The Puffer Forum

Heys need some help, I went camping for a week and when i came home i saw that my F8s contracted ick. I believe it might have been caused the large peice of shrimp I put into their tank for them before I left for the week. I heard quick cure is very harmful to puffers so I raised the temp to 82 and started treating with aquarium salt and some gradual water changes. Do you guys think my F8s will be alright? The 2 F8s are currently in a brackish 50 gallon bowfront with some mollies.

No chemicals needed, they are very hard on puffers. Puffs don't have scales or gill covers and take up meds and chemicals more readily than other fish.

Please list your water parameters and the info listed in red above and most issues, including ich, can be attributed to those questions. In the mean time please read library/hospital/fwich/
and
library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/

I have a feeling your tank has crashed due to the uneaten shrimp breaking down and that is causing stress to the fish and in turn causing the Ich outbreak.

Are the F-8s in FW?

RTR wrote:Are the F-8s in FW?

Nope, 100% brackish...but I cant reallly say 100% though since brackish isnt ever 100% lol. Back to being serious, I was also confused about how the ick/ich appear since the water does contain marine salt. I tested my water paramas and they were isanely out of line, which was probally due to the shrimp I left in their tank last week when I went camping. I did a fairly large water change and rinsed my tank equipment in a bleach/water solution and let it dry. I double rinsed with a vinegar solution just to be safe, and switched my 50gallon heater for a 70gallon heater to bump the temperature a few notches higher. Surprisingly my mollies did not contract the ick. As of the moment my puffers are in a 15gal hospital tank.

Leave the puffers in their main tank. The mollies have it too, even if it doesn't show. Read the ich article linked to above. Keep doing large WC every other day, while cleaning the substrate & raise the temp. What SG is your tank at?

Pufferpunk wrote:Leave the puffers in their main tank. The mollies have it too, even if it doesn't show. Read the ich article linked to above. Keep doing large WC every other day, while cleaning the substrate & raise the temp. What SG is your tank at?

I have Aragonite sand as my substrate which I've been wave siphoning every week to help clean it. As of yesterday the SP was sitting at 1.003, which is pretty bad. Im gradually raising the SP back to 1.005 to help the puffers stablize again. I've raised the temp to 85 and been closely monitoring them. The F8s are behaving and breathing normally and also eat regulary which is a relief. I keep everyone updated.

You need to thoroughly stir that sand.

If the water is at 1.003 and has not been lower, I am nots ure this is FW Ich.