The Puffer Forum

I was curious, is it possible that despite the fact that one of my fish had ich, that my other fish remain uninfected? The GSP I had ended up dying = ( (I believe from Ich or Gill flukes, whichever disease he was actually suffering from and not because the tank was not a suitable home). So is there any chance that the fish I do have left, a tetra and an otocinclus, were resistant enough that they have not contracted the disease, or is it nearly definite that they too are infected? I do not believe either is showing any signs of being diseased, but its possible that it is simply harder to detect on these two than it was on the puffer.

It's very possible that the puffer's immune system was so weak from being in an unsuitable home that he got sick. I would watch and see what happens. Do not add any more fish for at least a month (assuming the other fish never get sick).

It's very possible that the puffer's immune system was so weak from being in an unsuitable home that he got sick. I would watch and see what happens. Do not add any more fish for at least a month (assuming the other fish never get sick).

Will do. Thank you.

Make sure you keep up with large regular water-changes to keep the stress levels down.

I don't think it will be too hard to maintain... there's about 2 inches of fish in a 10 gallon tank, pretty boring right now ><

10 gallons is a lot smaller than many people realize. Even the regular feeding of a couple very small fish can foul up the water pretty quickly.

Ich is one of those parasites that is often present, but doesn't start reproducing and spreading until the fish are stressed/sick and their immune systems can't fight it off any more.

Puffers are very sensitive to poor/improper water conditions, so they would be the first fish in a tank to show signs of a parasite like ich. The other fish might be infected, but successfully fighting it off.

Clean water is the best route now. Keep the fish you have healthy and there should be no more problems. But if you add any new fish to the tank without quarentining them, or slack off on water changes, or overfeed, or overstock, you will start to see problems that all come back to water quality. Remember too, you have to stock a fish tank according to the fish's full grown size, not the "baby" size they are when you buy them at a store.