The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone,

Hoping for some advice. I purchased 2 Figure 8 Puffers 8 days ago. They are in a 32g Fluval Flex that was setup as FW. This tank has been setup/cycled for a few months, originally was housing some smaller cichlids prior to moving them to my main tank and prepping for puffers. They are the only fish in the tank. I purchased one smaller one (about 2in) and a larger one (probably 3.5" or so) that I assume is much older. Both showed normal "new home" symptoms for the first day. The smaller fish began eating after a day, the larger did not show any interest in food but seemed fine. The fish were held in FW at the LFS I purchased them from.

About 5 days ago, the larger one (pictured) still had no appetite and started to display a slight white film over one eye. I researched a bit online and decided to dose with Melafix, thinking it was due to possibly injuring the eye from stress glass surfing or bumping into decor.

2 days of Melafix, it had gotten much worse, now much less translucent film and visibly white. Only on one eye, still not eating.

3 days ago, I noticed spots on its back that looked similar to Ich but very faint in color. I decided to visit my LFS for some advice. They strongly advised against using Melafix and suggested ParaGuard and to begin raising the SG slowly. I did a 15% WC and brought the SG up to 1.002/3ish. I had planned on beginning the move to brackish after 2/3 weeks and the puffers were comfortable with their new home and myself.

I am now on day 3 of Paraguard with no visible changes.

Larger puffer is still very lethargic, staying near the bottom for the most part with the occasional exploring. It doesn't seem to like the lights so I have been keeping them off. It's belly is grey while floating near the bottom which could just be it camouflaging and not stress? The greyness goes away almost immediately when it starts to swim around again.

The smaller puffer seems perfectly fine still, eating as much as I'll give, swimming around happily and checking on it's buddy.

pH: 7.5: I can raise with Malawi buffer I have for my cichlids if suggested, LFS said that marine salt will raise this. Tank has aragonite sand and Texas Holey Rock that was purchased specifically to keep PH higher. It was reading at 8.0 all week on my liquid test but LFS stated it was 7.5 today with a digital tool.
Nitrates: <10ppm
Hardness: Reading between 150-300 on Multistrip Tests from coop store
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
KH/Buffer: Between 40-80 on the multi test strip
Water Temperature: Was 78, rose to 82 over the past 3 days incrementally. I have read that higher temp is good for treating Ich.

Looking for advice on how to proceed. I am worried that continual use of ParaGuard may end up being worse for it. Debating on whether or not I should drop the temperature back down to normal levels and switch back to Melafix or continue with the Paraguard treatment.

Thank you for your help.

Hi, Are you sure those "spots" aren't the puffer's tiny spines? Melafix is good--I have even done spot treatment on the eye with that, making sure their mouth is never out of the water. What foods are you offering? Live worms or bring shrimp are intriguing to fish. Your larger fish has eaten live food in the wild, much longer than the smaller one.

I posted these to Imgur so you could see, I hope this helps: https://imgur.com/a/oH98FbT

The spots look significantly worse in photos than they do in person. I can only see them when staring up close with lights turned on.

I have been feeding live snails (Ramshorn), thawed frozen bloodworms, clams on a half shell and have attempted freeze dried krill. I have yet to witness the larger puffer eating. I left the frozen clams in the tank over night (approx 16 hours) but it doesn't look like much was eaten off of them.

I know the krill is not recommended for long term / frequent use and don't plan on using it. My LFS recommended it and through my own research have found it's not great. I have tried to use it a few times with no success just to try and get the sick puffer to eat something. Please correct me if I am wrong here.

You might want to try more moving live foods like ghost shrimp, worms, brine shrimp.

library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

library/feeding/problems-feeding-your-puffer/

Hi Pufferpunk,

Do you think I should stop dosing with ParaGuard and just use higher temp and salt for the Ich? It doesn't seem like a severe case at this point and I am worried the severe eye cloudiness may be causing more stress in tandem with the ParaGuard than the Ich itself. I have raised the temp to 86F now and know that I cannot mix MelaFix and ParaGuard.

I was thinking I may do a 50% WC with heavy substrate cleaning and begin dosing with Melafix instead. I don't believe the Paraguard will help with the eye and I am hoping the temp and salt is enough to deal with the Ich on it's own.

The ParaGuard dosing schedule is 2 weeks so I am not sure if I should finish it out or switch to the Melafix for it's eye.

You don't need Paraguard for its spines. I see no Ich. Are there spots on his fins?

There are a few spots on his tail fin. Were you able to see the Imgur images I posted?

Yes, I did. All I see are the evenly-spaced spines, nothing on the tail. Ich isn't perfectly spaced like that.

I just grabbed this photo of it's tail: https://imgur.com/a/qUzcDrP

Again, I REALLY appreciate the help, I don't mean to be annoying. I respect your opinion a lot. I suppose it could be sand, as it's white aragonite sand, but those have been there for a few days now.

Just want to make sure I am not going overboard on medicine for no reason.

I would happily cut off the paraguard today!!

That's better, does appear to be ich. Get the Paraguard out of there & run carbon overnight. Use Ich-X. What's the SG?

SG is currently 1.002. Tank was fully FW before medication started.

Is there any harm in mixing Melafix with the Ich X? Don't know if I should be attempting to fix the eye while also treating for Ich.

Also, is there a reason for Ich-X over ParaGuard? I've been dosing for 6 of the 14 days so far. Just asking for my own knowledge

You can mix Melafix with anything. Ich-X has been found to be the go-to drug for ich. If you want to continue the Pareguard, go ahead. You should have seen some improvement by now. Do you?

It did finally eat today which could be a good sign of progress.

It's hard to say if there has been improvement or not on the Ich side. I think I caught it fast enough before it's gotten bad so I don't have a "full body was covered and now it's less". It certainly hasn't gotten "worse".. just the few spots on it's tailfin and the spots on it's back.

Today is the first day I've gotten the temp up to 86. I was raising it 2 per day to try and limit the stress these poor little guys are already under. It does seem to be more active. It goes through periods of being lethargic throughout the day but it's actively going to different places in the tank to be lethargic for 20/30 min or so before moving on to the next. Previously, it would stay in the same corner all day.

I have read that ParaGuard usually takes a little longer so that could be why. I will start dosing Melafix again tonight in hopes it can clear up the eye and order some Ich X. I will continue using the Paraguard for the next day or so since the dosing is halfway complete and keep my eye out for some changes. If I don't see any meaningful change by the time the Ich-X arrives, I will switch to that after removing with carbon.

Hopefully I have some positive news in a day or so :/ Thanks again for all your help <3

Please do NOT raise the temp. Ich is a gill disease--what you see on the body is the overflow of the parasite. When you raise the temp, you are making it harder for the guy to breathe which he already has difficulty doing with his gills infested with ich. It's an old-school treatment.

Just turned the temp back down to 79. I was following what I saw in the Hospital section of the library and other things I had seen online. library/hospital/fwich/

I know they are BW but they were in FW when treatment began.

Planning on doing a large water change tonight or tomorrow morning. I picked up Ich X today from an LFS and have been running carbon for about 8.5 hours now and planned on starting the dose tomorrow.