The Puffer Forum

One of my fish took a turn for the worse this morning...
I had noticed white spots on both of them last week and went to my LFS to get some Ich treatment. I was buying Pimafix when he strongly recommended I use Kent RXP instead. I've used it twice the spots have gone but the big on is breathing really heavily and staying at the top so its evident he still has Ich. He ate fine last night but has stopped eating and is slowly darkening. SO I have started to up the heat so far from 78 to 80, changed 25% of the water and put in an extra Air Stone
Ammonia .25 Nitrate 30 Nitrite .5 PH 8.2 SG 1.021

1) Stay with the Kent RXP? (I know yall dont like the pepper based treatment) or go pick up something else or just rely on heat and salinity

2) Is their anything else I can get or do to help him pull through?

He's not stopped eating and started darkening and having a hard time breathing from the ick, its from the ammonia and nitrite poisoning most likely. That needs to be taken care of ASAP.

I didn't think those numbers were high... Do a bigger water change?

Water change and Prime to detoxify them, IMO. ANY reading for either ammonia or nitrite is bad. They need to be at zero.

Did you cycle the tank?

What kind of puffer?

GSP He's doing better since i put in the prime and did a big water change. but I really don't know what happen to the tank. The nitrite was at or very very close to 0 for a couple weeks and was still their just a couple days ago when i checked it and now its back to .5

Not likely nitrite poisoning in that SG. Nitrite is effectively non-toxic in saltwater.

But the ammonia is even MORE toxic - and both figures are indicative aof a problem with filtration.

I don't think pepper OR tea tree oil is going to do the trick here... I would recommend quarantining the fish and treating by increasing the temperature and reducing the salt content.

yeah thats what ive started doing. I have another tank im thinking of using to house him in while i figure out why the ammonia and nitrites are coming back but currently its housing snails and i dont have anywhere to put them.. Maybe i jump to the ick conclusion to soon? I dunno it weird cause i have two in their and the big one has been dark and breathing heavy but the little one has been fine the whole time. After the water change their both acting normal and even ate so im thinking it was just the ammonia?

Where's the ammonia coming from? Is this a new tank? What's the filtration like? Live rock?

What led you to draw the "Ich" conclusion? What symptoms are there?

I dont know where the ammonia is coming from. Its not a new tank. AquaClear 50 but no live rock yet (im kinda apprehensive about that and plants still i dont think i know enough) I though they had it because shortly after i brought them home a couple white spots appeared on them but they weren't exactly big enough to be "a grain of salt" so...

It could be very possible that boxer mom was right and its just the ammonia and nitrites that were hurting them. When i was adding salt to get it up to brackish I increased it to fast and probably crashed the tank... So for now its water changes daily and im going to try to get some some bio-spira

When i was adding salt to get it up to brackish I increased it to fast and probably crashed the tank

Ding Ding Ding!

That would be the reason for the Ammonia/Nitrate Readings

yeah the problem is i go to school in the middle of Kansas and pretty much our local fish store sucks. to put it bluntly. So i may have to go to Kansas City to find Bio-Spira would it need to be kept cold on the 2 hr drive back or can it last that long?
Assuming Bio-Spira is in fact what i need. Feel free to tell me if im dumb

Biospira should work. Make sure its the marine variety and not the freshwater kind. It should be fine for the trip home as long as it doesn't get heated up. Take some newspaper with you and wrap it up well in the newspaper, that will help keep it cool, as will a small cooler if you have one.

OK thanks alot I really appreciate it.

Why are folks so insistant on putting their juvie GSPs in SW? The purpose of getting them into SW is so we can add LR & a skimmer. Otherwise, save on salt & keep it mid-range BW, till they're adults. Juvie GSPs are rarely found in SW.