Alright so it has been a little over 30 days of hypo treatment with my Stars and Stripes puffer, here is where Im at.
He is in a 125 with no substrate. The salinity is 1.009. Tempeture is 76 degrees. When I first began lowering the salinity he had ich covering his fins, as well as a few spots on his eyes. After the first week I noticed excellent improvement. Around 20 days in he was completely clear of the parasite. However the past 7 days he has had the same white spots on his fins (located in the same area). I am starting to lean away from thinking this is ich and possibly something completely different. The majority of the white spots seem to be near the ends of his fins. They are also in a clustered like pattern, grouped closely together. There is one spot that is not near any of the others and from my judgment it seems to large to be ich. Any input here would be great. It could possibly be ich, but it seems like it has been attached to him longer than their cycle period would allow.
Thank you,
-Peter
30 days into hyposalinity
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
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.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
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.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
I just finished 30 days in 1.009 with my stars and stripes as well.
When they(puffer, halequin tusk, niger trigger, 4 yellowtail blue damsels) started the hypo, the tusk and the puffer were covered in white spots. The trigger and damsels have never shown any signs of the parasite.
Over the 4 weeks they completely cleared up and I was really happy.
Now they are in the main tank again(sept 20th) and over the last two days(20 days later) I'm seeing some white spots on the puffer again. Seems you and I are going thru very simalar situations.
The tusk was the worst off when it all started and he LOOKS very healthy now but I'm catching him doing the scratch move on the sides of the tank from time to time and it makes me frown.
Bottom line is I know hypo works to get rid of ich almost immediately but I'm not sure if it's longterm. Where did this new ich come from? There were no hosts in the tank and they hypo lasted 4 weeks and was very consistent SG. The water conditions in the display are not great(just getting sump and skimmer hooked up finally) but it shouldn't happen that fast(one week) should it?
If it was something other than ich the hypo wouldn't have worked to get rid of it so fast is what I'm thinking. Hypo doesn't work on much else does it?
Whatever the case the overall situation is MUCH better and I'm just keeping my eye on it atm. It's nice to know I can put all 7 fish in a 40 breeder with a couple rocks and they get along great. I was worried about aggression.
Keep me updated on what you do/what happens as I'm curious. Good luck!
When they(puffer, halequin tusk, niger trigger, 4 yellowtail blue damsels) started the hypo, the tusk and the puffer were covered in white spots. The trigger and damsels have never shown any signs of the parasite.
Over the 4 weeks they completely cleared up and I was really happy.
Now they are in the main tank again(sept 20th) and over the last two days(20 days later) I'm seeing some white spots on the puffer again. Seems you and I are going thru very simalar situations.
The tusk was the worst off when it all started and he LOOKS very healthy now but I'm catching him doing the scratch move on the sides of the tank from time to time and it makes me frown.
Bottom line is I know hypo works to get rid of ich almost immediately but I'm not sure if it's longterm. Where did this new ich come from? There were no hosts in the tank and they hypo lasted 4 weeks and was very consistent SG. The water conditions in the display are not great(just getting sump and skimmer hooked up finally) but it shouldn't happen that fast(one week) should it?
If it was something other than ich the hypo wouldn't have worked to get rid of it so fast is what I'm thinking. Hypo doesn't work on much else does it?
Whatever the case the overall situation is MUCH better and I'm just keeping my eye on it atm. It's nice to know I can put all 7 fish in a 40 breeder with a couple rocks and they get along great. I was worried about aggression.
Keep me updated on what you do/what happens as I'm curious. Good luck!
100gal Seaclear(86 actual gallons... LIARS!)
1 Australian Harlequin Tusk, 1 dogface puffer, various damsels...
1 Australian Harlequin Tusk, 1 dogface puffer, various damsels...