The Puffer Forum

My GSP has ick. he was in a freshwater tank but we are slowly making the conversion over to brackish water. (tonight we added a half cup of salt to the tank after doing a 50% water change.) there is another GSP in there with him that looks perfectly fine (i know only one puffer for 30 gallons but they are still very small and we are moving him to another tank soon). we have read that increasing the water to around 84 degrees will help a lot and adding salt will help. when doing the water change we tried using water that was a little warmer than the water already in the tank but it only brought it up to about 78 degrees at the warmest. we dont have another heater to put in there so there really isn't any way that we can heat up the water. what else should we do? we went to walmart and found some ick treatment medicine that can be used for scaleless fish. but we weren't sure how it would work in brackish water so we didn't get it yet. what should we do? we really need to get this figured out fast before the other puffer gets it.
tank size- 30 gallon
all other info is unknown.
please help

Ich is best cured by bringing the water SG up and bringing the temp of the water up to speed the life cycle. Please refer to this article and follow the directions carefully and exactly. Medications are a very poor choice to use with puffers and really do increase the mortality. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28113

Other questions for you: How long has this tank been set up? How was it cycled and have you made any changes recently? What kind of salt are you using?

You really need to get a test kit to make sure the tank is cycled completely and to monitor it. Puffers are especially sensitive to waste build up and stress is a contributing factor to ich because it lowers the immune system.

How are you tracking the specific gravity of your tank water? To do this you need either a hydrometer or a refractometer. Tracking this is very important especially when making changes. Specific gravity should only rise by .02 every week. Mixing salt right to the tank water is also a bad idea because dissolving marine salt can burn the fish's skin and gills. When you do add salt, dissolve it in water first, let it sit for 24 hours then add it to the tank in a water change.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

Thanks for your help. we are getting a hydrometer sometime today.
the brand of salt we are using is instant ocean. last night was the first night of turning the water into brackish so we only added half a cup. we got some really nice advise from a worker at fishy business where we bought it. thats really all the info that i know. i don't know the pH level of the water or anything right now. but the water was cycled last night and the waste from the rocks was sucked out with a siphon. so im guessing that all the ph levels and nitrite levels are at least CLOSE to where they need to be. since we just got the puffer fish with the ick on thursday we are just taking it back. we are worried about it spreading to the other puffer, and we want the fish to live obviously. so we are going to let the pro's deal with it and HOPEFULLY get him well again.

Your other puffer will have ice also, how do you mean " water was cycled last night"?