The Puffer Forum

I've had them for about 3 weeks now. They were very PALE in color when I received them, & both of them have just a few small white raised specks on them. My brightest & largest F8 has one speck that is noticeable on his back fin, also he has another speck on his top fin (sorry for the ignorance, I simply don't know enough about these guys to name the fins). I don't seem to see specks on him anywhere else, but the other Puffer has just a few smaller specks (less than 10) on him in random places.

Since I've gotten them, I haven't seen the specks increase or decrease in size, or multiply. I keep my tank around 76 degree's @ all times. I perform atleast a 30% water change every Sunday. I vacuum the sand substrate every other day or every 2 days depending on how much waste is on the bottom of the tank. They've also gotten much better coloring in the past 2 weeks...

Salinity is around 1.0019 (I think? It's hard to read my hydrometer). Ammonia is 0, Nitrites is zero and Nitrates is barely detectable.


I was told since the tank is brackish, Salt would prevent any occurences of Ich (however I don't believe this to be true as I've read of plenty instances of Brackish/Marine tanks developing catastrophic Ich...)

Before I go raising the temperature (I don't want to use chemicals), I want to be assured my Puffers do have Ich.

I've had past experiences with ich in a Freshwater tank and it was an absolute NIGHTMARE. The Ich outbreak I had in my freshwater tank showed up as SEVERAL SMALL raised white spots on my fish, which is rather inconsistant with the symptoms I'm seeing on my F8 puffers..

I would think that if it was ICH you're F8's would be covered in it by now. All the marks you're describing on the fins are probably just breaks/damge that has occurred. My puffer has several on his fins and in the 11 months i've had him they have not grown, moved or disappeared.

Regarding the salinity, 1.0019, would that be 1.001 or 1.019? You should aim for a maximum salinity of 1.005. Are you using Aquarium or Marine salt?

A refractometer is a good investment, much more accurate than a hydrometer.

Any chance of a pic of the white marks on the fins?

Oh an Welcome Dan06

Try adding Melafix 1st.

I can try taking pictures, anytime I have tried though, it's been rather ugly...

Um, I just checked the salinity again and it appears to be 1.001

The salt given to me by the LFS is Doc WELLFISH'S Aquarium Salt.

Perhaps this is wrong?

I've researched brackish tanks a bit through google, the information varied so incredibly much with very very vague details, that I entrusted my ONE LFS for information.

I'm open to any suggestions & corrections of anything I might have been doing right or wrong.

Wrong salt, need marine salt like Instant Ocean.

Don't worry you're not the first to think aquarium salt is what you need, grab hold of some marine salt and start slowly adding that. don't raise the salinity by more than .002 a week or you'll kill off the beneficial bacteria in your tank. If you only raised it by .001 a week, maximum it will only take you 5 weeks to get to ideal conditions.

Boxermom wrote:Wrong salt, need marine salt like Instant Ocean.

To the best of my knowledge & from reading many websites (I forget the name of the one I got the best detailed description from), says that Marine (synthetic) Salts contain many more than one kind of salt, which can raise the PH of the tank. This is also what my LFS store said and why they suggested Aquarium Salt rather than Marine.

My initial concern about which salt to use was the confusion you see on the internet, but also that my tap PH is 7.5. My LFS mentioned that Marine Salts will raise the PH higher than I might like, or the fish might like. They also mentioned that this could make water changes tedious, because of not adding the proper amount of Marine Salt, might cause a spike in PH that could quickly kill my fish.

Hilly wrote:Don't worry you're not the first to think aquarium salt is what you need, grab hold of some marine salt and start slowly adding that. don't raise the salinity by more than .002 a week or you'll kill off the beneficial bacteria in your tank. If you only raised it by .001 a week, maximum it will only take you 5 weeks to get to ideal conditions.

I'm unfamiliar with Marine Salt. Is it the Marine Salt Mix I see in the LFS?

Also, what about the Aquarium Salt that is already in the tank? I would believe adding Marine Salt on top of my Aquarium Salt would send the Salinity through the roof and create more issues? Do I need to perform water changes without adding ANY salt, so I can properly bring up the Salinity with the correct Marine Salt?

Please, I've looked up this matter online so many times and all I've found is vague, or unfounded claims with nothing to back it up. Help convince me! That's why I came here!!

Think of it like this, brackish is middle water between fresh and the sea where the water meets and this is what you're aiming for (the low end of it anyway) as that is where F8's live. A Ph of around 8 will mimic their natural conditions and lots of people use a substrate like aragonite sand to buffer the Ph to around this as well.

The trace elements that marine salt puts in the water are what you need as this is what thier natural environment has, aquarium salt lacks this.

And the link I was looking for Boxermom has just posted, its a good read.

Hilly wrote:Think of it like this, brackish is middle water between fresh and the sea where the water meets and this is what you're aiming for (the low end of it anyway) as that is where F8's live. A Ph of around 8 will mimic their natural conditions and lots of people use a substrate like aragonite sand to buffer the Ph to around this as well.

The trace elements that marine salt puts in the water are what you need as this is what thier natural environment has, aquarium salt lacks this.

And the link I was looking for Boxermom has just posted, its a good read.

Great stuff!

Thanks for all this information, this was all I needed to sell me on the idea of using Marine Salt rather than Aquarium.

Also, could either one of you offer me some insight on what to do about the Aquarium Salt that is already in the tank before I go adding Marine Salt? It only makes sense that if I add Marine salt right now ontop of Aquarium salt already in the tank, my Salinity will read higher than I'd want it to be, no???

When you do water changes, remove the old water, add new water with the marine salt mixed in. Do this a little each week and you'll get it to where you need it to be.

Salt should be pre-mixed in the water and aerated for a good while to make sure it is fully dissolved. Like BM says, next waterchange is the ideal time, gives you a chance to prepare everything.

Thanks, but I'm not quite sure on what to do...

I should remove the amount of water I plan on removing, then use my glass hydrometer to get a reading on the salinity in the tank (which I would assume will drop when I remove water?).

Then with the 2 new buckets of water I'll be adding, I should mix the Marine Salt in each bucket to read .002 higher than what's currently in my tank?


Sorry if I'm confusing you guys, but since I'm already knee-deep in Salinity with the Aquarium Salt, I'm not sure where I need to go from here to even get started with Marine Salt..

I just got some pics, unfortunately you can't see the spots...

Anyway, I thought I would post them anyways, figured some of ya might want to take a look at them regardless.









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