Ick, my puffers have ICH!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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LaceySaysMeow

Ick, my puffers have ICH!

Post by LaceySaysMeow »

Alright, so I'm very new to the puffer keeping hobby, and I was just sort of thrown into it. (got two GSP's at the local walmart... couldn't leave em, they were being fed goldfish flakes!). And, it seems as though my little guys have ich (wal-mart fish... what did I expect?). and I'm not real sure how to treat since I remember reading somewhere that they are sensitive to medications.
One seems to be doing nicely, has good color, is active and eats alot (his fat belly is adorable)
The other one however is listless, darkly colored, barely eats (stays skinny...) and now I've noticed little white spots on him... :s
I have them in a ten gallon (temporary! they're little, and they're getting a nice 30 gallon at least, here in a month or so).
Freshwater currently, converting to brackish. I added a tablespoon of instant ocean the other day, and a quarter tablespoon today after the water change. (I'd try to give you a SG/salinity number but I have a broken hydrometer... getting another tomorrow...)
Ammonia & nitrites are at 0ppm
pH is 7.8
I haven't tested nitrates (can if I need to) but I've done two 25% water changes in the past three days, and I'm gonna put them around 30-40ppm (high I know, trying to bring them down with daily water changes)
The tank was cycled by borrowing a sponge from my newly fishlessly cycled thirty gallon as well as using all water from it.
They've been in it about a week.
So, please help me as to how to treat them. I love the little buggers and don't want them to die... :(
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Nick
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Location (country): Northeastern USA
Location: Middletown, CT
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Re: Ick, my puffers have ICH!

Post by Nick »

Add enough marine mix to get the SG to 1.002, jack up the temperature to 84, and wait. If the fish are otherwise healthy and the tank is cycled, they should make it.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Ick, my puffers have ICH!

Post by Pufferpunk »

You also might want to read the Ich article & GSP article in our Library, found by clicking on the "Learn" tab above.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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spoot
Green Spotted Puffer
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Re: Ick, my puffers have ICH!

Post by spoot »

Don't add salt directly to the tank. Premix into the water change water and make sure it is fully dissolved.
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Puffalicious
Dwarf Puffer
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Re: Ick, my puffers have ICH!

Post by Puffalicious »

I don't know if FW Ich and SW Ich are the same, but I've been having some Ich problem in my SW tank the past week with my new fishes since I didn't quarantine them (Purple Firefish, and Coral Beauty Angel). I was going to catch them and QT them, but I failed since they're fast little punks.

Someone suggested feeding them garlic soaked foods and drop some garlic in the aquarium. So I went to the LFS and bought the Garlic Xtreme made by KENT. Dropped a couple of drops into the aquarium and soaked the foods with it. All the fish in the tank went crazy like a piranha when I put the food in there because garlic stimulates their appetite. Within seconds all the food was gone and I waited to see results. What's amazing was that the Purple Firefish had a couple of white dots on his body, but then 3-4hrs after the feeding the white dots were gone!!!! Now the Coral Beauty had it worst and it had a lot of white dots, but by the next day the ICH was reduced to maybe 3 throughout the body. They are now all fine, but I'm still feeding them garlic just in case.

I know garlic has not been found to be a cure for ich, but I think it makes the ICH drop and make it stay away from the fishes.
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Nick
Former Staff Member
Posts: 3231
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:47 pm
My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
My fiance:
DP - Emma Goldman
Narrow Lined Puffer - Ulrike
Location (country): Northeastern USA
Location: Middletown, CT
Contact:
Contact Nick

Re: Ick, my puffers have ICH!

Post by Nick »

They are actually different parasites, FW ich seems to only be able to get halfway or so to marine, and the marine one, halfway down.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
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