The Puffer Forum

Well I thought I would get lucky enough and not have to treat my puff with ICH but it appears he has broke out with a case of it. At first it was one white spot which I assumed was from bad nutrion and just similarto a cold sore but today they have spread. I have been caring for this newly established tank twice or so a day because the bilogical filter is still not fully established. The nitrites have climbed which I am sure triggered him to break out with ich. I have been doing frequent water changes to lower them but they are still detecting with my test kit around .25 ppm. I have read for countless hours on what to do in this situation and I would like you girls/guys to correct me on any of these steps I plan on taking.

-First I plan on doing a large water change (around 75 percent)

-Then before filling my 125 back up I plan on removing the live rock (there is only about 20 pounds) I will then place it all in a tub for a month to two months with a hang on filter.

-Next I will slowly lower the salinity over a 24 hour period to 1.009.

-I will then increase the temp slowly to around 82 degrees.

-Then I will closely monitor my Puffer and the water levels to keep them at the lowest possible reading.

-Over the first week if the ich continues to get worse I will probably introduce a small amount of copper but monitor its levels extremely close as to not let it injure my scaleless fish anymore.

I will also soak all of his foods in vitamins as well. Does this all sound alright or am I missing any important steps? He is a rather large puffer (around 8 inches) And I am confident He can get past the ich with the proper steps taken.

Thank you everybody!

-Peter

What kind of puffer is this?

Also (and this may go without saying) don't forget a heater with you LR. My curing tank heater died once and within a day I had "dead rock".

I'd agree that the nitrite spike may have caused the breakout; any idea why that happened? It might be the root of your problems.

Your treatment plan sounds okay, but you'll need to be careful of ammonia and nitrite...

Peter -

Be careful dropping your salinity too fast. I did this recently (dropped it from 1.024 to 1.011 in a three day period) and had some problems... my pH dropped drastically (it fell off my scale) and my ammonia spiked slightly. Definitely monitor your water parameters closely.

Do you have a quarantine tank? It might be safer to move your puffer (and any other fish in that tank - they'll all be exposed to ich at this point) over to the quarantine tank and drop the salinity on that tank instead of your display tank. That way you could leave your LR where it is and not worry about disrupting your biological filtration.

Good luck...

Dan

Dan.. very good point on the bilogical filter. I am afraid I will have to transport the LR rather than my puffer though because he is rather large. I have a 20 gallon long that he would fit in but be very unhappy. Er.. Complicating stuff.. If my biological filter gets ruined I guess I will have to start all over and just do water changes every other day. Oh well I am determined to get this problem resolved and get my puffer back to good health.

Thanks

Do NOT raise your temperature!!! This decreases the oxygen levels in the water. The puffer already has compromised oxygenation secondary to the parasites. Stress (from parasites) increases the metabolism rate which increases the oxygen consumption which further increases the metabolic rate....

Raising the temperature may shorten the parasite life cycle slightly (less than a couple days) but at the expense of suffocation or further stress/compromised immune system and possible secondary infection.

I would NOT recommend mixing copper and hyposalinity. This can lead to major pH issues and you already have issues with your biological filtration/nitrites. Mixing the two can lead to potential toxicity. Adding a "little" copper will not help - copper needs to be dosed at full strength in order to be effective. Dosing at half or quarter doses can lead to resistant strains of parasites - then you will really have problems!

High nitrites do not "cause" ich. The parasite was in the tank. Stress can lower the puffer's immune system and allow it to become vulnerable to parasites. The presence of parasites in the tank causes chronic stress which is constantly stressing the immune system then when an acute stressor (increase in nitrites, new fish, power outage etc) occurs, the puffer can no longer "take it" and falls victim to the parasite or in the case of a power failure, the puffer would not be able to take it and might die or even develop a secondary bacterial infection.

Ridding the display tank of the parasite is the key.

Thank you very much for the helpful responses puffer queen! I have not placed a heater in my display tank with my puffer and have a tempature of 80 degrees.. is this still a little to high? I was considering freezing 2 liters to place inside to cool it down a bit. My puffer seems to still have very normal behavior and swim around happy. The majority of the ich is built up on his fins and there are a few that attached on the eyes. I caught it very early so hopefully all will go well. I have been slowly dropping the salinity to around 1.009. I bought PH buffer 8.3 in case I have a PH crash in the next 30 to 40 days. As for my live rock its in a 20 gallon long with a light on it and a heater to keep it at a steady tempature. I am soaking all of his foods in a vitamin supplement. When can expect to see the parasites fall off his body after the hyposalinity has been performed?

Thanks a bunch everybody!

-Peter

Oh yeah, how do I attach pictures to my posts?

I prefer to keep my tanks cooler. Blowing a fan over the surface will lower the temp. Watch evaporation closely as swings in salinity will affect the treatment. The life cycle of ich can be better explained in this thread:
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic31173-10-1.aspx

It will take several days to weeks till you see full resolution/recovery. Make sure you keep the salinity down for at least 4 weeks after last visual spot to assure full eradication of the parasite.
Best of luck.

Puffer Queen,

I am going to leave my 3 lids open on my 125 with a fan blowing on them while I am home in my room (which is usually all the time). I am still a little scared to leave them open when I am not around, I dont know if my puff would try to jump out or not.

They are not known as jumpers, but I have had a few over the last decade exit the tank. I have plastic lighting grate over my sytems - this allows the tanks to stay cooler and a fan to blow over them.

Or you could put eggcrage over the top w/something to clamp it down.