The Puffer Forum

I have a couple of friends that work at a very good LFS. They got a shipment of fish in and almost all of them had ich (never happened before). The poor GSP and figure 8s were probably the worse of all, they were covered in huge white spots. They treated the entire shipment and everyone except the puffers did great. the store is small so they only have 1 brackish tank. They made the decision to drain the tank to start fresh as they were getting no where with this ich. Needless to say the staff was very upset with the idea of "killing" 5 sick little puffers. Knowing I have puffers they called and offered them to me free of charge. I ended up cleaning out some of the fish I have and picked up the 2 GSP and 3 figure 8s. They are all doing really well, no spots on them for a few days now and all are alive, active and eating like little pigs. At this time they are all in the same tank at .007. I know the GSP need more salt and the figure 8s less but it was the best I could come up with in the time I had to get them, which was less then an hour and they were a half hour drive from my house.
My questions are any ideas as to how long I should keep them in this hospital tank before moving them to other tanks? and what is the best way to convert a fresh water tank into a brachish tank without throwing it in to a new cycle by killing all the exsisting bacteria?

Simply start the new tank at .007, using some of the filter media from your existing tank. Once established, you can start adjusting the salt.

the tank I want to convert is an established tank that has been running for over a year with freshwater. I'm under the impression if I just change the water to .007 I'll kill all the healthy bacteria already present in the tank? Or did you mean just change the salt content then add filter media from the brackish tank they are in now?

The bacteria dies off & changes over to SW bacteria ~1.010, so a lot of your bacteria will die off. I suggest treating them at 1.002, as the ammonia/nitrite poisoning will be just as bad as the ich & that will be enough salt to combat it, along with the heat & large WC. The puffers should be housed separately.