The Puffer Forum

D'oh...my bad, yes, of course you should LOWER it. I'm just used to the idea of RAISING the SG for ich that I forgot to think!
Hopefully, lowering the SG will take care of those copepods as well. Definately raise the temp to shorten the lifespan of the ich.
Whatever you do, don't use copper....it causes long-term damage to puffers. Heat and lowering the SG will take care of this.
Pami.

Absolutely no copper for puffers! Especially one that is in a weakened state. Do a search here on hyposalinity.

Here it is: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... posalinity

oh my puff is driving me crazy, I just got home and he has sucked in his left fin that is by his gill. has anyone heard of this, he has ick and there are several spots on his fins should I try to catch him and pull his fin back out or give him a few days to see if he can spit it back out the gill the correct way?

you have to catch the puffer in a container. and wearing gloves, gently hold it so it cannot move, and ease the fin out. with tweezwers or another item. you dont wanna grab the fin, but just work behind it and then pull away from the puffer. it should come out easy.

the puffer will puff, so keep it in the water in the container.
when done realse it gently and then back into the tank.

Won't the fin pop out on it's own? I don't think you should stress it if it has ich & has already been thru what's it's been thru.

well my little puff decided to get his fin out on his own, I was going to give him until sunday to get it out by himself. I figured the silly thing got it in there he can figure it out. I'm still in the process of lowering the SG in the tank it is at 1.018 right now I'm thinking by saturday if not sunday after I do my daily water changes that I will have it down to 1.009, but I was checking my hydro deep six with the swinging arm and it only measures to 1.012 if i remember corectly, I guess I will have to go out and get a floating one I have heard they are more accurate. My lfs told me to raise the tepm up, but I have been hearing different on some sites, they say that if I do raise the temp, it does speed up the life cycle of the ick and makes them reproduce quicker, but also decreases the amount of slime coat that my puffer is able to make to keep off the ick, and it is harder on him at a elevated temp than if I was to just leave it at his normal 80 degs.I do have a power head with a airstone to help create more oxygen in the tank. Any thoughts on this?

I'd go & get a refractometer & be done w/it. Here for $29: http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant ... gory_Code=

I'd be careful about stressing your injured puffer further w/treatments. How bad is the whitespot?

Are you talking about the wound if so it is about 1 1/2 inches long and about a half inch wide. i can see where the second layer of skin is growing back and closing up the wound and the edges of the top layer is getting its normal color back. If you are talking about the white spots "ick" they are the size of table salt granules.

"Whitespot" is the common name for SW ich. How severe is it?

sorry, I'm at work trying to do my job and help my fish. there are about 30 specks on his body, and several on his fins and 1 or 2 on each eye. It had doubled to this size within 24hrs after finding the first spots that I saw in him when i got home the other day. It doesn't look like too many more have appeared since last night when I checked on him this morning.

GREAT NEWS!! My little dogface puffer started eating again saturday and he ate some on sunday. I soaked his food in Zoe and garlic. His ick looks like it is doing much better as well, and so are his battle wounds from the power head. I think he is going to have a scar from this whole nightmare, I might have to change his name from Mr.puff to scarface or scrappy since he is such a little trooper. He went 2 weeks and two days without food. My deepest heartfelt thanks to everyone who responded to this topic so that he could get help. You all are the best.

P)0 99bottles

That's awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

Aw. Glad to hear that. That ich'll probably hang around for a bit longer, so carry on with his treatment till he's been free of spots for - is it three weeks or four?
You've taken such good care of him, and now he's eating, it sounds like he's decided to take care of himself.
Happy to hear he's pulling through.
Pami.