New here, from WI. Sick GSP.

[LongGrain]

Hey everyone, I'm Ryan. Like many people who probably join here, I bought a green spotted puffer without doing enough research and now I'm busting my buttocks to try to get him healthy. I was an idiot and took walmart's advice when purchasing my little guy, and now he's in a tank that is too small (fluval EDGE). We made it through an ammonia spike, then a nitrite spike, now his water parameters are good (0 ammonia, 0 nitrite as of yesterday). He's currently at a 1.010 sg. But he still has ick, and I'm worried he may have parasites as well. Now that his water parameters are good he is very active, except for at night, he kind of just floats in one spot, either laying on the bottom, or hanging out on top of the heater. Not sure if this is just him napping, or if it is because he is unhealthy. He eats like a pig, I feed him once a day on a mixed diet of snails and frozen blood worms.

Sorry if this was a ton of info for my first post. But I'm hoping that, with the help of this forum, I can get my guy, Jerry healthy and happy. I just bought a new tank (37g marine land LED kit w/ a penguin 200 biowheel filter, separate daytime and night time LED lighting, and a 200w heater), but it will take me a little bit to get it all set up and cycled, so for the time being, I have to make due with my edge.

Anyways. I hope everyone here had a happy new years!

[Pufferpunk]

Putting a puffer through a cycle like can cause permanent, irreparable damage to it.
Moving everything over from the cycled tank to the larger tank will instantly cycle the larger tank. Go for it!

[LongGrain]

Well I hope he's ok. He still seems to be reasonably happy, he'll chase my finger around the tank and begs for food like a dog. Despite the ick "salt sprinkles" his coloration is also pretty good. Belly is white, and he's a nice green with black spots. I'll try to catch a pic of him, but he's camera shy. Up until yesterday I was doing 50% daily water changes to dilute the nitrite spike (on the orders of the owner of the best lfs in town) and as of yesterday he said that my water is stabile and I can stop doing those changes, but he advised me to not medicate for the ich since the rising salt content in the tank should kill it off on its own. Do you guys agree with this? or should I be treating him with something.

I still have to get sand and decorations and all that for the new tank, which will be a little while since the holidays have left me rather broke at the moment, but I plan on getting him into the new tank asap, and slowly adapting him to a full marine environment.

[LongGrain]

Its really hard to get a decent picture of him with my phone. But this is the best I could do.

This is a pic from shortly after I got him, before he got sick.



and here are some pics from today. I'm having a hard time getting my camera to get him in focus, rather than the rocks and such. But you can definitely see the white spots all over him.

[Pufferpunk]

Oh wow, he's really infested, poor thing! What SG is he at now?

[LongGrain]

1.010 as of yesterday.

I went and picked up a box of marine salt, 20lb of live sand and 20lb of aquarium sand and the 37g tank is now full and cycling. But is there anything I should do chemically for my fish? I was thinking about picking up some melafix and pimafix at the pet store today, but I'd rather take advice from people here who know more than I do. He's looking pretty bad, yet he's still active and eating well and all that.

[Pufferpunk]

Melafix will help to sooth where the parasite is attacking his skin.

[wagner7123]

if the tank isn't cycled, then converting it to full marine would kill the ich and have no effect on the cycle. either way you are looking at cycling a tank with a puffer in it. I haven't been doing this as long as most of the others on this site, but what I would try is: bump up your salinity to 1.022, perform 30-50% water changes daily, acquire and add some cured live rock. if you can afford a skimmer right away, get one it will help keep the toxins down. You also want to start treating for Internal parasites asap. None of this is a perfect system, but it did work for me when i made the same mistake.

[LongGrain]

The tank is cycled. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite. I've been upping the salt content rather rapidly, considering 2 or 3 weeks ago this fish was probably in fresh water. Will it hurt him to up the sg faster? I just did a small 2 gallon water change and put in 6tbsp of instant ocean in with the new water, which is saltier than what is in there now.

I'll pick him up some melafix tomorrow and see if that helps. I just don't want to throw my tank out of whack. It's cycled now, but it has only been so for a few days now. I'm trying to learn as much as I can, as fast as I can to prevent anything bad from happening here.

[wagner7123]

get a hydrometer or even beter a refractometer. If the tank is cycled you don't want to increase more than .002 SG per week because it will kill the biofilter.

[LongGrain]

yea, I'll have to do that. I'm hoping he makes it long enough to see his new tank. I'm trying to get that up and running asap so I can get him out of the tiny space he's in now.

[trekenk]

LongGrain how did you cycle your 37 gallon so quickly? You’re best coarse of action at this point if your GSP isn’t in the 37 gallon is to set up that tank to be full marine and then drip accumulate your GSP to that. The higher salinity should help take care of the ich. Most GSP are kept full marine when they are older as it is less expensive to run, so you will eventually have to go that route anyways. As wagner pointed out in a cycled tank you can't raise your sg more than .002 pre week without killing off your biofilter thus crashing your tank. Setting up full saltwater tank is more expensive to begin with but less expensive in the long run with less water change (that is with the right saltwater filtration of 1 1/2 - 2 lbs live rock per gallon, a good protein skimmer and good flow). Your going to need to do a bit of research on setting up a marine tank. At this point your really need to get your guy into a larger tank ( don''t wait for the larger tank to cycle what ever you decide get him in there asap), and to get on top off that ich. I think you would be better of going full marine now rather than later as has already been pointed out it would kill off the ich, give him the space he needs and you would skip having to buy all the filteration for the larger tank if you have it brackish. Any questions just ask away, we always like to help around here. Good luck with your guy.

[LongGrain]

my 37g is NOT cycled. I just filled it up today with 20lb of live sand, 20lb of normal aquarium sand, and 2 tbsp of marine salt per gallon of water. I put in the recommended dose of nutrafin cycle for the first day (I know, that stuff usually doesn't work). I don't have a hydrometer/refractometer yet, so can someone give me a rough estimate for how much more salt I should add to that tank to get it to marine conditions while it cycles? I don't have any fish in it yet (obviously), and I have the heater running pretty high to get it up to temp.

I want to be able to get my puffer in the bigger tank ASAP. But right now its only been running for about 8 hours, the water is still real cloudy from the sand/live sand. I only put in about the same amount of salt per gallon as in my EDGE, so if someone can give me a rough estimate of how much more I need, that would be awesome.

I think my flow is good, it has a penguin biowheel 200, which is oversized for the tank I think. And the tank has a great LED lighting fixture. I just need to up my sg, get some live rock to help it cycle faster, and a skimmer and all that stuff. I'm doing as much research as I can, I'm really worried about him. He's gotten stuck to his filter tube 3 times in the last few hours, I'm afraid to leave him alone at night. This little guy is stressing me out.

[trekenk]

btw your just wasting your money buying live sand it is just dead bactaria in a bag.

[trekenk]

You don’t need mechanical filtration for a saltwater tank just live rock, skimmer. I know your are doing your best (darn Wal-Mart). Sorry to say not a good sign if your guy is getting stuck to the filter intake, but miracle''s do happen, is he/she still eating? You are going to need a hydrometer or refractmeter as every tank and every water change is different. I can tell you it is alot more than 2 tlbs spoon more like 1/4 cup or more.