The Puffer Forum

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

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!