The Puffer Forum

Hi all, I am new to this forum. I have read some great stuff here, but this is my first time posting.
I purchased a Figure 8 puffer just under a week ago. He started showing signs of ich within about 24 hours of bringing him home. I did not qt him because he went right into "his" tank, which was set up solely for him and housed only some ghost shrimp before his arrival.
I am not surprised he has gotten ich, he came from a chain petstore. He may have even had it in the store, but I didnt see any spots on him at the time. He was in a tiny tank with several F8s. Classic nipped fins, but no scarring on his body, bright colored, white round belly, active. He was in freshwater at the store, and is close to 2 inches from tip to tail.
I have the heat up to 84 in his tank and am using aquarium saltto help treat the ich. It is minimal, less than 8 spots on him, and they were getting better, but it seems he has a few MORE spots today
I am doing eod water changes of apx 30% and would prefer to use no meds if I can avoid it (both for his health, and the plants in the tank-all brackish acceptable, btw). He eating well, acting happy, no fin clamping, color is good, hunting the ghost shrimp, and his fins are filling back in nicely.
I would like to start acclimating him to brackish as soon as possible but am not sure if I can start doing that while he has ich. Will it hurt him to start acclimating? Also, can I turn the heat up a little more? Can F8s tolerate a temp of 86 to 88?

Oh, also......what is the best way to introduce salinity to a freshwater tank? I had a GSP a long time ago, but he started in a brackish tank so I never had to trasition. I have read you should increase the salinity in the tank .001 weekly until you reach your desired level, does this sound right? Will it have any effect on my bb at this level of introduction?

Thanks in advance for your help. I am so excited to have this little guy!

Hi and welcome to the forum. The heat and salt method is the way to go to cure the ich, however you have been slightly misinformed somewhere along the line. Aquarium salt is not what you need as it has no legal definition so we don't know what it is, use regular table salt. To raise your salinity you need some marine mix and a hydrometer or refractometer (the refractometer is easier and more accurate), then mix half of your tanks volume to 1.004 and perform a 50% water change, this will put your tank at 1.002. 1 week later repeat to bring your tank to 1.004 ( not good at maths so some one else will need to chime in to say what salinity your water change water should be this time to get to 1.004 lol). Get your ich cleared first tho so you don't stress the fish too much. I would probably leave the temp where it is for now and gravel vac loads, your tanks bacteria will be unaffected by a salinity raise of up to 0.002 per week. Hope this helps.

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library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/

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library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/

Thank you for the reply bertie. I am aware I need marine salt for a brackish set-up, and I do have the salt and a hydrometer, I have just been holding off on starting the acclimation due to the ich. He looks a little better this morning, about half of the ich spots have fallen off. I think I will continue to treat as I am with the heat and gravel vacumes/water changes, and depending on how he is doing, plan on starting the acclimation for brackish this weekend.
So, I can increase salinity up to .002 per week without affecting my cycle? Awesome!
Sorry so many questions, I did have a brackish tank back in the day, but it has been a while, and I started it out brackish, so I never had to worry about increasing salinty, etc. Lol

Hold back on the transition to b/w until you are 100% certain he is clear of ich. The cysts will burst putting the ich into its free swimming faze. It's primarily a gill parasite you only see spots once the gills are full of parasites. Aquarium salt will not help you, continue the w/c and gravel vac and use table salt to kill the free swimming parasites. The links pp posted will give you all the detail you need to beat this disease and give your puffer a long, happy and healthy life.

Thanks for your help guys! I have performed 2 50% water changes today to remove most of the aquarium salt, and have dosed with regular table salt as directed in the links. He looks clear of all visible spots tonight, and is still active and eating well. I will keep up on gravel vaccume and wait until he is fully cured before starting the transition to brackish.
I did not know " aquarium salt" has no legal definition....... Should I not use it in a freshwater tank either? I dont use salt regularly, but have used it before for minor treatments. I guess I will start using table salt instead when needed.

On another note, do pea puffers teeth get overgrown? My little pea puffer, Chuck Norris, got a piece of frozen thawed bloodworm stuck in his mouth tonight (as best as I can tell, stuck on his teeth ad he couldnt get it off). He panicked and even puffed up a little. I gently netted him to the corner of the tank and used the fedding tweezers to pull the worm loose. He seems fine after the ordeal, but wouldnt eat anymore. I do feed him plenty of pond snails, various sizes, but he seems to suck them out of the shells rather than crunch the shell. He wont eat shrimp, not even rcs, and he is so tiny, I dont know what other crustaceans I could try. Should I be concerned about his teeth?

+1 to bertie and Pufferpunk's advice.

Dwarf puffers really don't have the overgrown teeth issues most other puffers have.

Chuck the aquarium salt, I was under the same misconception of adding aquarium salt as a tonic, it does nothing to be honest. Don't panic if food gets stuck they normally sort themselves out

I am uncomfortable advising someone just to chuck aquarium salt after they have bought it. It is salt and contains sodium chloride:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=4982

Different brands may have differing quantities of ingredients but surely they still contain the sodium chloride that you're after (the one linked above does).
Do we know that all table salts are safe in an aquarium? Do they contain anti-caking agents, additives or preservatives?

Iliveinazoo wrote:I am uncomfortable advising someone just to chuck aquarium salt after they have bought it. It is salt and contains sodium chloride:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=4982

Different brands may have differing quantities of ingredients but surely they still contain the sodium chloride that you're after (the one linked above does).
Do we know that all table salts are safe in an aquarium? Do they contain anti-caking agents, additives or preservatives?

The problem is they rarely give the make up of their aquarium salt away, so you would not know how much salt you are actually adding.

Pufferpunk wrote:library/water-filtration/thesaltoftheearth/

Thanks for the link. I agree with much of what it says.