The Puffer Forum

Hi!

Just a quick question. I was reading about the salt and heat method for my GSP because I think he may have ich. However if he does have it, it appears mild. I can only see one white spot/flake on him. Would the salt and heat method be appropriate for him or should I just leave him alone? I should mention he is in the freshwater stage right now with some aquarium salt added, he is about 1.25-1.5 inches. I currently have a tank cycling for him at which point I will introduce him to some salt gradually.

Thank you!

at the top of this page are some questions in red that need to be answered first.


Second... is it just a spot? what behavior is it showing?

He should be in BW anyway, so use the heat & large WC (80% every other day while thoroughly cleaning substrate) method, in BW.

J-P, it is hard for me to answer these questions, I wasn't exactly prepared for my puffers. The owner of the petstore that I trust totally gave me wrong information about the care of GSPs and I had to collect all information on my own (eg, he told me they didn't excrete a lot of ammonia and that I could just give them flakes, just add aquarium salt, etc)

1) water paramters - I only have the test strips with color code indicators at this time (can you recommend a good testing kit that is not expensive?); so therefore all I can tell you is that the water parameters are fine...sorry

2)20 gallon tank with 4 very young GSPs (yes I know this tank is too small; thanks petstore guy...sure 4 GSPs in a 20 gallon will be fine...); currently cycling 75 gallon tank I was lucky to find for a good price.

3) -they are being fed daily with one day off (brine shrimp, crickets, seaweed although they do not like it, just got some mini mealworms but haven't given them yet, tried to get ghost shrimp I was going to gut load but petco had only 2 big guys)
-50% water change every other day - 2 days; adding water conditioner and aquarium salt

4) no changes to the tank, except water changes, obvi

5)aquarium has been set up for a month before we added GSPs; fishless cycle

just one white spot flake, very tiny like a piece of dandruff; normal behavior, nothing out of the ordinary, eating etc.

Pufferpunk-so should I be following the salt guidelines in that post or would that be too much salt considering they are not used to it?

I just got home and checked on all of them...the one that had the white spot/flake/crumb no longer has it. They are all swimming around pretty happy and eating...going to do a 75% water change later this evening...what else? should i raise the temp and add table salt?

I would return 2. 4 is far to many for a 75 I believe. By raising the salinity to the appropriate level the ich should be killed, raise no more than .002 per week or you will kill your bacteria. Or drip acclimate to a higher sg and go straight to marine. Just not with 4 unless you want a bigger tank, 2 in a 55 is far too tight

Do you have a sand substrate? Is there anything in the tank that could have just been stuck to him?
I'd not feed meal-worms, the exoskeleton is a bit tough to digest and it could lodge in their intestines and/or stop up their poopers.

I'd move all or some (the ones you're keeping) to the 75g.

sevenyearnight-no sand substrate, i really don't have anything small like that that could be sticking to him. ok, no mealworms...any other suggestions for now? feeding crickets and brine shrimp, they are not liking the seaweed.

My little dude eats mostly pond and Ramshorn snails, earthworms, and occasionally some squid, scallop, and bloodworms. I soak the latter 3 in Vitachem and Selcon.

Thanks everyone! So when I got up this morning one puffer has 3 spots of ich on him. Guess I will start the salt and heat method when I'm off work. Just one more question, should I treat all of them just in case or just quarantine the one guy and treat him?

Treat all of them. It's safe for the fish and they are likely infected too. The parasite primarily affects the gills and doesn't move to the rest of the body until there is no real estate left on the gills. Just because the others aren't showing signs doesn't mean they don't have it.