The Puffer Forum

Looks like my GSP has saltwater ich...No spots yet but lots of rubbing and starting to hang out near the top of the tank. He is in a sg. of 1.018, so needs to be treated as saltwater. Got a few questions...

1.I dont have a hospital tank set up yet...Ususally have one already cycled with mollies...What is the best way to set one up that is not already cycled?

2.What do I need to do to treat the main tank? I'm worried about it crashing during treatment because it will be fish less...

3.What is the best copper treatment to use? And how sensitive are GSP's to copper??? I have heard very...

4.Is there any way to treat him in the main tank? Or is this just asking for trouble????

Any Help would be very great!!!!

Other info...

Amm. 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 5, sg. 1.018, ph. 8-8.2, temp. 81

recently had a few temperature problems...spikes
recently added a new protein skimmer...
puffer recently started eating a few mollies...

Hope some of that info might help!

Thanks Again!

Hi,
I see nobody wrote back to your post either. Seems like there are more FW puffer people on here than salt.

My puffy has ich too...covered in spots on her fins..but she is doing great, eating, begging, etc.
I dont have a QT and my whole tank has the parasite. I took all of the media out of my canister filter and am using nosickfish.com ich meds.
Will let u know if it works.

Any luck with your puffy?
wbs
Courtney

Justin/LasVegasGirl -

I've battled SW ich before but fortunately, it wasn't one of my puffer tanks. I ran the tank fishless for a month (quarantined my fish and treated them with cupramine). It seems to have taken care of the problem. I also added a cleaner shrimp (don't add to a puffer tank - it'll probably turn into a very expensive snack) and he helps keep my fish parasite free.

I am no expert, so please people, feel free to chime in (and correct me if need be), but for a puffer tank, you can try the hypo-salinity method. I would definitely quarantine all fish and slowly drop your salinity down to below 1.011 (I believe). Since your QT isn't cycled, you'll have to do several water changes a day and keep plenty of Prime on hand to maintain the best water quality possible (you could even try bio-spira). I would say you'll have to keep your fish quarantined for at least a month (a lot of people recommend 6 weeks).

You could also try using cupramine (not in your main tank - copper has an annoying habit of being absorbed into the substrate/decorations/etc. and being released later on), but you'll have to be careful... puffers are VERY sensitive to copper. You'll need a copper test kit, and you'll have to be very vigilante in maintaining a constant level of copper. I've used cupramine to treat my porc and it saved his life (I kept the levels at half the recommended dosage for two weeks). I've heard that some puffers are more sensitive to copper than others though, so I'd look at other ways before treating with copper. Still... your display tank will need to be fishless for at least a month.

You might also try talking with Puffer Queen. IME, she is very knowledgeable about these things...

Good luck,

Dan

Hyposalinity should be at 1.009.

Nosickfish will NOT kill the parasites and the parasite will continue to live in the display tank and be a continual source of stress. Reinfection can/will happen.

The only proven methods for eradicating ich is copper OR hyposalinity in a separate treatment tank. The display tank needs to be fallow - NO fish for 4-6 weeks so the parasite will die off. The parasite requires a fish host to continue its life cycle.

and

OK thanks guys, I am going to quarantine him for 6 weeks or so and I am converting his tank to saltwater anyways, so I will be changing a lot of the substrate and decor anyways (Should Help). I am going to set him up in the QT tank with the canister filter from the main tank, since I am cycling the main tank over again (Live Rock and Protien skimmer). So I hope while he is waiting for his new set up, I can rid him of this ich.

I was wondering though, I have began treating him with pimafix and he seems much better (swimming, eating and acting normal) except he is still rubbing on rocks and wood a bit, plus he has become really dull...But not like when he is stressed. His belly is still very white but his black spots and even his green spot has become very dull.

Any ideas?

Pimafix isn't a treatment for parasites.