The Puffer Forum

The temp before we put the heater in (yesterday evening), i'm fraid to say, please don't kill us, was 67.8f. I've slowly raised it and it's 75.5 so far this afternoon. Will continue to raise. Have to decide on BW or FW setup or both. I think wife is leaning toward existing 16g tank as FW, keeping the DP and giving F8's to LFS.

The DP's look like they all have ich now - just a few specs. I'm still not sure it's ich on the F8 only cuz it's a little fuzzy/cotton-like but am treating w/ Maracyn (in case it's columnaris), Maroxy (in case its fungus). For the ich i've started Maracide. Let me know if this makes sense. Thanks.

I think I posted this already, but maybe it got lost somehow... I don't think you need any of those medications. I had a puffer that looked just like that, it was just excessive slime from being at too low an SG combined with skin irritation from ich. Just slightly increase the amount of salt and get the heat up to about 86. Unnecessary medications can weaken a fish and prevent it from fighting off what is actually wrong, and no medication is necessary for ich, just salt, heat and time.

I agree. Getting those fish into the proper salinity with a higher temperature will likely rid them of disease.

CoreyK wrote:I agree. Getting those fish into the proper salinity with a higher temperature will likely rid them of disease.

I thought he was talking about dwarf puffers. Solely freshwater correct?

Nick, your probably right that the SG was too low. I couln't raise it w/o stressing the DP's. Not to worry, the F8 they are gone.... Gone to the LFS and they have all sorts of hospital tanks they tell us! Mgr said it looked like ich w/some fungal infection. He said they should be fine. I'm hoping it wasn't too late. They were still eating just b4 we bagged them.

Now we have the 3 DP to worry about. I will terminate all but the Maricide treatment, and continue w/ the increasing the temp and get some bubble action online. Just found PufferPunks article http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3.... Should have listened to you guys better on the meds as they usually are a last resort. That being the case, is it too late to stop Maricide (today was the 1st dose) and start w/ Permafix/Melafix? Or continue finish the meds w/ a remaining dosage on day 3 and 5.

If it's down to the DP's, I'd probably just treat for ich as per the article on the site, a bit of salt and some time. I doubt having used the dose of maracide will affect the treatment either way.