freswater fish with saltwater, so my last question kind of remains, should I raise the temp and just keep rasising my salnity? Should I just bump it up a little faster or should I treat with table salt and then dilute it before re-raising with marine salt?

I would say just raise the heat once you get to 1.004 SG. By then the heat and salt will slowly kill off the ich.
I used FD krill to soak up meds/garlic for my puffer. You only need to treat a week at a time or so, so feeding just krill for this short period of time wont hurt (you can also throw in more nutritious goodies too...). People swear by jungle fizz tabs, but I've had great luck with liquid prazipro. Just add a few drops of med/garlic juice on the krill, let it sit for an our to soak up the meds and bon appetite.

Mela/Pimafix are not really meds per SE, they are more of an antiseptic. They will not harm your biological bacteria, nor will it harm your puffer. You need to treat with heat & salt for a minimum of 1 week, after the last visible spot is gone form the fish. Be sure you have good water flow for O2 exchange.

Alright, thanks. I think I 've got a plan now. I raised to 1.002 today and I'm warming the water slowly over 5 days ( or should I raise the temp and salinity faster and add stability or something and just deal with a loss of bacteria?). In two days I'll raise it to 1.003 and then in another 3 days I'll raise it to 1.004.(This won't kill off my bacteria will it?) I added a second small air pump and stone. I'll start treating his food now with garlic juice and the tetra parasite (praziquantel, diflubenzuron, metronidazole, acriflavine) tabs for one week. from day 5 to day 15 I'll keep the water at SG 1.004 and between 84-86 and keep the extra air stone running. After day 15 I'll lower the temp back down and I'll raise the salinity to 1.005 and then every two weeks I'll continue to raise it by.001 til I hit 1.008. If I still suspect ip in a 3-4 weeks I'll retreat with the metronidazole and Levamisole Hydrochloride. Sound good?

You can raise the temp to 86 in a few hours. This needs to be done ASAP! Just set the temp on your heater to that temp & let it warm the water. You can also raise the SG to 1.004 in 1 day, it won't hurt anything.

Don't forget to do the large WC necessary to remove the free-swimming cysts. Do 80% every other day.

Perfect, awesome... thank you for clarifying that... warming water...