The Puffer Forum

I just finished trimming my figure-eight puffers teeth and I thought everything was great. Until this morning I had waken up to discover tiny little white spots on my puffers belly and fins. They only have two or three spots, I saw this about a month ago and then it went away. Do you think this is ick or something else?

Could be a slight concern--you can do the recomendations in the Hospital forum for Treating Ich.

I will clean out half of the aquarium water on the Weekend and boil and clean all of the rocks, coral and decorations. If this doesn't make a difference then I will go to the hospital forum and follow through with the ick treatment.

I wouldn't overclean--could be destroying benificial bacteria. I'd do a decent sized water change & raise temp. What's the SG?

Also, ich should be treated as early as possible. Otherwise it will multiply rapidly and take much longer to treat.

I agree with PP here - it worked for me. The upped temperatures and normal Figure 8 SG range should take care of any ich - along with frequent water changes.

I have a hydrometer to measure the salt but I don't think it works. It reeds 1.005 but I have been increasing the salt slowly to read 1.008 but it still only says 1.005, last time I added 7 tablespoons of marine salt to the 35 gallon aquarium when I changed half of the water. The puffers literally only have like two or three small spots, It may not be ick, I don't want to take a chance shocking them or killing them.

Water changes & raising temps will not shock your fish. Leave the SG at 1.005 for F8s.

7 tablespoons of marine salt into a 50% water change won't really up your SG much. If you changed 17.5 gallons of water, you'd need a lot more salt...then again maybe I've misunderstood how much salt you added.

Also, are you putting the salt directly in the tank or in the bucket and thoroughly disolving before adding to the tank?

Just wanted to check on those two things, but otherwise follow PP's advice and that should take care of things.

Eric

I use a plastic bag mixed with tank water and put the salt in the bag, poke a very tiny whole and let the salt go in the tank that way it usually takes the morning for it all to go in the tank, I have never had a problem doing this. I read again the ick treatment post, I cant be changing the water that often, thats a little crazy.

it's really not crazy, it's the only thing that will remove the ick before it can reattach to your fish.

I understand what your saying, My parents will not let me clean out the aquarium that often, I have lots of other tanks to clean aswell. I have no choice but to just do a half water change. They all seem happy and the spots don't seem to be spreading. If I notice it to start spreading I'll use Jungle ick guard (only using half of the recommended dose.)

I'm not certain why your parents wouldn't let you do frequent water changes for a tank whose inhabitants could potentially have ich...

You'd think your parents would want to encourage responsible pet ownership. Maybe you need to teach them.

NO, the way they see it is its more money for paying for the water.

Since your fish don't sound infested, stick w/50% & heat.