The Puffer Forum

I read the article on it here and it was very helpful. Before I began the hypo salinity treatment I wanted to run my intentions by you guys to make sure it was right.

First off, the fish sometimes has the spots and sometimes doesnt have many or at all. Looks like freshwater ich to me, I have never seen marine ich before.

Ok, this is a 1 inch porcupine puffer fish in a 20 gallon while the 120 is cycling.
The tank has sand, live rock and a hermit crab.

I am of course going to take the live rock out and put it in the 120. All the ich will die by the time it is cycled anyway. The hermit crab will be removed too.

My question was, can I leave the sand and existing filter in while I hypo the tank or no? I dont care if the sand 'dies'.

Oh ok, I see it says no substrate. I am scared though, Half salinity, I dont want it to die from that

It won't die from half salinity.

The filter's beneficial bacteria would die, so I see no point in leaving it in.

The filter is just for now, in the quarantine, right? Later you'll just want a skimmer.

Yes the filter is just for the temp tank. I have a skimmer on the big tank and have been doing weekly 25 percent changes in the temp tank, the water has kept excellent parameters.

My question is this and maybe I missed it in the article. Do I just turn it into .1009 in ten minutes, or do I have to stage it and slowly decrease it so the fish can adjust?

I am just confused because one day it will have white dots on it and then the next day it will have one or two.
It had quite a few last night, i gave it some garlic soaked shrimp and mealworm and then this morning I see just a few. I think this may be normal though as they fall off and attatch etc etc etc.


Once I get my answer about how fast to turn it hypo I am gonna go for it

Thank you.
It is really puzzling me. When I left it looked very clear skinned and when I returned it looked like it had been salted! All within 8 hours. Anything else it could be?

It is still very active and vigorous. Eats like a champ, feces has really improved since the first ones when I got it.

It happened overnight for me - really fast! Evening, he looked great; morning, he looked like he'd been shaken around in the saltshaker.

I read about a corner sponge filters.
I have one of these lying around
http://www.school-of-tropical-fish.com/ ... Filter.jpg
I could fill it with sponger or floss and actually have access to some .009/.010 filter media from another tank I could add.

Cool! I know with your loving care, this puffer's gonna be just fine.

I hope so. He seems very vigorous and unaffected in his actions. Any word on if my filter box will be good enough of a sponge filter?

Sure will.

Ok, everything is out of the tank, except heater and the filter box.
What can I do to the sand so I can reuse it as it is pretty nice. Im assuming Ich cannot tolerate very very hot water and then being dried out.

I spoke with the place I bought him at and they said they had an ick outbreak several days after I purchased him and said that i could exchange him now or bring him back if he dies. Grim.. but I dont want to exchange him so he can sit in the chemical treatment they said they use and die because he is a puff.

Ok, little update.
I am halfway to the salinity that the hypo treatment calls for.
The fish seems a little better, it is enjoying playing with the bubbles the corner filter is making

Glad it's going well & you decided to keep him. Can't you put the sand into the display tank?