The Puffer Forum

hi there! scribble and me are new to tpf. scribble always has whitespot, whatever i do, (and ive tried everything!) i cannot get rid of it. i love my puffer and worry i may lose him. can any experts of whitespot help us???

Welcome to TPF. are you talking about Ich? do you have pictures of scribble?

Tell us more about your puffer, what kind is it, what size tank is it, your water perameters, how it was cycled, and how long you've had him.

Welcome

What treatments have you tried?

Welcome to the Puffer Forum.

What kind of Puffer do you have? If you're not sure, you can try using the PufferPedia to identify him. Also, please answer the questions in red at the top of this forum. As things stand, it's impossible for us to give you advice without more information.

Often, folks ID the tiny spines on their puffer, as ich.

exactly what I thought too PP.

Kate could you post a picture of scribble?

It'll have to be a good, clear closeup. No camera phone pics.

hi again!
scribble is a scribbled puffer, about 3 inches long. he lives in a 80 litre caymen tank, ive had him 7 weeks now. in the tank we have live rock, a red legged crab and a white toed crab- hes polished off his turbo snails about a fortnight ago. yes, i do believe he has ich. we do partial water changes every 2 days as we dont have a skimmer. i have dropped the salinity to 1.015 from 1.025 very slowly, his temp sits at 25 - i did higher it, but he strugged a bit as the oxygen went a bit low for him. today, i will be taking his tank bottom sand out as i have been advised to do so, at the moment its around 2" deep (as advised!). he does seem better, but cannot shake the spots off- bless him! i keep his tank pretty dark, as this is supposed to help.....? he doesnt seem to like the bright light and dissapears behind a rock back to bed. he hasnt had food for around a week, he did really enjoy a prawn- a small/tiny piece- frozen one in a morning (as advised) . i left the tank 8 weeks before putting him in it.
he has been treated with myxozin and o\ctozin, but not for a week now.- i dont know what to do, everything i have done has been on the advice of local fishy people, ,marine books, web-sites etc.... i have tried to do right by him- but am now at a loss..
any ideas?
i want to send you all a photo and will do so asap.
thank you for any help you guys send, i am new to marine puffers and know i sound daft, and am sure you are all shaking your head in dissaprovement, at some of the things i have done- however i had a topaz puffer for a good few years- with great success i might add!!!
hopefully talk soon.
x

By scribbled you mean mappa?
How big is yourtank? They get pretty huge.
Also can you answer all the questions above in red please?

well, i thought he was a mappa till yesterday, however, the guy reckoned he was scribbled, he has the lines from his eyes, but not the circle, breaking them up, to then begin lines again......... he lives in a 80 litre tank, we use reef salt. am about to go and do his sand now, then will do a nitrate test, and hopefully try to do a picture of him- havnt done this before...bear with me please... x

I'm not familar with the common name 'scribbled puffer', could you look through our Pufferpedia and see if you can get an ID with the scientific name?

The following advice is assuming your Puffer does have ich (I would need to see pictures to confirm it).

As for treating ich, 1.015 is not low enough to kill the ich. For treating ich with hyposalinity you must go down to exactly 1.009 (tested with a hydrometer). I would leave it like this for 4 weeks. By lowering the salinity to 1.015 you've probably drastically slowed the growth/reproduction of the ich, but you haven't killed it.

An alternative treatment is to use copper. Although it's not recommended because Puffers are extremely sensitive to copper so the levels must be monitored daily. Seachem makes a product called Cupramine, it's a non-chelated form so it can be used in much lower concentrations.

As for the tank, 80L (about 21 US gal) is way too small for pretty much all marine puffers
(especially the Arothron species). If it's one of the smaller toby varities then he would be ok for a little while, but not long term.

thank you for your help,
i have ditched the sand- leaving a small amount- and have dropped the salinity a little more, nitrates are a bit high at 20, ph is yet to be checked.

Another common name for mappas is scribbled, a pic would definitely help with identifying the puffer and the possible case of ich.

result!!!!!!! scribble is a scribbled puffa, alledgedly of the mappa family (thanks rocco, your'e a star), alot of investigating occured, after the tip off from rocco.
ich has now died, i dropped the sg to 9 (thanks mikeosoft), and all is well.
scribble is a bit grumpy, but eating turbo snails, prawns are now out of favour!
thanks guys, you were there for us,
kisses from scribble xxxxx
new tank for him ordered too