The Puffer Forum

Okay about 5 or 6 days ago i got a porcupine puffer from petco. He did not eat for about 3 days then on the 3rd night i seen him nibble on something. I noticed white spots on him about 3 or 2 days ago. I did the freshwater dip for about 10mins and then put him back in the tank and he seems to be doing good (swimming up and down like he has done since i got him). The ick is not bed at all (maybe 8 white spots). my question is after doing the dip how fast should i see the spots disapear???????? Or should i keep doing the dips every day untill the ick is gone?????(I was told to do the dip by someone from petco.) ps: im new to saltwater

Can you answer the questions in red? They are very important.

Here is an article on treating ich. Can you post a picture so we can make sure it's ich?

library/hospital/swich/

dang that sux I feel for ya man sounds like ick to me but like lil green puffer said you need to post all the water perimeters for a correct dianose. good luck hope he makes it keep us posted.

Just tested everthing.......................
Ammonia=0.25
Nitrate=1.0
pH=(GOOD THINIG I DID THIS TEST) LOOKS LIKE 7.8-8.0
Nitite=0
Alakalinity=300
He wont pose to take a pic.
*75 gallon tank
* 1 clown, and 3 blue dan ,and live rock
* has been sit up for over 2 months now

Hey there, I didn't even know they sold porks at petco.

Okay the ammonia in your tank is a good sign that it's not cycled properly. It should be 0 as well as nitrite. Nitrates should never go above 20. Your pH is fine. It should be 8.0 for saltwater as far as I know.

How was the tank cycled? Having ammonia present in the water will stress out the porcupine puff which will make the ich worse. Short term I'd recomend a nice large water change to bring down the ammonia. Long term you are going to have to get this tank cycled and asap. Read the article in the library on emergency cycling. I would try to find biospira to "instantcycle" the tank.

Hope this helps.

Live sand tho..............

I have not kept a marine tank, but from what I've heard, live sand still needs to be cured as its not truely "live" unless it goes straight from one tank into yours.

I agree- you need to get your tank cycled and in the meantime do water changes to get rid of that ammonia. Biospira is great stuff. Hopefully you can get it locally so you can use it immediately. Otherwise, you can order it online at drsfosterandsmith.com

Yep, lots of water changes. You will eventually need a bigger tank. You may actually want to return your puffer for now, until your tank is cycled. Bio-Spira is a great idea. Don't use any other brand, though.

Here is a species profile on your puffer. ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Marine/D_Holocanthus/

How much live rock did you get? Did you cure it?

Here is the emergency cycling article that qtrhorse89 mentioned.

library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/

Please don't worry about your pH. It is perfect for marine water, and besides, pH is not a problem for most fish, puffers included.

Although pH fluctuations can be harmful, I think. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

Cycling a SW tank is totally different than cycling a FW tank. No amount of Bio-Spira will cure live rock if there is any die off still going on. 2 months should have taken care of that though. No new rock since then? What test kits are you using? You really should be seeing more nitrate at this point.

Definately get the ammonia down to 0 with water changes. How often are you doing them & how much? Do you have a sump? Skimmer? Powerheads? Those last 2 things are a highly recommended for good filtration, along with your LR. How many lbs do you have in there?

Now, about the whitespot. 10 minutes in FW isn't long enough. 30 minutes are recomended, unless the fish looks stressed. All the FW dip is remove the existing cycts on the fish. When you put the fish back into the infected water, it will just get them on him again. FW dips are for when a fish is totally infested & you need to remove some of them right away to save the fish. Are you using tap water or RO water for the dips & for your tank? Are you matching the pH of the FW for dips? The ONLY way to completely remove the parasites from the water forever, is as by leaving the tank fallow & hypo for all the fish, as described in the SW Ich article. If the fish are only lightly bothered by this though, you can always try dosing garlic & vitamin C but be prepared for this to probably be a cronic problem--every time you add a fish or they get stressed in any way.

-SKIMMER
-POWERHEAD
-FLUVAL 305
-20-30 POUNDS OF LIVE ROCK
I TAKE IT ALL I REALLY NEED TO DO IS A WATER CHANGE?

Get rid of the canister (unless you want to use it for chemical filtration) & get yourself a good skimmer for that tank. Also, you need 1-1/5,bs of cured LR/gallon, for it to be useful. Test your nitrate again, being sure to sshake each chemical for at least 1 minute.