The Puffer Forum

My male dwarf puffer has a small white, somewhat protruding spot on his dorsal fin - see photo. Is this ick? I have Esha Exit (and Esha 2000) at hand - is it safe to just treat the tank with this, even if it should turn out not to be ick?

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate).
Temperature 25-26 Celsius - stable, normal
pH 7 - stable, normal
GH 5 dH - stable, normal
NO3 not measured, was 7 ppm (normally 2-10 ppm) on Dec 22, when the spot was discovered.
NO2 0, was 0.025 on Dec 22 - did a water change the same day and the day after, NO2 has been 0 since the first water change was done
NH3 0
(Liquid test kits used)

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants.
112 litre planted tank, sand substrate, driftwood, stones, overfiltration with external canister filter. 5 dwarf puffers added Feb 2015, 4 amano shrimp added april 2015.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products
Feeding: approx 6 days a week, bloodworms, snails.
Water change: 50 % weekly.
Products: Seachem prime, sodium bicarbonate, Easylife Ca, Mg and easycarbo, dry ferts (KNO3, KH2PO4, CSM+B).

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so.
Not much, but had to replant a crypt that had loosened from the substrate. Disturbance of substrate/root tabs is a possible cause of measured nitrite. Also light cleaning of canister filter a few weeks ago, has been done before without problems.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it?
Fishless cycle with ammonia Jan/Feb 2015. Fish moved in feb 2015. No problems with disease until now.

Sorry I didn't get to this last night, Saw it right before bed. Thank you for your detailed response!

It is not ich. Usually just a bit of fungus that appears on fins after a scrape. Continue to keep pristine conditions. You could add pimafix.

I am wondering why you add: sodium bicarbonate, Easylife Ca, Mg and easycarbo? Sounds more like a SW system.

Thanks for your reply, PP! Aah... I decided to start treating... Silly me, I should have been more patient. The spot looked so much like what I have seen in photos of ick, and from what I've read it can be only a single or few spots at first. Oh well, this is my first time with some sort of disease-like stuff, so I guess I got overly nervous about my little guy I suppose I should finalize the treatment since I've already started it - I've given the first dose of Esha Exit, so two more doses (half the amount) remain, one today and one tomorrow. As far as I understand, this medication is harmless to livestock and filter bacteria. I will do a water change after finishing the treatment.

The water we have here is very soft, so I add bicarbonate to slightly increase the buffer capacity of the water, and Mg and Ca to increase the total hardness a bit (from GH 0 to GH 5, which is still soft). And the easycarbo is just liquid carbon for the plants, since I don't inject CO2. So no, this has nothing to do with SW, it's just a matter of slight adjustments to improve the nutrition and stabilize the system (I don't want pH to crash...).

hey PP easycarbo is much more widely know overseas but its comparable to flourish excel. I actually just saw the first bottle i have ever seen in the states yesterday.

Puffers are VERY sensitive to ich meds, absolutely nn reason to ever use them, unless death is imminent anyway: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... =3&t=28113

Please do a large WC right now & run fresh carbon to remove the rest.

Happy new year!
Treatment was aborted, lesson learnt - don't act too hastily.
The puffers and the shrimp are doing good, no harm done, hopefully. The spot on the male puffer slowly disappeared over a few days - it's all gone now.

You posted a link about heat and salt treatment, thank you. I have a few questions about it, in case I ever actually encounter ich:
How fast should temperature and salt content be raised? Do you turn up the heater to the max temperature of the treatment and add all the salt at once? Will the filter bacteria tolerate this? Will otos tolerate this treatment?? (I've planned on adding otos to the tank in a not so distant future... But I will QT them first.)

You can add the 1bsp salt/10g at once but I suggest dissolving it in a pitcher of water, 1st. My heaters have temps on them, so I turn them up to 86.