The Puffer Forum

I have tested my tank water, everything came out 0 on the readings, I do monthly water changes on this 55 gallon tank. The tank mates are 2 yellow tail damsels, and baby picaso trigger-fish, sebae clownfish and a dogface puffer, I have just bought a 150 gal. tank that I'm in the process of setting up for them this week. We have had several power outages where I live in the past month twice within like 1 1/2 weeks, and the power was off for about 6 hours maybe a bit more each time. After the first outage I noticed that my puffer had a few white spots on him, so I started lowering the salinity in the tank down to 1.010 to kill the ick. But now my puffer is staying at the bottom of the tank, at times he acts like it is hard for him to breath, on eye is now cloudy, there are spots on the trigger, and on the clownfish. I have added a air stone to increase the oxygen in the tank, the pH was a bit low like 7.6-7.8 I got that back up but I think that was due to me doing a water change and I forgot to add the PH buffer. The puffer is covered with ick, I have been feeding him when I can get him to come out from his cave, krill soaked in Zoe, garlic and Gel Tek Tetracycline Medication and raw shrimp. Is there some other meds that I should be using on my puff, I know I shouldn't use copper, but I have used it on my other DF puffer and he did fine with it. I'm afraid that if I take him out of the tank and do a freshwater dip on him it might do more harm than good, especially trying to catch him. He is still eating just not with the spunk that he used to have, he has been sick,laying around like this for about 3 days now. I have the salinity down almost to the 1.010 if there is anything else I can do I would really appreciate the advice. I rescued this little guy from my local fish store, where they let his teeth grow to the point he could hardly eat and he was in a tank with tons of faster fish who would chase him away from the food. I took him home and fattened him up got his teeth filed down with daily feedings of small snails. I would hate to loose the little guy he was at the pet store all skin and bones for 2 months before I got him I just couldn't stand to see him suffer and I told the store about how they have to have snails or live rock to bite. They had no idea. poor fish. Thanks for any help you can give.

Have you read all the info from Puffer Queen about hypo salinity & treating your SW puffer for whitespot? If she doesn't respond soon, either email or PM her for more help. Sorry, I'm weak in the SW puffer dept.

Increased aeration is important in fish infected with parasites as the oxygen demand is increased as is the metabolic rate which also increases the oxygen demand/consumption.

Treating with hyposalinity can cause pH drops - need to monitor at least daily and perform water changes and add buffer as needed to keep water parameters stable to decrease stress.


What are you using for filtration in this system? Do you have live rock and live sand in this tank?

Why are you giving tetracycline?

Salinity needs to be 1.009 - consistently - swings/elevations will affect the cure. Copper is an option especially if this is marine velvet or you are unsure of the pathogenic parasite. Copper needs to be given in a bare bottom tank with no live rock and must be given according to directions and a test kit (appropriate kit for type of copper being used) is a must!

Best of luck.

I've had my fish in a hospital tank for about a week now at 1.009 because of ick.

It has disappeared completely from the puffer and the Harlequin tusk only shows a little bit still on his tail. The niger trigger and yellow-tail damsels never showed any signs of ich and all seem to be doing very well in the hospital tank at 1.009.

Does your main tank have live rock and crabs/snails? If it does you shouldn't hypo them as they can't handle it and will die off.

As for catching your puffer, try this: get a big fish-bag from your LFS and then fill it up in the tank and slowly move the opening towards him.

I had to catch him three times and move him to a new tank in about an hour the other day(got two new tanks from petco sale and took back petsmart tank, had to raise hospital tank off ground to get wet/dry under it to work...it was a bad day). However, my stars and stripes puffer is at the point now where he turns around and just swims into the bag. He seems to know the deal and what to do. Zero air-time and not much stress this way. I like to think he trusts me.

good luck and here is a link to my thread about treating my tank/fish with ich. Some great info imho. Quite the learning experience and you might learn some from my mistakes.

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... php?t=4986

well my little puffer is doing much better just about all of the white spots are gone and is eating like a pig. I treated the main tank with a bit of copper and made sure the Ph was adjusted. I also put a air pump in the water to make more oxygen for the tank.I don't have any live rock in the main tank just lace rock and crushed coral. The filters are carbon filled hang on the tank power filters. Thanks for all your advice.

This is good news.

What is a "bit of copper"?

How long did you treat? What was your copper levels?

Lace rock and crushed coral both absorb copper and the copper can be released at a later date if the water parameters change.

Did you run carbon while administering copper?

I don't remember what the exact dose was but it wasn't even half of what it calls for on the initial dosage. I know the lace rock absorbs it but I stay on top of the testing of my water weekly including copper tests. The copper levels barely registered on the .05 on the test. I only treated them with the copper for about a week and I have done 3 water changes since then about 20 gallons at a time. The copper has been removed as much as I can. I think most of the cure was the low pH being adjusted, the next day they all looked much better. I also added a small dose of melifix in the tank during the whole treatment, i think like 5ml, what ever is the lowest measurement on the cap, I have had great results with this medication, I know some don't like it, but I really believed it saved my puffer that got stuck to my powehead.

Subtherapeutic copper levels and shortened length of treatment leads to ineffective eradication of parasites.

Parasites can be in the tank or the gills of the fish causing chronic stress - when there is something sudden or acute, the parasites will become opportunistic and attack "full force"