The Puffer Forum

Hi....my Ceylon Puffer has been in a Marine tank for a few months now but there has been an outbreak of ich in the tank. I have been treating the tank with Esha oodinex but it doesn't seem to be working. The puffer was the worst affected in the tank and looking pretty grim so I have removed him into a Quarentine tank by himself. I gave him a 4 minute Freshwater dip and put him in quarentine and have started another dosage of the Oodinex. Does anyone have any advice on what I could use sucessfully on him now he is out of the Reef enviroment and in a bare tank with just a Filter and heater ??? bearing in mind when suggesting products that I am in the U.K.

Thanks in advance

It will probably be easiest just to do hypo.
WEre there any other fish in there? If not then leave the tank fallow for 6-8 weeks(just keep adding an ammonia source) and keep the puffer in hypo for about the same time as well.

There are other fish in there yes...but hard to treat as there is live rock and corals....So, just the same as I raised the salinity to marine level I now need to gradually lower it to 1.009??? and then what....raise it again to marine to add him back in the main tank when all is cured??...won't all that adjusting harm him???

No he'll be fine. Have you read the article in the library?
library/hospital/swich/

Thanks...just read it

problem...

if you have other fish in there then the whitespot can live on in your main tank feeding off the other fish, and then re-attach itself to your puffer when you put him in ...

need to quarentine ALL fish and leave your main tank fallow for 8 weeks to get rid of this...

or put all your live rock/inverts/corals in the Q tank and drop your main tank into hypo..

I do realise that but only have a small qaurentine tank, not enough room for all the fish and LR...so I am scratching my head as to what my next move will be. My main concern at the moment is my Puffer's recovery as he really was close to death. Then I will have to come up with a plan

You must seperate the fish from the LR to do hypo. The LR/LS & all decor needs to remain fallow (fishless) for 8 weeks.

I have now put all the fish in the quarentine tank....do i need to take out all the corals too? will the whitespot live on them? It's opkay...I have just realised the corals can't go to the low salinity with the fish otherwise they will die off.

so, all the fish are in the qaurentine tank which I will lower slowly down to 1.009. The LR and corals are in the main tank...there are snails in there too. over the 8 weeks that the tank sits do i still need to do water changes etc for the benefit of the live rock and it's inhabitants???

you'll need to keep topping the tank up to counter evaporation, and feed the tank sparingly to keep the bacteria active, but you wont meed to do as big a water changes as you would if you had fish in..

your Q tank however will need massive water changes, as dropping it to hypo will kill all the bacteria .. leaving alot of fish in an uncycled tank...

watch out for your pH as it may drop with you adding more fresh and less salt water... as the salt stabilises the pH...

good luck, let us know how you are doing.

Ps.. any idea where the whitespot came from? Did you recently add a fish?

Yeah...form a Tang.....guess that'll teach me not to quarentine new additions!!!

Yes, tanks are well known for carrying crypt. This is a fish disease--leave the corals & inverts in the tank & w/o fish to host on, the parasite will die off.

Thanks for all your help and advice guys. I am pleased to say that this morning Geoff my Ceylon is looking more like his old self. He is swimming around, all his fins are open and even the white covering on his eye is looking clearer.He is still not taking food but that's understanable and hopefully he will get his appetite back in the next few days. I am one very releaved fishkeeper

I know it's early days and I still have a long way to go but at least things are looking more positive than they did 2 days ago.I definatelt thought he was a goner.

After the 8 weeks are up how can you tell that there is no ich still in the main tank. I would hate to put all the fish back in there and have them go through the same thing all over again

you can't really tell, but 8 weeks is the standard recommended time, and seems to work.. so go with it...

quarentining is a hard lesson learnt ... and you'll never risk it again i can tell you.

Good luck with the water changes..

The fish have been in the Hospital tank now for 5 days (2 days at 1.009) and are looking so much better already. I am having to do a large water change on a daily basis because the tank hasn't cycled. The Ceylon still isn't eating but he did manage a few bites of mussel yesterday so I guess he must be feeling a little better