The Puffer Forum

Hello all,

Apologies for what I already know will be a long post.
Recently in my goldfish tank, they got ich because I introduced a bristlenose pleco without quarantining it first. Now, whether through accidental cross contamination (I tried to be careful but was not sure how careful to be..) or because of the plant I bought on the same day from the same fish store that I put in my puffers’ tank, my puffer tank has ich as well. The goldfish got better within around two weeks. The 3 SAP puffer fish have had ich for at least a week and a half now and it has been very aggressive and all of the bleeding heart tetra’s that shared the tank with them slowly died off one by one. The puffers have been resilient, along with the one albino bristlenose pleco that doesn’t seem to have ich at all for some reason...? After discovering the puffers had ich, I started slowly raising the temp in their tank from 76 F to 88 F over the course of several days, raising it 2 degrees about every 12 hours.. I also gave them a dose of E.M. Erythromycin and API Super Ick Cure after an initial water change of 75%.

Since then, I have been giving them almost daily water changes, usually of 50% or more, always with a good vacuuming of the substrate. I ran out of E.M. Erythromycin after the first dosage (I had been using it on my goldfish) and stopped using it, continuing to replace the water taken out from water changes with water treated with just API Super Ick Cure (And Prime). A few days ago, I ran out of API Super Ick Cure as well, but found out online that (I think?) it’s main ingredient is malachite green, the same as Nox-ich, another medication I have (it may be several years old however.. :/), so I started using Nox-ich instead. So far I haven’t noticed any adverse effects in the fish due to the medication switch.

The puffers got covered in the ich pretty quickly from the start and within about three days I noticed a lot of change in their Behaviour, less appetite, their fins clamped, and they began to rest at the bottom in their already established favorite corner. Despite medication and the high temp (88F), their symptoms have not grown any better and it is hard to feed them. The ich also looks a little funny, as it almost appears fluffy in spots like a fungus, but also very much like Ick, and there are areas on the fish where the white dots hang on to the fish on wisps and strings (is that how they normally come off of the fish?) I have some pictures of all of these symptoms. I will also answer the listed tank questionnaire in my next text blob as this one is getting a little long...

Thanks for any help and/or advice anyone gives, your time and help are appreciated!

1) Your water parameters - pH: 7.9 Ammonia: 0ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrates: 30ppm

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants- 28 gallon bowfront. At the beginning of outbreak- 3 Amazon puffers, 1 bristlenose pleco, 8 bleeding heart tetras. Currently, just the 3 puffers and the pleco.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank:
Feeding: before sickness, twice a day - snails, saki hikari pellets, goldfish pellets, algae wafers, frozen shrimp. After sickness, once in a while, still feed occasional algae wafer (pleco does not seem very interested), put live snails in (less messy), have tried other things but puffers eat very little (pellets, frozen foods, garlic soaked)
Water changing schedule: almost every day, at least 50% change. Before sickness, about once or twice a week, about 50%.
Products: Prime, Nox-ich, API Super Ich Cure, E.M. Erythromycin (carbon removed from filter), a few plant tabs from a few weeks before sickness.

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
New anubia plant, air stone to help with oxygenation, took most of plants (esp free floating) out after they got sick. Intro of new fish in other tank that caused Ick in other tank, even though it never showed any signs of ich itself (also a bristlenose pleco - are they immune?)

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it?
The aquarium has been set up for about a year (a little less). I did cycle it by letting it sit over a month and putting fish food in it, however I had a hard time ever detecting an ammonia spike, a strange clear algae covered the food I put in there and stopped it from decomposing naturally (?).. The algae has since gone away and the tank has functioned as a cycles tank ever since.

That is possibly velvet but either way, treatment is the same. Did you add salt? How are they doing now?

I have discontinued the ich medication I was using ( now ich, API super ich cure, and E.M. Erythromycin) And put some carbon in the filter (yesterday), I also lowered the temp to 84 over the last few days as it has been up at 88 for about two weeks. I’m not sure how long the carbon needs to get rid of the medication, but before adding salt, I want to get rid of all the medications as one of them had a warning that it shouldn’t be combined with salt.

As for the puffers, they are eating and more active than before, but two out of the three still have very visible signs of sickness while the third (and fattest) looks almost completely healthy

This group is excellent on diseases & meds for puffers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/319738601907514/

I don't think it's ich... The line about some of the spots appearing fluffy and the timescale from introduction to symptoms seems out to me. I'd guess either Columnaris or Saprolegnia.