The Puffer Forum

I have an 8 inch Fahaka in a 55 gallon corner tank. He is in there with 2 Tanganyikan cichlids. The tank has been set up and running with no issues for over a year.

A few weeks ago I introduced some Buenos Aires tetras to the tank. They looked fine and showed no sign of disease. a week ago I did a 50 % water change / gravel vac. A few days after that, the Buenos Aires tetras got ich. I started treating with ich attack right away and they are showing improvement, but now my Fahaka is sick! I don't see any white dots on him like I did with the tetras but he looks washed out, his fins look damaged liked they have been chewed on, one of his eyes are cloudy and he is swimming around the surface gasping. I assume he has ich but it is affecting him differently because he is scaleless...?

Tonight I did a 25% water change, turned up my heater to 86 (it hasn't heated up yet), added salt, and increased aeration. The puffer is acting like he is not getting enough oxygen, but all other fish are swimming around fine. The 2 Tanganyikans seem to be completely unaffected and are happy as can be.

What do I do and what is the deal with the puffer swimming around the surface? Is this a normal behavior when a puffer is sick? Is he not getting enough oxygen? Any info would be much appreciated.

ANY ich meds are very toxic to a puffer! Do a 90% WC & put fresh carbon in your filter. Add Melafix & an air stone, after a week of filtering the remaining meds out.
For future reference: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28113

Also, your puffer is stunted. It needs a MUCH bigger tank.
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/T_Lineatus/

Thanks punk. He's still hanging in there. I've been doing a 20% water change every day, so most of the ich attach should be gone by now. I've also been using "prime" which i had never heard of before visiting this forum. All of the b.a tetras are fine now.

The puffer is still acting the same, but he looks a little worse. One of his fins now has red streaks in it and is kind of clamped to his side. He is not using it. Is that related to the ich too, or does he have something else on top of the ich? He has also stopped eating...

Is it okay to use the melafix along side the prime? I assume so, but just thought i'd ask your opinion.

Thank you!

Well he made it! He's back to normal. That was pretty scary. Ill continue to keep the salt and heat up for the remainder of the 10 days. Thanks again.