The Puffer Forum

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...

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.

You also might want to read the Ich article & GSP article in our Library, found by clicking on the "Learn" tab above.

Don't add salt directly to the tank. Premix into the water change water and make sure it is fully dissolved.

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.

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.