The Puffer Forum

So after giving up on ever finding a third F8 for my 55 I finally found one at an LFS when I was getting a fiddler and some blood worms. The only thing is... he's small and obviously has some medical issues. I couldn't help it he was just so cute. Advantage is he's in good spirits, he's swimming around the quarantine tank comes up to look at visitors, eating snails and dried blood worms so he's hungry.

issues though.....


he's not looking the best, but his color is still pretty solid.

You can kinda see it from the pics but the front part of the 8 on his head is cut off so it looks like he's got eyebrows. It's great.

Game plan
They were keeping him in very fresh water. Barely registered for SG.
I setup my Q tank with 50/50 fresh water/established F8 tank water. Added about a 1/3rd dosing of IP and fungus med treatment to the quarantine tank cause I don't want to overpower him. Dripped that for a few hours before putting him in the tank, ~3 gal or so. I've got the temp at ~75 deg right now. Planning to raise it up slightly over time cause if I remember correctly higher temp kills ich.I've got tap water sitting out de-chlorinating to do daily water changes every day.

Any tips are welcome, but so far everythings looking up...

slight add on, the established water registers at a 1.003 sg.

I have a couple suggestions. First, established water is a myth of fish keeping unfortunately. It doesn't help cycle a tank, just makes it dirtier. What you want to do is use a dirty old filter cartridge from your established tank in the QT filter, that will instantly cycle it for a small fish. I keep my QT filter running on my main tank all the time, then just pop the whole thing onto the QT tank when I put a fish in, so my QT is always cycled. Also, what IP treatment and what fungus treatment are you using? He has excessive sliming from body irritation due to severe ich, but I don't see fungus, so I think fungus treatment is not needed, and chemcial medications can do more harm than good. Also, and this is important, you NEVER use a partial dose of IP medicine. It makes the IPs immune to the active ingredients in that medicine. Unless it contains levimisole or flubendizole, it's not likely to help added to the water anyway.

I have used used water, and I have also used "new" water with an old filter. I took one of the filter cartridges out of my 100G and my mom's like "ewww" and put it in my 20G, cycled it for 3 or 4 days (adding 3 zebra danios after 3) and added my Golden Puffer (and I've had no problems since). I agree, using new water and a new filter is a bad idea. Using old water and a new filter is slightly less bad, because the bacteria builds up in the filter cartridge. The second you add the cartridge, all the bacteria is put into the cycle of the water from the filter to the tank and so on.

Well he ate like a horse tonight. gobbled up a few more snails, some more blood worms and even a baby feeder guppy I didn't realize was in there until I saw him eat it. Seriously, the tank I'm using as a QT was sitting in the cabinet of the main tank with very little water from last time I was using it a few months ago found snails in there he's been pecking at also. I expected the snails then I was watching him and suddenly this small opaque guppy swims into view and he chases it down and snacks on it... his belly is now the size it should be. I hear ya on the water thing. when I do my water changes tomorrow I will use all dirty water.

Thanks for the advice

Don't use the dirty water, clean water is much better. Barely any bacteria lives in the water column, so adding dirty water is basically just adding dirty water to your tank, making it smelly and nasty looking.
Do you have filter media from the other F8 tank you can use?
Put that in the filter of the quarantine and your tank will basically be instantly cycled.

Got ya, new water, old filter.

Yeah, new water is best, just make sure you're mixing it so the SG stays the same.

At a temperature of 86F ich can no longer reproduce and will slowly die off. I would recommend raising the temperature to about 88F. Make sure the surface of the water is very well agitated to keep it the water well oxygenated. Temperature and oxygen levels are inversely related, so the hotter it gets the less oxygen is in the water.

Yes, but at almost 90 degrees, it's pretty tough for a fish to breathe, or even live.

Actually, 90F isn't that hard for a fish to handle provided they have sufficient oxygen. I wouldn't recommend it long term, but a couple of weeks are no big deal.

Fish that get "cooked" due to faulty heaters don't actually get cooked; they just suffocate due to lack of oxygen in the water.

A lot of fish, such as discus (especially when young), are quite comfortable in water temperature in the upper 80's.

Yeah, discus and loaches are comfortable in warmer temps. If you're gonna do it, then be sure to add a couple air stones, and overfiltration.

If i remember correctly, PP doesn't recommend raising the temperature as ich attcked the gills of fish first, and causes massive damage to them. This fish has severe ich so it's gills are likely to be in a bad way, therefore he will be struggling to breathe as it is...

raising the temperature like that may make it more or less impossible for him to breath and could kill him. raising temps on healthy fish is one thing, but with the reduced breathing ability here it could be disasterous.

just keep the parameters perfect, and raise the SG... that will kill the freshwater ich..


and keep him in quarentine for 4 weeks after you see the last spot.. do not be tempted to swap him across when he 'looks' well, the ich cycle is 4 weeks, and is invisible for most of that.

Good luck.

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... tal/fwich/

Article written by Pufferpunk, also suggesting high temperatures to kill off the ich.

No, this method doesn't work for SW ich, but its the best way to truely kill off FW ich.

I would agree, daily water changes, raise the SG and the temp (a little), and wait it out. Puffers don't handle medications very well, generally (read some of the posts in the hospital lately).

Yes. Raising the temperature also tends to speed up the lifecycle of ich, which could help you get rid of it faster, but I wouldn't raise it too much.